.Event description: This give-and-take style learning session is all about diverse suppliers. Prepare to learn from experts and share your experiences, challenges, tools, failures, and frustrations. Walk away having found your place in the industry, your voice, your peers, and even your next steps as a business. 

Agenda:

8:30-9:00 – Welcome and Keynote
Speaker: Kristol Simms (Ameren IL)

9:00 am – 10:00 am: 101: What is the energy efficiency industry? Who are we? What do we do? 

Speakers: Melissa Culbertson (ADM Associates) and Pamela Fann (Integrated Solutions)

Description: Building energy efficiency is key to helping mitigate climate change and facilitating the necessary decarbonization of our energy supply. And the growth opportunities in energy efficiency are endless. To succeed as an industry, our supplier base and everything we do must reflect the same diversity as our customer base. Building relationships with diverse suppliers helps us engage a wider range of suppliers, which means we harness innovative ideas and processes, gain a competitive advantage, and assist in building community infrastructure through employment and training. The purpose of this Energy Efficiency 101 session is to get you through the first hurdle, what is energy efficiency, and how, to whom, and to what is it delivered.

10:00 am – 10:30am: Break

10:30am – 12:00pm: 201: How do you fit in? What are the different tiers of contractors? Why should you be here? What resources are available to you?  

Speakers: Michelle Krueger (APTIM) and Paul Douglas (JPI Group) 

Description: This session will address how your company can engage with the Energy Efficiency industry. Who are the implementors, how to engage with them and how your product or service fits in to this industry. Along the way we will break down common challenges and resources to address them.

12:00pm – 1:00pm: Lunch and a Candid Conversation: We Can’t Do This Without You 

 Speakers: Andrenika Whisenton (CLEAResult), Marvelene Jones (Resource Innovations), Daryl Wright (Emerald Cities), and Shalaya Morissette (US Department of Energy).

 To successfully deliver on our clean energy goals equitably we need all communities to be involved, that includes communities that haven’t historically participated in energy programs. Historically marginalized communities have not been part of the conversation, suffered disproportionately from negative environmental decisions and have not benefited equitably from the clean energy economy. This has to change but we cannot do it without YOU. Hear from large implementers, community-based organizations, government, and utilities on why you are a critical piece to achieving clean energy goals. Ask them the tough questions over lunch and find your place in this clean energy transformation.  

1:00pm – 2:30pm: 301: Hands-on Technical Workshop 

Speakers: Ashley Nicholls (Doer/Maker), Angie Ostaszewski (Ameren IL), Quinn Parker (Encolor), Jill Steiner (Saldo Research) 

Attendees will walk through a typical RFP and how to submit a proposal that meets technical qualifications. Speakers will provide participants with insights on typical procurement processes to gain a better understanding of how to do business with utilities like Ameren.
 

Attendees will: 

• Learn about the procurement processes in large utilities.  
• Review different solicitation documents such as scopes of work and contract terms and conditions.  
• Hear about best practices in developing procurement responses. 
• Network with other suppliers interested in working in the clean energy space. 

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