At Paste, creating a CPD starts at £3,750 + VAT. That covers everything from working out what the presentation should be about to writing it, designing it and managing the submission for accreditation. If you’re ordering more than one CPD, we offer a discount on each.
There are a couple of things priced separately, including the accreditation body’s own fees and animations. We’ll explain those below.
But first, what are you actually getting for your money?
You don’t need to arrive with a finished brief
Some clients come to us with a detailed brief, an existing presentation and a folder full of technical information. Others arrive with, essentially, “We need a CPD. Where do we start?”
Both are absolutely fine.
If you haven’t got a topic, we’ll research your market. What information are specifiers missing? What legislation is changing? What are the common pitfalls in your area? If speaking to specifiers will help, we’ll pick up the phone.
Then we’ll propose topics based on what we’ve found.
If you’re commissioning several CPDs, we’ll also look at how they fit together. Each needs enough substance to stand on its own, while flowing nicely into the next. You want people to book the rest of the series, not sit through the second presentation wondering how much of it they’ve already heard.
What’s included?
Once we’ve agreed the topic, we get on with the detailed research, write the slide content and speaker notes, and send the technical draft over for your input.
Then comes the design.
Our designer trained as an architect, so the person creating your slides and drawings has a technical background. That makes a real difference when you’re trying to explain something more complicated than a list of product benefits.
We’ll come up with fresh, modern ways to get the information across, including properly designed, high-quality diagrams. We don’t set an arbitrary slide limit, and we don’t charge extra every time we need to draw something.
If the project needs an unusually large number of detailed drawings, we’ll discuss that with you. But diagrams are a normal part of explaining technical subjects, so we include them in the work.
We don’t design in PowerPoint, although that’s how you can present the finished CPD using your normal setup. We don’t lock you into InDesign either.
We use sensible, affordable, collaborative design software with enough technical grunt to do the job properly, without a crazy learning curve. You get a properly premium design, the original design files for future changes, and a PowerPoint version for presenting.
You also get hands-on project management throughout. There’s someone keeping things moving, organising feedback and making sure you know what happens next.
Once you’re happy with the presentation, we package it up and manage the submission to your chosen accreditation body, whether that’s RIBA, CPD UK, CIBSE or another organisation.
If the assessor asks for changes, making those changes is included in the price. The accreditation body’s own fees are separate.
We’ve spent a lot of time getting to grips with what RIBA assessors do and don’t want to see. We can’t promise a first-time pass, but we know what to look out for and work through those points before submitting.
Is it cheaper if we already have a CPD?
Usually, improving an existing CPD costs the same as starting from scratch.
That might sound odd. Surely having a presentation already saves some work?
It gives us a starting point, yes. But we still need to review the content, work out what needs improving and design every slide. One crowded slide might need to become three. A complicated explanation might need a diagram. The whole presentation might work better in a different order.
By the time we’ve finished, it shouldn’t feel like the same CPD with a new font.
We can do design-only work if you genuinely want the content left alone. In practice, though, clients often start by asking for design and then want our input on the content too.
That’s understandable. Once you start looking closely at a presentation, you spot things that could work better. If we’re working to a design-only brief, those content changes have to go back to you, which rather defeats the object of getting an expert to take the job off your plate.
What could cost extra?
Animations are quoted separately because they can range from something very simple to something wildly complex. There isn’t a sensible one-price-fits-all approach.
An unusually large amount of detailed diagram work could also affect the quote, as could a big change to what we’ve agreed to create.
Amendments, though, are a normal part of the process. We’re happy to receive feedback and improve our drafts. So far, we’ve never charged a client extra for amendments.
Getting us to redraw every diagram after a complete change of direction might have us reaching for our calculators, but we’d talk it through with you before doing anything that costs extra.
We’re also happy to explore design directions before designing the whole presentation. It’s a useful way to make sure we’re all happy with where it’s heading.
How do payments work?
Most of our clients choose the standard option:
Option | Price | Payment stages |
|---|---|---|
Standard | From £3,750 + VAT | 90% upfront, with the remaining 10% due on final delivery |
Spread payments | £4,250 + VAT | Three equal instalments: upfront, at technical draft and at design draft |
The spread-payment option lets you pay as the project progresses. We’ll round the final payment by a penny or two if needed so it all adds up.
If you’re commissioning more than one CPD, we’ll include the discount for each in your quote.
How long does it take?
We work to within six weeks from kick-off to submission, provided feedback and approvals come back on time. You’ll then need to allow time for RIBA, or your chosen body, to assess it.
Sometimes we turn the content draft around in the same week as the kick-off.
We’re fast because we’ve put a lot of time and energy into finding excellent people and building a process that works. We hold ourselves to high standards, and we want the work to be cracking as well as quick.
The amount of input you give us is up to you. You can come with a detailed brief, or you can hand over the project and let us run with it. We’ll bring the drafts back to you for review. What we do need is timely feedback and approval so we can keep moving.
Why use a CPD specialist?
CPDs are what we do. We’re focused on making the content useful, the technical explanations clear and the presentation something you’ll be proud to deliver.
Sometimes that means proposing a completely different direction.
For Knauf, for example, we took a very white, plain presentation style and developed a much darker, more modern design. It gave the CPD a completely different feel, which we felt was much easier on the eye for attendees.
That’s the sort of input you’re paying for: people who will look properly at what you’re trying to achieve and bring ideas to the table.
If you’re comparing quotes, ask what’s included. Who’s researching and writing the content? Are speaker notes included? Who creates the technical diagrams? Who handles the submission and assessor feedback? How much of the work will still land on your desk?
Those answers will tell you much more than the headline price.
Got an existing CPD that needs work, or no idea where to start? Get in touch and we’ll help you work it out.
