JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Small businesses and other interested industry partners are now able to register for the fifth-annual Mission and Installation Contracting Command Advance Planning Briefing for Industry virtual contracting forecast event scheduled for May 8-10, 2025.
MICC officials with the office of small business programs opened registration last week for the 2025 MICC APBI; registration closes April 21. Planners consider the annual community outreach initiative critical to ensuring transparency on forecasted contracts opening in the next 24-36 months within the Simplified Acquisition Threshold of $250,000.
“APBI 2025 marks the fifth year the MICC has hosted a consolidated and virtual event,” said Luis Trinidad, who has been the director, MICC OSBP since February 2022. Prior to 2020, each of MICC’s 30 office locations led individual, in-person briefs annually. Due to national COVID-19 safety precautions, the MICC deputy to the commanding general, Clay Cole, asked MICC OSBP to develop a virtual enterprise solution using Microsoft Teams Live.
“The first virtual APBI in 2020 was out of necessity; however, with positive feedback from Mr. Cole, the field offices and our business partners, we kept the virtual, unified format going forward. Small businesses, in particular, like the virtual one-stop-shop so that they do not have to travel to the various installations to hear about these opportunities.”
Today, the virtual APBI event is the MICC’s single, command-wide effort that is available nationwide to everyone from small businesses to large industry representatives. Attendees will hear directly from mission commanders, senior contracting officials and a variety of contracting planners detailing their forecasted contract requirements planned for the remainder of 2025 through early 2028.
“MICC is a strong supporter of American small business,” Trinidad said. MICC small business conducts APBI and other initiatives throughout the fiscal year, enabling the transparency required to keep all businesses informed about potential opportunities. Trinidad believes the advanced notice of specific upcoming actions at each MICC location, in partnership with the dozens of mission partners who participate in APBI, benefits both the attendees and the Army.
“With this advanced notice, we have not only seen an increase in the quality of the bids we receive, but we are maximizing on healthy competition by widening the business pool. That is why the MICC has exceeded the business goals ACC challenged us with for the last 10 years in a row.”
MICC’s APBI is open to any business that is registered to do business with the government through sam.gov, the official website for government contracting opportunities. The event is advertised on sam.gov, army.mil, chambers of commerce and other business forums for wide dissemination. ABPI registrants nearly doubled in 2024 from all previous years, allowing hundreds of virtual attendees to cycle through several days of presentations; Trinidad expects similar results for this year’s four-day event because of the base of attendees they have acquired from years of hosting high-quality and worthwhile APBIs.
“While we will prioritize upcoming actions for this fiscal year for the 2025 APBI, attendees will also get advanced notice about future contracting opportunities for the next two to three years.”
MICC’s lead planner for this year’s event is Natasha Elder, assistant director, 418th CSB OSBP. She drafted a detailed charter and led in-progresses planning team meetings starting at least six months before the event.
“We plan to set the agenda at least 30 days prior to the event,” Elder said. “This allows businesses to pick and choose what presentations are of greater interest, or better fit their schedule, to plan their long-term business operations.”
The MICC comprises two contracting support brigades, two field directorate offices, nine contracting battalions, and offices across 30 locations within the continental United States. Though the agenda and briefing order are still being set, Col. Freddy Adams, MICC commander, will make opening remarks on day one, followed by contracting updates from FDO–Fort Eustis, Virginia, and its ten supporting offices. Day two will include briefs from the 418th CSB, out of Fort Cavazos, Texas, alongside its nine supporting offices. On day three, attendees will hear from the 419th CSB out of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, and its seven supporting offices. The event will conclude on day four with briefs from FDO–Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and its four supporting offices.
“I have to applaud the APBI lead advisors from the various MICC organizations who are working with us to pack the schedule with a variety of exciting contract opportunities,” Elder said.
Once the schedule is set, Elder expects over two-dozen contracting officers and subject matter experts from the MICC’s two CSBs and two FDOs to present over 200 open or projected contracting actions that fall around the Simplified Acquisition Threshold of $250,000, though Trinidad explained that there may be some smaller contracts for businesses to consider.
“While we try to focus the APBI on the largest contracts across the enterprise so that interested parties have the time and space to hire personnel and make other preparations they may want to have in place before bidding on a contract,” Trinidad said, “we let our subject matter experts brief the contracts they feel are important; some of those may fall under the $250,000 threshold.”
MICC collaborates with hundreds of businesses, 29 customer teams and resource managers, supported by 30 contracting offices to facilitate and provide oversight for Army contracts that are vital to feed more than 200,000 Soldiers every day, to prepare more than 100,000 conventional force members annually, to facilitate training for more than 100,000 students each year and to maintain more than 14.4 million acres of land and 170,000 structures.
“It is a no-cost, virtual event, so businesses have nothing to lose and everything to gain by attending the APBI,” Cole said.
In the post-event surveys, most business owners praise the command for maintaining the quality of the information while offering the online option. “Attendees generally come away from the event in awe of the MICC’s reach in installation support services, facilities maintenance, logistics, land, ranges and mission support services in support of the Army enterprise throughout the continental United States and Puerto Rico," Cole continued.
MICC is responsible to ensure thousands of Army installation readiness requirements are met with effective, efficient and, sometimes, innovative solutions each fiscal year, which runs from the first day of October to midnight on the last day of September each year.
Adams, who served as the chief of staff and senior military assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology prior to assuming command of the MICC in June 2024, said the APBI has become an important way the MICC supports Soldier readiness and the warfighter through successful execution of efficient, high-quality contracts, closed out in a timely manner each year.
“Year in and year out, we present contracting solutions that serve as critical force-multipliers for our warfighters,” Adams said.
“It is all about harnessing the power of Army contracting to ensure Soldier readiness. APBI is yet another way our team builds or reinforces resilient contracting networks that facilitate contracting professionals to better anticipate, coordinate and fulfill the Army’s operational requirements, effectively.”
Register for the MICC’s 2025 APBI today: 2025 MICC APBI Registration Link
For more information on the 2025 APBI, visit the MICC APBI webpage, the SAM.gov notice or email usarmy.jbsa.acc-micc.list.hq-sbs-apbi@army.mil.