The General Services Administration received mixed reviews for its use of an online video to brief industry about its plans for Alliant, the agency’s forthcoming acquisition contracts for information technology.

Webcasts might be a good way to disseminate information to a large audience, but it should not replace the traditional industry day in which contractors can interact with agency officials in person, industry observers said.

In this case, the Webcast was a matter of necessity, because so many vendors were interested in a briefing, said Jim Ghiloni, GSA’s Alliant program manager.

So rather than gather everyone in a room to watch a presentation and ask questions, Ghiloni recorded a presentation earlier, with his face shown in one frame and presentation slides in another. Viewers can submit questions through the Web site for GSA officials to answer, and the video will remain available for some time.

Mark Amtower, a consultant specializing in government contractor marketing and advertising, said the video presentation is a good start for getting the Alliant message out, but it shouldn’t serve as a substitute for live interaction.

“They should still host a live event for real Q and A,” he said. “Live, face-to-face Q and A allows for better follow-up questions and reduces the likelihood that questions are ducked or not fully answered.”

Larry Allen, executive vice president of the Coalition for Government Procurement, agreed with Amtower’s assessment.

An industry day is “a valuable day for a variety of reasons, and not just the dissemination of information,” he said. “I understand GSA’s reason for the video, but the video presentation doesn’t allow for two things that are part of the process.”

The lack of an interactive question-and-answer session is the more obvious of those two omissions, Allen said.

“But more than that, it doesn’t allow for networking,” he added. “Not only is networking a good business opportunity, it allows people in government to pick up on things that might be said in the crowd.”

At least one company interested in Alliant benefited from GSA’s decision.

“For the information GSA is releasing at this time, the Webcast was a very effective method for getting the information out,” said Sue Dowling, business development director at AlphaInsight. “I could view it when and where I wanted.”