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Being in the right place at the right time can lead to successful partnerships. On September 15, Louisville Metro’s “Matchmaker” event provided the space for small businesses to introduce themselves to the right people with reputable organizations.
Louisville Water has participated in the event every year since it started. We consistently seek opportunities to connect with small local and diverse businesses to support our efforts to cultivate our pool of suppliers and vendors.
“This is a great mechanism for our small and local businesses to come in and figure out what’s available [in terms of projects] that they may be interested in and learn how they get certified to do work with us,” said Louisville Water President and CEO Spencer Bruce.
Bruce attended “Matchmaker” along with members of our procurement, finance, engineering, production operations, and human resources departments. The event is one of Louisville Metro’s equity in procurement and contracting task force initiatives. Louisville Water’s procurement manager serves on a subcommittee of the task force, ensuring we have a voice in the conversations created with the purpose of attracting qualified suppliers to bid on various projects.
Procurement Assistant Reese Vann said having face-to-face interaction is beneficial.
“The high level of participation demonstrated strong interest from the small and local business community and provided meaningful opportunities to explore future business collaborations and growth initiatives,” Vann said.
Those networking benefits are exactly what brought Amber McAllister, owner of McAllister Transport, LLC to the event. She runs the hauling company with her husband
“This year we got three trucks, so now we’ve got five on the road, and we’re just getting bigger. I wanted to come to this event to try to collaborate with other small businesses and bigger companies to try to get some work and to grow,” McAllister shared.
Louisville Water continuously works to expand its efforts to achieve more equitable partnerships. Since launching our Small Business Equity (SBE) program in 2020, it has grown to 119 members. In the first two quarters of 2026, Louisville Water spent a little over $16.6 million with SBE members on construction and professional services.
