Aerospace in Southern California – Opportunities for Small Businesses

It’s an exciting time for Aerospace Industry in Southern California! Recently designated as one of the first federally designated regions in the nationwide Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP), SoCal is one of only a handful of aerospace-focused districts in the country that carries the advantage of preference to $1.3 billion in federal funding.

The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership for Southern California (AMP SoCal) is a collaboration that unites government, academia and industry toward the common goal of strengthening the industrial ecosystem throughout Southern California for Aerospace and Defense (A&D) manufacturers and their supply chain. AMPS SoCal represents the southern 10 counties of California that hold the IMCP designation and leverages the combined knowledge, innovation and political support of its member companies (from both the public and private sector) to accomplish its goals of supporting the A&D community.

KickStage Consulting Inc. was honored to attend the AMP SoCal bi-annual meeting on March 9th at the California Science Center in Los Angeles and learn about all the great federal initiatives in place right on our doorstep to encourage innovation and technology development. Two days prior, the team also attended the NASA Women-Owned Small Business  industry day and learnt of the struggles that large federal agencies in the Southern California region are having in meeting their quotas for placing contracts with small, women-owned and disadvantaged businesses.

This means that Southern California is currently one of the most favorable environments in the world within which to launch and develop a small business, particularly in the area of space and defense.

However, as General Petraeus, keynote speaker at the AMP SoCal meeting, quoted: ‘politicians cannot bring back old-fashioned factory jobs – they don’t make ’em like that anymore’. It is more important than ever to leverage new technologies and manufacturing capabilities to achieve and maintain a competitive edge!