"Let's put veterans to work in good jobs."
That was the message Gail Wegner, acting director for the Center for Veterans Enterprise, delivered this morning at the fourth annual Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business conference and expo.
The center, part of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, helps veterans interested in forming or expanding small businesses.
The expo, which will be held today and Friday at the Tampa Convention Center, is aimed at connecting veterans with business and contract opportunities.
"One of the highest rates of unemployment are veterans," said Edwin Buessink, director of small business for the Air Force Air Mobility Wing.
"Service-disabled veterans may have physical difficulties that the general marketplace might not be able to employ."
Buessink is at the conference to connect with small-business owners to provide services at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base ranging from "mowing the grass to working in the secure areas doing information technology and translation services."
MacDill is ranked fourth nationally in the percentage of contracts awarded by Air Force bases to service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, according to the Air Force. More than 22 percent of the nearly $200 million in contracts issued annually by the 6th Air Mobility Wing go to such businesses, said Nelson Escribano, a small business specialist for MacDill.
There are more than 900 registered attendees and 172 exhibitors at the event, expo spokeswoman Jessica Smith said.
But it is not just military contracts at stake. A representative from Florida's high-speed rail project is at the expo talking about business opportunities.
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