LAS VEGAS – It could be love at first sight or just a spark of interest that flames into a great partnership, but one thing is certain: a matchmaking marketplace at the 23rd Annual Reservation Economic Summit & American Indian Business Trade Fair will provide buyers and sellers with countless opportunities to develop business relationships.

The American Indian Business Trading Post, a business matchmaking event, will debut at this year’s summit. RES 2009, a four-day conference and trade show, takes place March 9 – 12 at the Las Vegas Hilton. It is presented by the National Center of American Indian Enterprise Development and is sponsored by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Raytheon.

The trading post is a daylong event that aims to match American Indian business buyers and sellers in face-to-face meetings. It is designed to give tribal governments and enterprises access to quality Native businesses.

The trading post will run concurrently with the RES Procurement Pavilion and will utilize business matchmaking proprietary software and a matchmaking system that ensures tribes and tribal business will meet the types of Native businesses that best suit their needs.

“The trading post concept supports our Native to Native (N2N) business model and is a key aspect of our economic development opportunities,” said Margo Gray-Proctor, Osage, president of Horizon Engineering Services Company and vice chair of NCAIED’s board of directors. “The more frequently we work together, the more often we can sustain our communities, our businesses and our families – and I’m confident those opportunities will be found at RES 2009.”

NCAIED, a nonprofit organization founded 40 years ago, was the first national initiative solely dedicated to developing American Indian economic self-sufficiency through business ownership.

The trading post had its genesis during the procurement pavilion planning sessions for RES 2007, said George Williams, a RES organizer and the program manager of United Indian Development Association Business Services, known as UBS.

NCAIED and the National Indian Gaming Association signed an agreement to encourage the Native casino industry to use NCAIED as a source to find qualified Native suppliers and to encourage Native to Native business relationships, Williams said.

“Our original concept was to have large American Indian enterprises on the buyer’s side of the table for a change. With the growth of the N2N business movement resulting in the formation of organizations such as the American Indian Business Network and the Native American Group, we felt the timing was perfect in 2009 to add the new American Business Trading Post element to our already successful procurement pavilion,” Williams said.

UBS has been the key coordinator of the pavilion and will play a major role in the trading post. The 40-year-old company is an American Indian procurement and technical assistance center that supports NCAIED, providing activity coordination and promotional support, securing buyers and sellers, and assisting in the registration process.

“The previous format of the procurement pavilion allowed American Indian businesses to make capabilities briefings in front of an audience of government agencies, prime contractors and large corporations. In 2008, UBS and NCAIED partnered with Business Matchmaking for the RES Procurement Pavilion and the format was changed to allow one-on-one appointments. For 2009, the addition of the American Indian Business Trading Post will allow Native American tribally owned and larger individually owned companies to be ‘buyers’ in the procurement pavilion,” Williams said.

The trading post’s entry onto the American Indian business stage could not come at a better time. With an estimated $3 billion in the federal stimulus bill for Indian country in areas including infrastructure, health and education, RES coordinators are carefully reviewing the funding package and filtering through Native businesses and tribal partners to best match product with demand, and projected budgets.

“We are seeking tribal purchasing departments, tribally owned businesses such as casinos, government contractors and large individually owned Native American businesses to participate as ‘buyers’ in the procurement pavilion,” Williams said.

Flintco, one of the country’s largest American Indian owned construction companies has committed to “buying Native” and is signed up to participate in the trading post. Currently, there are 116 buyers from 87 buying organizations registered for the pavilion and trading post and these numbers are increasing daily, Williams said.

“We are also seeking American Indian businesses to be ‘sellers’ in the American Indian trading post and procurement pavilion who wish to market their products and services to this prestigious group of buyers from government, corporate America, and Indian country.”

There is an opportunity for American Indian businesses that wish to participate as buyers at the trading post without attending the rest of the RES conference. Those interested can contact Williams at georgew@uida.org.

NCAIED’s annual surveys show the number one reason businesses attend RES is for networking and contacts.

“We always have a great response to RES and this year will be no exception,” Williams said. “The stimulus package has created a lot of interest in government contracting and many are wondering what this will mean for Indian country, especially with the loss of private sector opportunities due to the poor economy. RES will help stimulate reservation economies by providing business opportunities and information about the latest developments in government contracting.”