U.S. General Services Administration
Dana Fairley named new FAS national event manager
Longtime Federal Acquisition Service Region 6 Business Development Specialist Dana Fairley is the new national event manager for FAS’ national Office of Customer and Stakeholder Engagement.
She recently took the new role after serving as chief of the FAS Region 6 CASE Business Development Branch and as program manager for the facilities and construction category, which operates out of Region 6.
She now leads a team of four fully virtual employees who provide national conference events on the various products and services FAS offers.
What will you be doing in your new position?
I work under Kathy Carson to develop and execute FAS corporate events. The biggest event people usually think of is GSA Expo. If we were doing that kind of event in person, I would be in charge of the team putting it together. Our focus now is on virtual and eventually hybrid events, like FAST2021 and FAST2022.
FAS is aligned by categories, and we do a monthly series of sessions for targeted subcategories. Our goal is to train agency and industry partners on how to best use the products and services we provide. It’s more robust than how to use the tools, like you often see us doing in the region. It’s more looking at the long-term, journey-based needs of the customer and working with them to see the big picture of how GSA is positioned to best fulfill their needs.
What is the first event you’ll manage?
Our first big event is for human capital in February. That is our kick-off for 2022. We’ll then have the remaining four monthly series and FAST2022, our marquee three-day event. We also manage the annual FAS International Marketing Conference to set our strategic focus for the next fiscal year.
How did your time in Region 6 prepare you for this new role?
For years we’ve planned and hosted industry events specific to our services in the region. The way we work in a project management-type capacity to plan those events has really helped to prepare me. Knowing how we function in the region and how we managed our category will be valuable as well.
What do you look forward to most in your new position?
I’m looking forward to applying my experience with the region and institutional knowledge of GSA into our national events. There are times the planning process at the national level and regional levels don’t align. I think I can help people understand the different functions, maybe see different ways to do things, and hopefully find easier ways to create the extremely robust events.