Procurement Department Hosts SBU Vendor Community Fair 2025

Stony Brook University's Procurement Department hosted its annual Supplier Fair on September 25, which was attended by about 70 exhibitors and more than 350 staff. This year's theme, "Be United and Inspired," highlighted the benefits attendees gained, including expanding connections, staying informed, and igniting creativity.

This event provided SBU staff with an opportunity to connect with prospective and current vendors from a wide spectrum of industries, ranging from IT, construction, architecture, and engineering to scientific, medical, promotional, and travel-related companies - including Southwest Airlines, limo services, and the travel and expense firm, Concur - as well as food companies from SBU's Calverton Incubator.

Some companies were NYS certified minority-owned, women-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, others were small businesses, and some were large businesses like Dell and B&H Photo. NYS Industries for the Disabled also attended the Fair with two business partners, Clean Boss and Arc Herkimer.

For the first time, the University Career Center was part of the SBU Vendor Community Fair, which provided an opportunity for SBU students to meet local companies who could be future employers; meanwhile vendors had the chance to meet career center staff and learn how to engage with our students as future employees.

These events foster valuable connections, offering local businesses a chance to engage with our staff, expand our supplier network, and strengthen the local economy. For our staff, it's an opportunity to personally connect with the partners they already collaborate with, putting a face to the products they rely on.

"Events like the Supplier Fair are foundational to our mission at Stony Brook," said Christopher Berger, AVP of Procurement. "They're a crucial opportunity to not only optimize our supplier base and ensure we're getting the best value for the university but, perhaps more importantly, to actively cultivate relationships. We're putting faces to names, fostering transparency, supporting local and diverse businesses, and ultimately strengthening the engine that supports our academic and research excellence."

Anyone who would like more information about the companies that exhibited at the event, or our next event, can contact Maria Bracco and Celina Daab in Procurement at [email protected] or [email protected].

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