A Seminar is far more than a simple data transfer; it is a high-stakes signalling event. While it is formally understood as a CPD (Continuing Professional Development) session, its true function is to act as a Technical Briefing that bridges the perception gap between a product’s raw capabilities and its practical application.
A well-structured seminar serves as a Specification Workshop, designed to satisfy mandatory learning requirements while positioning a manufacturer as a credible technical peer. From a behavioural perspective, these sessions are an exercise in managing cognitive load. If a manufacturer treats a seminar as a “sales pitch in a lab coat,” the audience’s “boredom allergy” triggers an immediate intellectual shutdown. We advocate for simplicity without simplification, ensuring the session provides the depth required for a specification while maintaining a narrative pace that prevents the brain from entering “energy-saving mode.”
Practical Example & Case Study: Consider a manufacturer of high-performance rainscreen cladding.
- The Traditional Approach: A 60-slide deck of testing certificates and factory photos. The result? The audience absorbs nothing but the smell of the provided catering.
- The FRAKT Approach: We reframe the delivery into a narrative-driven Technical Briefing titled “The Physics of Failure: Why Modern Facades Leak.” By pivoting from product features to behavioural leverage—specifically addressing the architect’s inherent fear of post-completion risk—the manufacturer is no longer a vendor but a “strategic partner.”
In a recent engagement, we refined a client’s CPD session by stripping away the “marketing gloss” and focusing on the “unintended consequences of poor thermal bridging.” By transforming the event into a rigorous Specification Workshop, we saw a 40% increase in post-event technical enquiries. The architects weren’t just “taught”; they were intellectually recruited.
Strategic Insight: The most effective seminars recognise that architects are often irrational but predictable. They value the feeling of being protected from future litigation just as much as they value the technical U-value of a material. Your session shouldn’t just provide answers; it should help the architect ask better questions. After all, an architect doesn’t need more slides; they need less cognitive friction.
