Marcus Weisgerber writes that the Defense Innovation Marketplace website works to help Pentagon officials and contractors securely discuss potential technology opportunities.
“We’re trying to take a basic system that was designed to communicate between a couple of different entities and we’re bringing a lot of different technologies to the table because we think the value of it is really tremendous,” said Jack Blackhurst, plans and programs director at the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Weisgerber reports that the U.S. Air Force has utilized the website to replace the industry days that have been part of the contracting process, while the other military services have held fewer industry days while using the website.
“It’s all about increasing the [dialogue], but being smart [dialogue] in making it more efficient,” Blackhurst added.
DoD started exploring opportunities with the experimental website in 2012.