Project Mission
To develop a user-friendly website to house multiple workshop registrations, information, and materials support for each of the 20 workshops required.
Business Statement
In 2018 our client was awarded a contract from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Native American Affairs to provide workshops for Native American entrepreneurs. The key was to develop a website for workshop registrations information, and materials support for the 20 workshops to be held across the U.S. (two workshops per SBA region).
The Office of Native American Affairs is located in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) headquarters in Washington, DC. Our goal is to promote and support Native American entrepreneurs. We engage in numerous outreach activities including tribal consultations, development and distribution of promotional materials, attendance and participation in national economic development conferences.
The Office of Native American Affairs mission is to ensure that American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians seeking to create, develop and expand small businesses have full access to the necessary business development and expansion tools available through the Agency’s entrepreneurial development, lending and procurement programs.
The Process
The project manager contacted Vexing Media as she had worked with us previously on other federal agency contracts and knew that we had the skills and competency to create the event-based website needed to meet the client’s needs. Additionally, she also knew of our past performance with previous SBA work with Native-American-owned companies and that we were familiar with the audience targeted for the website.
Vexing Media worked in partnership and collaboration with the project manager and project coordinator to create the ideal website for the workshops. The main page had each workshop listed with dates and cities, and links to overall information on the learning goal and objectives of the workshop, profiles of the presenters, and SBA’s ONAA office.
Each workshop had its own information page that included pictures of the cities in which the workshop would be held, lodging, and venue information (e.g., address, check-in, check-out times, parking, meeting room, etc.) that would be needed by the attendee. A registration link was included and would add the attendee’s contact information to a database for changes to the event. Additionally, the project manager was considering a kiosk for onsite registrations and check-ins to improve database management time for client reports for later workshops as attendance increased.
Our alliance with the project manager and coordinator worked to the website’s advantage as we were able to join forces to find unique items about each workshop site that would entice Native American entrepreneurs to register and attend.
The workshops were scheduled to begin in March 2019. The client was able to complete one face-to-face workshop and then had to cancel the workshops through July 2019 and then the rest of the year because of the travel restrictions implemented by the U.S. government due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We met with the project manager and re-worked the website to support a virtual platform and link to a learning management system. We also met with the presenters to provide training on the chosen virtual platform to increase their knowledge, skill, and confidence in the virtual presentation in place of a face-to-face one.
Additionally, we added another page for train-the-trainer workshops. These were focused on teaching others using the Empowerment Workshop curriculum.
The Results
Since the summer and fall of 2019, the client had the website expanded to include resources for entrepreneurs, technical assistance requests, and train the trainer information in addition to the workshop links and presenter profiles.
To date, the client has provided the choice of live webinars or self-paced learning to interested Native American entrepreneurs.
What's Next
We view collaboration and flexibility as critical elements for our clients and our company’s success. We have been thankful to have worked with the SBA contract.
We look forward to creating special-focus websites for training and other events, whether they be formatted for virtual or face-to-face meetings.
See other organizations we have worked with here and contact us for a free consultation!
