Pentagon acquisitions chief LaPlante headlines Showcase for Commerce slate

Russ O Reilly, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·4 min read

May 28—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — More than 1,000 people are set to arrive in Johnstown in the next few days for the 31st Showcase for Commerce, a nationally renowned business and industry trade show and defense contracting exhibition.

Government and defense industry leadership are set to converge on Johnstown for the Showcase as federal planning for the next fiscal year develops.

The 2023 U.S. Department of Defense budget request of $773 billion is a $30.7 billion, or 4%, increase over the current year for supporting the department's ability to sustain and strengthen deterrence, a March 28 department press release said.

The Johnstown area is home to development and production facilities for a variety of defense companies, including Lockheed Martin, Leonardo DRS, Kitron and Kongsberg. Those companies are set to welcome industry contacts from across the nation who will take tours, hold match-making meetings and participate in two days of exhibitions in downtown Johnstown to demonstrate business development opportunities.

The Showcase for Commerce begins Wednesday and ends Friday.

The slate of speakers for the Showcase includes William A. LaPlante, the nation's newly confirmed Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. He is responsible to the secretary of defense for matters including buying activity at the Pentagon.

"He obviously has a really great experience in all aspects of national defense," Cambria Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Amy Bradley said of LaPlante. "I think people are excited about him being here."

Also scheduled to speak is David Norquist, president and CEO of the National Defense Industrial Association. The NDIA is the largest defense industry association and says its mission includes contributing to the strength, resiliency, and capacity of the defense industrial base.

"We have a good lineup of participants, and it's nice to be back to our regular June time frame," Bradley said.

11 new companies on Showcase schedule

Last year, Showcase was moved to September because of a surge of COVID-19.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr.; U.S. Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson, R-Centre; and U.S. Rep. Dr. John Joyce, R-Blair, have worked to gather military and government officials for the event, and the congressmen plan to attend the Showcase as well, said Ed Sheehan, Showcase for Commerce committee chairman and president and CEO of Concurrent Technologies Corp.

This year, organizers are expecting more than 100 exhibitors, including 11 companies that are new to the Showcase, Sheehan said.

"It's always exciting to pull this together and see all the companies come to this region, learn more about what's here, and create job opportunities and business development opportunities," he said.

New to the Showcase this year is a June 1 street party for registered attendees on Napoleon Street with live music, drinks and food.

"It creates more networking opportunities, and I'm really excited about that," Sheehan said. "This shows how the breadth of the showcase continues to grow."

Among the attendees at the expo will be a delegation of companies from Denmark, said Linda Thomson, president and CEO of Johnstown Area Regional Industries, the regional economic development organization for Cambria and Somerset counties. Thomson is also the organizational lead for Showcase for Commerce.

"We have a fairly large delegation of companies coming from Denmark for the showcase — six companies — as well as the Danish Business Authority and the defense cluster organization, CenSec," she said.

CenSec is the primary cluster organization among Danish companies that are suppliers to the defense, space and security industries.

Next week's Showcase marks CenSec's fifth year participating, but the organization has never brought as many companies as it plans to bring this year, Thomson said. Last year, the Europeans were not able to travel because of pandemic restrictions, and the entire Showcase event was canceled in 2020.

"I think we are getting more traction as we grow our relationship," Thomson said. "Economic development is about relationship-building."

In 2015, JARI and CenSec signed an agreement.

"We've agreed to work together to support our respective interests in defense opportunities," Thomson said. "For JARI, we want to see more European companies move into Johnstown, and for them, they are looking for support in U.S. markets."

That agreement will be renewed during the Showcase, she said.

"It's a much larger thing happening this year than in the past," she said. "We started this seven years ago, and now it has gotten legs and will have more of an impact."

The commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Denmark have also started drafting an agreement to jointly work on energy and defense objectives, Thomson said.

A memorandum may be signed in Johnstown during the Showcase, she said.

David Brill, Pennsylvania's deputy secretary of the Department for Community and Economic Development relative to international business, and Danish Embassy official Henrick Bramsen Hahn are both expected to attend the showcase.