Hello Fellow GTSC Members!

As you may be aware, GTSC is actively participating in the planning for the GSA Reverse Industry Day, which will take place Monday, July 10th from 9am to 1pm at GSA HQ in Foggy Bottom.

This event will be made available to the entire GSA Acquisition community. GSA employees in Metropolitan Washington DC will be encouraged to attend in person, while the event will be made available live online to remote employees. Attendance is expected to be large.

GTSC has the opportunity, as an industry organization, to have representatives participate on the three panels as either a panelist or moderator. In addition to the actual event on the 10th, there will be required preparation and dry run meetings. Those days have not been scheduled at this time.

Roles:

Panelist – will support the development of the PowerPoint, prepare remarks and scenarios, share, and present industry views, best practices, and lessons learned about the specific panel topic.

Panel Moderator – will be responsible for working with the panel on content creation, coordinating the presentation, and communicating with the planning team. Act as the Champion for the audience (staying on track with relevant topics, continually assessing and reacting to the audience, facilitating the discussion, timekeeping, and keeping the conversation meaningful for them).

It is anticipated that the panel discussions will be structured in a scenario based approach. The topics are as follows:

Panel 1:

How Industry Decides to Bid/No Bid an Opportunity

This panel will address key aspects of the processes, timelines (including identification of opportunities), and the factors that influence how a company decides to bid on an opportunity from task orders to multiple award contract vehicles. Panelists will discuss the importance of early communication, highlight the type of information that industry seeks in order to qualify an opportunity, and the value [and impact] associated with certain types of communications (e.g. RFIs, one-on-ones, industry days, GSA Interact Site, etc.). Speakers will use actual scenarios to demonstrate how different factors might influence the decision towards either bidding or not bidding (e.g., costs, risks, probability of win, acquisition strategy, vetting of solution, past acquisition practices of customer, socio-economic considerations, competitive analysis, etc.).

Panel 2:

How Industry Responds to Solicitations and Interprets Requirements

This panel will discuss the timelines, resources, and personnel involved in responding to a solicitation and detail how industry analyzes and interprets various requirements. Panelists will highlight the importance of opportunities for Q&A and focus on how the most critical elements of a solicitation (e.g. acquisition strategy, pricing instructions, evaluation criteria, clarity of requirements, evaluation and scoring criteria, and contract type and cost/price structure) may impact the nature of the proposed solution, pricing, etc.

Panel 3:

Industry’s Perspective on the Importance and Value of Debriefs

This session will provide insight into the importance and value of debriefs for both government and industry and detail the types of information that industry is seeking in a written or oral debrief (including FAR Part 8, Brief Explanation of Award Decision). Speakers will also discuss how effective communication during the debrief and throughout the acquisition lifecycle that can potentially reduce protests.

If you or a colleague have strong interest and expertise in any one of these subject,

Please register NLT May 31, 2017
Click Here to Participate in the GSA RID

Please note that all non-federal government speakers will be required to sign a gratuitous services agreement with GSA prior to participating. The participating industry organizations will sign agreements on behalf of any speakers affiliated with them; speakers who are unaffiliated with a participating industry organization, or who are appearing in their personal capacity, will have to sign their own gratuitous services agreement, which GSA will provide.

GSA will select the final participants based on the nominations put forward by GTSC and other industry organizations.

Thank you for your interest in supporting the GSA RID. Together we will improve acquisitions to achieve mission outcomes through better communication.

Best,

Kristina Tanasichuk
CEO, Government Technology & Services Coalition| (703)201-7198