WisBusiness: Personal connections key to lobbying, biotech group told

By David A. Wise

WisBusiness.com

Earmarks and lobbying may sound like dirty words, but they can be useful tools to companies seeking to get a slice of the trillions of dollars the U.S. government spends annually. much of it through contracts and grants.

That was the message Stephen Moffitt, a lobbyist with Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek Government Affairs, shared with attendees at a BioForward Milwaukee breakfast meeting Wednesday morning, as some in the group prepared for a June Washington D.C. excursion.

Moffitt stressed that procurement decisions in government agencies are made by people, and in most cases, those people want to know who they’re dealing with personally. Moffitt said companies can get a leg up on winning government business by meeting those people in person and being prepared, polite, honest and persistent in their dealing with those representatives.

While meeting with agency representatives is helpful in influencing procurement decisions, meeting with legislators and their staffs can also be helpful in winning contracts and grants through earmarks.

While Moffitt agreed earmarks have a bad name, he pointed to projects like the military’s Predator unmanned aircraft, which was rejected by the Air Force. The project survived through lobbying efforts that won an earmark, he said, and is now an important component of national defense.

Laura Strong of Quintessence Biosciences, and president of BioForward, urged attendees to be advocates in Washington for Wisconsin’s biotechnology sector. Strong said it’s important to build awareness that Wisconsin has a strong biotech sector and to fight for policies that will help it succeed.

David Niles, vice president of Productive Knowledge, discussed the importance of using Web pages to effectively tell a company’s story in a way that is accessible to laymen, captures and holds the attention of prospective, and lets potential financiers know what’s in it for them.

He encouraged entrepreneurs to communicate with the public directly by self-publishing through the Internet and online news distribution services, as well as through traditional media such as newspapers.

The meeting was sponsored by the Wisconsin Procurement Institute, which is organizing a “Wisconsin in Washington” trip June 23 and 24.

See details of the trip