To encourage the highest standards of professionalism and generally improve technical knowledge among its members, the Royal Institute of British Architects requires that every architect in practice, along with other construction professionals, should attain 35 hours and 100 points of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), every year. These hours and points can be achieved in a number of ways, but by far the most popular is where member companies of the RIBA CPD Providers Network undertake lunchtime group seminars at architect's practices.

Developing and maintaining an effective CPD programme for these audiences is a demanding business, but as more Providers join the Network, there is as even greater need for companies to differentiate themselves by offering a higher standard of presentation. In this respect, the traditional use of PowerPoint is fast being overtaken by the use of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Being exponents of HTML and, just as importantly, being fully conversant with the all aspects of the RIBA CPD scheme (they are one of our clients), we were approached by the Lonsdale Metal Company and asked if we would become involved in various aspects of their seminar activity - a request that an increasing number of our clients are making.

A full days training at Lonsdale's premises provided us with enough background information to produce an initial seminar structure, basic design template options reflecting their corporate styling and a plan detailing just what additional input would be required. Input such as Case Study material; photos; CAD drawings; NBS clauses; British Standards and so on. After further discussion and some subsequent modifications, we finalised the seminar material and successfully gained approval from the RIBA CPD Providers Network in only two days.

Lonsdale were in full agreement that The Creative Department should produce the seminar in HTML. It has a number of advantages over PowerPoint, the key ones being that it uses smaller file sizes, making it faster and easier for the presenter to navigate. Greater design sophistication is achievable and images on screen are instantaneous. The seminar can be easily uploaded to a website, or burnt to CD ROM, which means 24 hour access for those who wish to benefit from CPD in their own time. Considerably less space is taken up on the server too, in this particular case 10mb compared with 77mb for the same presentation in PowerPoint. In addition to writing and designing the seminar, producing the speaker's notes and taking care of the entire approval process, we were also instrumental in the session presentation too. A half - day training session was carried out with the client to demonstrate how best to present the material and on those occasions where Lonsdale do not have a presenter available, The Creative Department takes over the role.

To find out what the future holds for CPD presentation standards and to discuss any other areas where we might be able to hep with your programme…

To enquire further about this case study please go to our enquiry form.