The Institute for Water Resources will obtain participation in the Informa Economics, Inc. Transportation Roundtable Series, which builds off of the agricultural and commodity forecast subscriptions Informa provides. The Transportation Roundtable brings together a cross-section of transportation and logistical information professionals in areas of production, consumption, supply and demand issues: policy; modal development for barge, rail, intermodal, dry bulk and container ocean movements; and infrastructural issues. The Roundtable is structured through the format of three workshops held over the course of a year and is intended to help explain and elaborate on the subscriptions. Participation in the Transportation and Logistics Roundtable Series including attending three consecutive Roundtable meeting and copies of all presentations and proceeding; and attendance by up to three professionals from the Corps' Institute for Water Resources.

No competition is being sought. Informa's niche is that they obtain and utilize data from many sources, combine it with their own expertise and provide an unbiased composite forecast covering the needed subjects. In addition, Informa works closely with investment firms, barge industry, agri-business and others, and thus have access to confidential data and can aggregate the data directly from each of them. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other federal agencies have been unsuccessful doing that. While other services or vendors may offer forecasts with limited geographical coverage or specialize in limited or select commodity markets, they are unable to provide the comprehensive aggregated data required by the Corps. Informa integrates and aggregates the data into their nationwide assessment and forecast products and products which they provide to USACE. Accordingly, to acquire independent products from smaller or more specialized vendors has often been less cost-effective and timely, and therefore not in the interests of the Government.

This is a special notice prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 5.2 Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions. A solicitation will not be posted.

However, any firm that believes it can meet this requirement may give written notification to the Contracting Officer within 15 days of publication of this announcement. Supporting evidence must be in sufficient detail to demonstrate the ability to comply with the requirement. Responses received will be evaluated; however, a determination by the Government to compete the proposed procurement based on the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intends on proceeding with awarding a fixed price purchase order to Informa Economics, Inc.

Point of contact for this requirement is Amanda Eaton at 703-428-6318; [email protected].

Address: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, HECSA, 7701 Telegraph Road, Alexandria, VA 22315.