Public Spend Forum: Riskiest smart city techs and Moth+Flame VR for emotional distress

Public Spend Forum (PSF) is a public sector procurement global community and market intelligence platform dedicated to improving public buying everywhere. GovShop is its free-to-use global government market research tool for finding and connecting with suppliers. Read more from PSF and GovShop founder Raj Sharma here: Working towards a more open and accessible public sector marketplace – for suppliers and buyers.

This week’s latest from PSF:

Cybersecurity experts discuss ‘Smart City’ tech

With street video surveillance, automatic tolling and emerging alert systems, is any part of our private lives even private anymore? Not to mention, what happens if these “smart city” technologies succumb to cyber hackings? When state and local governments prepare to address cybersecurity concerns regarding public infrastructure, it may be helpful to consider technical vulnerabilities of the ‘smart city’ tech, the potential damage caused by a cyber attack, and how attractive the tech is to hackers. Read what cybersecurity experts have to say about the increasingly large risk that comes with a more digitalized society and learn what the riskiest smart city technologies are here.

If you are interested in the cybersecurity market browse GovShop’s suppliers and explore opportunities, here. 

Virtual Reality to help address emotional distress in military

Moth + Flame, a startup that combines artistic prowess with engineering excellence to produce immersive virtual reality content, is helping prepare military service members to aid peers in emotional distress. In support of the US Air Force’s mission to prepare airpersons for engaging someone in emotional distress to get help, Moth+Flame will be developing the suicide-prevention training. Virtual Reality technology holds a lot of promise for what the US Air Force is aiming to achieve by offering innovative, adaptive learning programs for hard and soft skills.

Read more here.

Powering women-led tech companies in the public sector

The Shatter Fund, founded by Shelly Kapoor-Collins (previously the Tech Advisor to now Vice President Kamala Harris) has partnered with Public Spend Forum to create a growth program to boost women-led tech companies in the government sector.

Companies accepted to this prestigious first cohort of the Public Spend Forum and Shatter Fund Growth Program will be get access to benefits, including:

• Hands on coaching and advice from the experts, government leaders and VC community that will give you the scale of a larger company
• Heightened brand building and richer relationships with the public sector
• Insights and market intelligence into customer needs in your technology domain

Learn more and apply here: Shatter x PSF Growth

6th Annual GovCon Summit (Virtual) – April 20-28

During this week-long event you can learn about tactics and strategies that will help you secure government contracts and gain a slice of the $2.8 billion pie. Among six of the United States’ top GovCon experts will be PSF’s own Ben McMartin on hand to help you:

• Increase your contract win rate
• Grow your teams strategically
• Broaden your professional network
• Establish a network of quality, high-caliber teaming partners
• Develop the mindset necessary to succeed in complex and shifting environments

More information is here: Master the Game of GovCon

Ask Me Anything with Raj Sharma

Ask Me (Us) Anything is an exclusive hour-long opportunity for GovShop Government users to learn how to conduct more efficient market intelligence research for superior acquisition outcomes. You can meet directly with Raj Sharma, Founder & CEO of GovShop to get answers to all your questions: whether how to match with emerging, non-traditional suppliers more efficiently, or how to meet your socio-economic goals. Raj and team will be on hand to help you learn how to:

• Identify suppliers and understand the market
• Connect with an ecosystem of emerging, non-traditional suppliers across markets
• Build world-class market intelligence skills
• Increase visibility into spending and suppliers
• Save time, money and resources

Registration available right up until Thu, Apr 29, 1:00 pm EDT/6pm BST/CET

And in other news …

Palantir wants to be the ‘central operating system for all US defense programs’

HMRC signs reworked, three-year public cloud deal with AWS worth £94m

Scottish Care calls for overhaul of home care commissioning in 2021 manifesto

‘Troubling’ rise in US supply chain cyber attacks

Social entrepreneurship is booming in Germany according to new research by country’s social enterprise network SEND

The changing face of mobile working in the public sector

UK-based Bloom raises €16.1m from BGF for its public sector procurement marketplace

UK Government commissions million-strong online citizens panel to give views on its policies

Pagabo national utilities supply framework goes live

Bulgaria’s 7.2m euro tender for repair of naval ships draws three bids

Building a European data strategy

EU proposes US tariff suspension on billions of dollars of imports for six months

Government of Spain will invest €450m in the next three years to boost the cybersecurity sector 

Contact Public Spend Forum

Contact support@publicspendforum.net if you’d like to understand more about public procurement, the effect of the pandemic, where to find suppliers for a specific category, or any other burning issue you have.

PSF would also love to hear from you if you have a success story within your organization you’d like to share. If you’d like to share your opinions or insight on a public-procurement-relevant issue please see the Guest Author Guidelines here.

Schedule a free GovShop demo

You can book a free consultation and demo to learn how to best leverage GovShop! You’ll learn how to build your market research skills and use GovShop to search across 2 million traditional and non-traditional suppliers, quickly generate lists and reports in minority and small businesses, and find contracts that match your needs.

Contact Frank McNally from the Government Success Team