By Brian D’Antoni
Sundaze Gazette · Sept. 10, 2026
If you chase Palm Beach County, city, school-district, or corporate procurement as a small contractor, supplier, film/vendor shop, or tech/services firm, Friday, October 2, 2026 is not “another networking day on the calendar.” It is the 20th Annual Palm Beach Partners Business Matchmaker Conference & Expo at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, 650 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach—and the prep window is already open.
Palm Beach County Housing & Economic Development’s August 2026 LinkedIn notice, the City of West Palm Beach events listing, and the live conference site all point owners to the same day and place. Theme language on partner pages reads “20 Years of Partnership: Building Bridges, Creating Futures” (LinkedIn / Black Chamber mirror) or “20 Years in Partnership: Building Bridges, Creating Futures” on pbmatchmaker.com. Expectation stamped across those channels: 300+ participants, with agencies and corporations looking to do business with SBE, M/WBE, DBE, and Veteran-owned firms. This Gazette package is an owner prep how-to—register correctly, pack the right packet, walk the room like a bidder—not a calendar blurb.
Register first: use pbmatchmaker.com, not flaky mirrors
Canonical home and registration path: [https://pbmatchmaker.com/](https://pbmatchmaker.com/) (also reachable as www.pbmatchmaker.com). The site advertises Individual Registration (entrepreneurs, owners, professionals for the full conference day—workshops, networking, Power Talk access) and Group Registration (organizations sending multiple team members, vendors, or representatives). Attendee registration details live at Attendees Registration.
Fee soft-flag (confirm at checkout): The dedicated attendees-registration page currently shows $150 as “Admission to all-day events” for individual registration. A sitewide registration sidebar still shows $125 next to older “Celebrating the Power of You for 19 Years” footer copy while the event itself is branded as the 20th annual. Do not treat either figure as locked until your cart and confirmation email match. Group pricing is offered as a path on the same page; published group dollar totals were not clearly itemized in the live pull—confirm on the Group Registration flow before budgeting a multi-person team.
Fiscal agent (live disclosure on registration page): The Center for Technology, Enterprise & Development, Inc. (TED Center) is the fiscal agent and manages payments; card processing is disclosed as Stripe / PCI over HTTPS.
Mirror soft-flag: A Black Chamber of Palm Beach County registration mirror at business.blackchamberpbc.com/…/OOFv2YDCaCqCD carries useful coalition and program copy but, as of this pull, displays “We’re sorry. No registrations are currently available.” Prefer pbmatchmaker.com for tickets. Treat chamber/third-party mirrors as secondary; if a mirror shows empty inventory while the official site still offers Individual/Group registration, follow the official site and contact organizers via Contact Us if checkout fails.
City of West Palm Beach’s public events page for the day—Business MatchMaker Conference and Expo—lists Friday, October 2, 2026, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. at the Convention Center and points small-business owners at the same Matchmaker framing. The Palm Beach County Convention Center listing (event page) also confirms October 2 at 650 Okeechobee Blvd and links back to pbmatchmaker.com; that venue page’s clock reads 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. while WPB, the Black Chamber mirror, PBC HED LinkedIn, and the live agenda’s networking reception run through 6:00 p.m. Soft-flag the end-time conflict: plan your parking and pickup around the official agenda on pbmatchmaker.com, not the shorter venue blurb alone.
Matchmaker ≠ trade show: how the day is built
A trade show is mostly booth traffic. A matchmaker is built around buyer access, capacity-building workshops, and structured one-on-ones. The conference site describes the day as connecting small business enterprises with government agencies, corporate buyers, lenders, resource partners, and decision-makers across Palm Beach County, with three named pillars: Workshops, Power Talk, and Networking.
Live Agenda Overview (Friday, October 2, 2026) currently stamps this sequence (times as published; confirm day-of signage):
- 8:00–9:00 a.m. — Registration
- 9:00–10:00 a.m. — Ribbon Cutting – Grand Ballroom
- 10:00–10:20 a.m. — Morning Plenary – Grand Ballroom
- Tradeshow blocks — Pre-function Area (morning and afternoon windows as listed)
- 10:30–11:45 a.m. — Workshop 1: Procurement
- 12:30–2:30 p.m. — Luncheon – Awards Ceremony – Keynote – Grand Ballroom
- Afternoon workshops — AI marketing to governments; Goods and Services vendor panel; Capital Improvements / upcoming local projects
- 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. — Bankers Row – Ballroom B
- 2:30–4:30 p.m. — Power Talks (45+ stations for one-on-one sessions, per agenda)
- 4:45–6:00 p.m. — Networking Reception – Grand Ballroom
That Power Talk block is the owner hinge: it is framed as direct access to procurement officers, agency leaders, lenders, and corporate representatives—not a random mixer. Arrive with a capability one-pager, certification status, and a short past-performance list so a five-minute station visit can become a follow-up email with attachments, not a business-card dump.
Who Palm Beach Partners actually is
Per Who We Are on the conference site, Palm Beach Partners is a coalition of city, county, state, and nonprofit agencies aligned to maximize economic development opportunities for small businesses across South Florida. The site’s coalition list includes:
- Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners tracks (Department of Airports, Department of Housing and Economic Development, Office of Equal Business Opportunity, Palm Tran)
- Solid Waste Authority
- School District of Palm Beach County
- South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD)
- City of West Palm Beach
- City of Riviera Beach
- Center for Technology Enterprise and Development (TED Center)
The Black Chamber registration mirror expands the participating-organization list further (including, among others, City of Greenacres and InclusiFi). Soft-flag: coalition membership on secondary pages can lag or expand relative to the Who We Are page—use pbmatchmaker.com/home/who-we-are as the baseline and treat chamber/partner lists as supplemental, not contradictory.
Shared goal language across Partners copy: extend matchmaking beyond any single agency’s borders to benefit SBEs, M/WBEs, and DBEs (and, in the PBC HED / WPB framing, Veteran-owned firms) throughout the South Florida region—with capacity-building tools, tips on future work, and small-business networking.
Workshops worth planning your day around
Live Workshops page (2026 Matchmaker Workshop) currently lists four tracks. Titles and descriptions below are from that page—do not invent speaker names or minute-by-minute slide decks beyond what is published.
Workshop One — Procurement. Public solicitation literacy: composition, sections, requirements, and deadlines for RFP, RFQ, and RFI; how methods differ by project requirements, budget, and desired results; ways to be more competitive in bidding.
Workshop Two — AI and Its Uses in Marketing to Governments (“Supercharge Your Government Outreach with Simple AI Tool”). Practical session on using AI when preparing to market, communicate, and respond to government opportunities; framed around transforming procurement notes, bid requirements, capability statements, budget assumptions, and compliance questions into clearer government-ready documents (session materials reference the RUTA Cognitive Engine on the workshops page).
Workshop Three — Goods and Services. Panel: selling goods and services to public agencies; how procurement professionals identify and evaluate vendors; vendor strategies for responding, pricing, and relationship-building toward longer-term public-sector success.
Workshop Four — Capital Improvements. Capital Improvement Plans for Fiscal Year 2027 presented so businesses can interface with multiple Palm Beach County agencies on upcoming projects, locations, requirements, budget amounts, and subcontracting opportunities before teams are formed.
Owner tactic: pick one morning and one afternoon workshop that match your NAICS lane, then protect Power Talk time. Do not try to “do everything” and arrive at stations with nothing in hand.
Speakers and awards: useful context, not the prep checklist
The Speakers page lists Perla Tamez Casasnovas, CEO of Casasnovas Capital, as luncheon keynote, with Vannia Joseph (WPTV) and Tania Rogers (WPTV / WFLX Fox 29) as 2026 emcees. The site asks owners to check back monthly for lineup additions—treat the speaker slate as live and expandable.
Vendor Spotlight publishes 2026 award categories (Legacy; Professional Services Excellence; Small Business Enterprise of the Year; Pioneer Progress; Excellence in Construction & Contracting; Excellence in Goods & Product Supply) and named nominees. Awards matter for morale and local recognition; they are not a substitute for bringing a clean capability packet to Power Talk stations.
What to bring: the owner packet that wins the five-minute station
Matchmaker ROI collapses when you show up with only a logo sticker and a phone full of half-finished PDFs. Pack a thin, consistent kit:
1) Capability one-pager (front and back max). Legal name, DBA, physical address, UEI/SAM status if you have it, primary NAICS, commodities/services in buyer language, geographic coverage (Broward / Palm Beach / tri-county), bonding capacity if construction, and one sentence on differentiators. Leave jargon for the full SOQ.
2) Certification and registration status sheet. Palm Beach County / city SBE or M/WBE certificates, DBE if applicable, Veteran-owned documentation, business tax receipts, and any school-district or agency vendor numbers you already hold. If a certification is pending, say pending + application date—do not imply awarded status you do not have.
3) Past performance short list. Three to five projects with owner/agency name, dollar band (or “under NDA / range”), role (prime vs. sub), year, and a reference name/title/email you have permission to share. Film and creative vendors: include production company or agency clients and deliverable types (commercial, branded, live event AV)—procurement officers still need comparable past performance.
4) Insurance and compliance snapshot. COI limits you can currently meet, workers’ comp status, and any known gaps. Buyers will not negotiate your policy on the floor; they will note whether you are close.
5) Ask list. Three targeted asks per station type: “Which FY27 CIP packages need my trade?”, “What is your vendor portal URL and refresh cycle?”, “Do you prefer primes to bring certified subs pre-bid or post-award?” Write answers immediately after each Power Talk.
6) Digital follow-up folder. Same packet as PDF on your phone/laptop, filenames that include your company name, ready to email within 24 hours of the meeting.
Who this room is for (Broward–PBC owner map)
This is not limited to firms already inside West Palm Beach city limits. The Partners goal language explicitly reaches South Florida SBEs / M/WBEs / DBEs. Practical seats in the room:
- Small contractors and trades chasing county, city, school-district, SWA, airports, Palm Tran, and SFWMD work—especially firms that need FY27 CIP visibility before teams lock.
- Suppliers and goods vendors who need panel literacy on how agencies evaluate catalogs, pricing, and responsiveness.
- Film, AV, and creative vendor shops that sell to cities, counties, tourism-adjacent buyers, and corporate marketing departments—Matchmaker is procurement access, not a film market; pair it with your production one-pager and insurance.
- Tech and professional services (IT, consulting, architecture/engineering-adjacent, marketing) that can translate “AI for government outreach” workshop content into cleaner RFP responses.
- Firms still building certification stacks who need bankers-row and resource-partner conversations alongside buyer stations.
If you are still early on municipal grant readiness in southern PBC, stack this Matchmaker prep with the Gazette’s Boynton Beach small-business grants readiness map (Boynton Beach Small Business Grants — Support / Marketing October 2026) so October grant paperwork and October 2 buyer conversations do not collide into the same unread inbox.
Owner prep timeline: Sept. 10 → Oct. 2
You have roughly three weeks. Use them like a bid clock, not a save-the-date.
This week
- Create or clean the capability one-pager and past-performance list.
- Register at pbmatchmaker.com (Individual or Group); screenshot confirmation and fee charged.
- Email Contact only if checkout or group seats fail—do not wait for a chamber mirror to “open.”
- Pull your certifications and vendor portal logins; note expirations before Oct 2.
Week of Sept. 15–21
- Choose workshops from the live Workshops page; put them on your calendar against the Agenda Overview.
- Draft Power Talk ask lists by agency type (county HED / OEBO, cities, school district, SWA, airports, utilities, corporates, lenders).
- If construction/capital: skim what you already know about local CIP conversations so Workshop Four is a refinement, not a first hearing.
Week of Sept. 22–28
- Print 25–40 one-pagers; load the PDF pack.
- Confirm parking/logistics for 650 Okeechobee Blvd; plan arrival for the 8:00 a.m. registration window.
- Re-check pbmatchmaker.com for speaker/workshop additions (site says check monthly).
- Soft-confirm fee and any group roster changes against your confirmation email.
Oct 1 (Thursday)
- Final packet check; charge devices; set 24-hour follow-up block on Oct 3.
- Re-open the agenda PDF/bookmark; note Power Talk 2:30–4:30 p.m. and reception 4:45–6:00 p.m.
Oct 2 (Friday)
- Register early; walk tradeshow with purpose; attend chosen workshops; run Power Talks with timed asks; stay through reception if a buyer relationship is still warm.
- Same-day notes; next-morning emails with the PDF pack attached.
Soft-flags owners should not paper over
- Registration fee display conflict: $150 on attendees-registration vs $125 in the persistent site sidebar/footer; sidebar still carries “19 Years” language on a 20th-annual event. Confirm at payment.
- End time: WPB events page, Black Chamber mirror, and PBC HED LinkedIn say 8 a.m.–6 p.m.; Convention Center event page shows 8 a.m.–5 p.m.; live agenda includes a reception to 6:00 p.m. Default to the agenda + confirmation email.
- Black Chamber mirror: useful program/coalition text; no registrations available on last pull—do not treat as the ticket desk.
- Buyer lists: No comprehensive public roster of every corporate/agency table was published as a downloadable buyer list on the pages pulled for this brief. Use Power Talk / tradeshow / Bankers Row as the live access model; do not invent named buyer tables.
- Agenda typography: Overview page includes a tradeshow line stamped “10:15 – 12-15 am” as published—rely on day-of signage if a clock looks off.
- Theme micro-variant: “20 Years of Partnership” vs “20 Years in Partnership”—same event; cite the page you are quoting.
None of these soft-flags are reasons to skip the room. They are reasons to confirm on pbmatchmaker.com and keep your own packet tighter than the marketing chrome.
Bottom line for the Broward–Palm Beach owner desk
The 20th Annual Palm Beach Partners Business Matchmaker Conference & Expo is a procurement-access day with workshops, 45+ Power Talk stations, bankers row, and a full Convention Center footprint—aimed at SBE / M/WBE / DBE / Veteran-owned firms and the primes and agencies that need them. Register at [pbmatchmaker.com](https://pbmatchmaker.com/), ignore empty third-party mirrors, confirm the fee at checkout, pack a capability one-pager plus certifications and past performance, and treat October 2 like a living bid conference—not a badge photo op. Three weeks of prep beats three hours of improvisation on Okeechobee Boulevard.
