Defence Business at Seawork 2010

There were many different ways to meet the MoD and other important personnel at Seawork this year.

1. Meet the MoD

The BASS (Boats and Sea Safety) Team are the Ministry of Defence (MoD) specialists responsible for the procurement, engineering and specialised logistic support of all small boats and craft and sea survival equipment, both for military and leisure purposes. They have over 2000 boats on their register.

The team leader, Mr Martin Hawkins and his staff was in attendance at SeaWork this year on Stand S3. As in recent years, they gave an Open Briefing, in Conference Room 1 at 1200 on Tuesday 15th June, covering their planned procurement programme for boats of all descriptions and associated equipment and sea safety items. The Ministry of Defence have recently reviewed their whole Defence Equipment and Support arrangements, and the BASS Leader will be informing industry about this. This will be a vital briefing for any company wishing to work with the BASS Team in the future.

In addition to their briefing, the BASS IPT team, supported by specialists in boats engines and associated equipment, were available to:

a. Visit Company stands for presentations/discussions with 15/20 minute sessions.
b. Hold short discussions with companies to brief them on whether the MoD may have an interest in that company’s products/services.

These meetings were on the MoD Stand S3, and lasted about 5 minutes.

2. How to undertake Business with the MoD.

There were two presentations on Tuesday 15th June, starting at 0945, by specialists from the MoD, to inform companies who wish to undertake business with the MoD on how best to proceed and understand how MoD purchasing is conducted. Despite the majority of MoD work now being contracted out to Prime Suppliers, there are opportunities for firms with innovative ideas, services and equipment, if this saves money, adds to safety, or meets a new capability need.

3. Exporting Defence business

The MoD specialist team, now embedded in the UKT&I, who run a service to help small companies export their capabilities, gave a presentation on their service, and how industry can benefit from this.  The Small Business Unit was also available at the UKT&I stand throughout the exhibition to handle queries from this brief.

An innovation this year was a planned visit by a large number of overseas Naval Attaches based in London who attended the exhibition on Wednesday 16th June. The Attaches ad a tour of the exhibition on the Wednesday afternoon and visited companies where they may find a particular interest. They finished their trip with lunch aboard SS Shieldhall and a trip aboard HMS Blazer.