Is CPD just attending trade lectures

I have for a while, in fact I may well have written about this on my old site, But I am a little frustrated with the current thinking on CPD, most seem to think its just a matter of attending some free trade shows, and racking up a few hours listening to sometimes very biast lectures from a trade manufacturer. Don't get me wrong, I have learned a lot from one or two very good manufacturers, Marley Roofing for one, and Leaderflush as another, but so often you leave with no involvement whats so ever, and I question if you have even listened, any learning taken from sparse notes or hand outs.

My thoughts on this are not to test your memory after the lecture, this does nothing for you, but drive the attendees away, my thinking on this is going in the direction of perhaps the research, of proper subject lists and research gathered about that subject, rather like a university, PhD research student, producing a reading list, and pulling together thoughts on the current materials that might fall into that material. This makes you think, and explore, the mind is now active and learning.

Currently I am researching brickwork, now you might say, I should know all there is to brickwork detailing, but sadly I don't, take for instance why we started to use a cavity, brick sizes and how they evolved, the effects of insulation in that cavity, weep holes and how lead flashing has evolved. I also want to add here, life span of brickwork. weathering, now you can see why learning this way opens the mind and makes knowledge so much more useful.

I would then like to see the research published online and the time taken awarded as CPD, not only is it going to enhance the knowledge base but change our attitude to learning, and make it more usable.

My own CPD list is already geared up for this, I add subjects I need to know about for current projects, or I want to know about, and I add notes or information to this in the way of research,  reading, talking and actual site visits. The only difference is I award myself time I have spent of learning. Perhaps publishing the work in a research journal or site, is a next step, and peer review to gain or verify the hours spent. I experimented with this recently within a small private group using a Wordpress theme, and it worked well. Perhaps it's time to open it out.

I can easily see Universities, gaining much needed revenue by offering to peer review, charging a small fee, say £25 a paper, but it would be well worth it. verified CPD perhaps adding to some sort of qualification not just time.