Vet Edge Recap
In the middle of last month (March 19th – March 21st 2025 for those who are reading down the road) I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Veterans Edge 2025 Conference in Addison Texas. This one was super exciting for me personally because I hadn’t been able to attend in a while. The last one I went to was back in 2020/2021 when we were in the midst of COVID so I’ve definitely missed the event. For the prior 2 years, I was involved in the Bunker Labs CEOCircles program and their in-person sessions were literally 1 week apart, so attendance was just not possible for me. That’s all been remedied now. 😊
This year comes with an added bonus as IVMF in 2024 acquired Bunker Labs which I was involved with at the time. In the veteran space, when you’re talking to good people, you tend to run into them eventually. I believe the same holds for good organizations. My involvement with the Bunker Labs CeoCircle program unknowingly led me back to IVMF and VetEdge AND made VetEdge even better because going forward it will also be an opportunity for me to see my old CeoCirlce friends and hopefully serve as a reunion point for us each year going forward.
Where to start, I don’t even know really so I’ll just give a bit of a recap of each of the days. Wednesday started out in Plano at the giant Chase complex as me and several of my CeoCircle alumni got to sit in on the last day of the current 2024/2025 CeoCircle fly in. I ended up being my anti-social self and visiting with my peeps from last year’s cohort. Didn’t really get much of a chance to mingle with any new folks since the “reunion” was just us crashing their last day but there were several folks in their 2nd year so it was good to see some of them and also get to grab lunch and hang out with Kandis Porter and Laura Early. Two amazing ladies with awesome businesses. We wrapped up in Plano at the sprawling Chase complex and headed back over to the Renaissance in Addison where we’d spend the rest of the week. The remainder of Wednesday was spent in and out of different educational sessions, with the highlight being the open networking that evening and the follow-up dinner with some of my besties from Bunker Labs/CEO Circles, Nick Bradfield, Matt Tarjick, Renee Krieg and Kandis Porter.
Thursday proved to be a very long day as sessions started at 8 am and we went solid until about 8 that night. I did about half sessions and half meetings with various folks throughout the day. The highlight of the day had to be again the networking towards the end (HBC had a vendor booth in the vendor market) and then the post-networking dinner with some more compadres from the veteran service org world and Bunker Labs/CEO Circles. A long day, but time well spent with a ton of good folks. A little premature but I did re-connect with someone that I did not even realize was going to be at the event. I’ve been thinking in the back of my mind I need a solid #2 to help me here with H|BC, and if all goes well, this person could be that individual. If that works out like I think it’s going to, this will be a game changer for H|BC and will make ALL the time spent at this conference more than worthwhile.
Friday, the last day, was bittersweet as the conference was wrapping up and was the last day of programming. I spent about half the day in the sessions and about half the day visiting with other CEOs. I did NOT get to go to the gala that evening, I had to get home to deal with some family priorities but am really glad I went to the event and am looking forward to continued involvement with IVMF and my CEOCircles alumni group in the future. It was a pleasure to get to meet and do 1:1 sessions with the CEOs of both NAVOBA and the NVSBC on Friday, both amazing organizations whose focus is helping veteran-owned organizations connect with government and commercial business opportunities.
Here are some links/info on several of the great organizations that were present as well as their LinkedIn links:
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IVMF Main Website – https://ivmf.syracuse.edu/
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IVMF LinkIn – https://www.linkedin.com/school/ivmfsyracuseu/posts/?feedView=all
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NAVOBA Main Website – https://www.navoba.org/
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NaVOBA LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/navoba/
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NVSBC Main Website – https://nvsbc.org/
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NVSBC LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-veteran-small-business-coalition/
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National Veterans Institute for Procurement (VIP) Main Website – https://nationalvip.org/index
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National Veterans Institute for Procurement (VIP) LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-veteran-institute-for-procurement/
After the conference wrapped up, one of my good friends from my first year in CEOCircles, Renee Krieg (if you need cooling towels or a shirt, she’s your girl) was actually still in town so I got to connect with her outside of the conference here in my hometown which was a lot of fun. Renee, my wife, and I all met up for lunch on Sunday, which was fun for her and Sara to finally get to meet. It was also a lot of fun to be able to take her over to East Dallas so I could show her Lower Greenville and a local favorite watering hole of ours. Shout out to Truck Yard. 😊
To wrap up, the 3 days spent at this conference were amazing. It’s always hard to be away from home and family but it was certainly time well spent learning from the organizations and the others who were present.
If anything, my hope is that some other veterans and veteran-run companies find some resources here that they did not know were available. If you’re in the DFW area or even the N. Texas, Oklahoma or Arkansas area(s) for that matter, you’re a veteran and you run a business, you need to seriously look into Veteran Edge 2026 and make a commitment to attend. There are tons of resources available for VOB’s and most people don’t even realize it.
Thanks for the read! Semper Fi!
Ryan
