

CAA Continuing Professional Development Programme
Event: 2024 CAA Awards Showcase –
Lifetime Achievement Award: Prof. Yasmeen Lari
Post-Event Attendance & Feedback Report
Date Issued: 3 August 2025
Executive Summary
The following document has been prepared for CAA Council to report on the attendance, feedback and promotion strategies for the second session of the 2024-2026 season of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme. For this season, the programme will principally be focused on an Awards Showcase from the CAA 2024 General Assembly held in Kigali, Rwanda in August 2024. This session, the third in the series, was delivered by Prof. Yasmeen Lari recipient of the CAA Lifetime Achievement Award The event was held online on Thursday, 5th June 2025, to coincide with World Environment Day and the soft launch of the CAA’s 60th Anniversary programme.
The learning outcomes for this session were centred on understanding the notion of ‘social architecture’ as promoted by Prof. Lari Through a broad exploration of Prof. Lari’s initiatives, principally through her work leading Barefoot Social Architecture and the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan the session aimed to expand understanding of architecture’s social role in supporting communities confronted with the climate challenges of the century ahead. The education outcomes for this session were directly linked to how the SDGs were realised in her work as well as key ideas which attendees might seek to bring back to their own practice or projects.
This session build upon the successes of previous CAA CPD programme sessions. The event continues to adopt a multi-pronged approach to promotion, being distributed widely via ArchDaily, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and newsletter. Members of the Council also showed invaluable support in helping to repost, share and request their own member architectural institutions share the event, which contributed to a well-attended event delivered effectively within the space of a three weeks. Attendance of the event was comparable to the three most recent events, though remains slightly lower than the ‘Make Things Work’ series held in 2023-2024. Nevertheless, feedback from the event remains overwhelmingly positive and these moves represent an ongoing pivot and exploration by the CAA to diversify its outreach to ensure that its programme and its ideas can reach as many people as possible.
In terms of attendance:
- Total number of registered participants: 489
- Total number of unique viewers: 163
- Maximum number of concurrent views: 140
Of the 163 unique viewers at the event, a total of 133 participants, or 85% of attendees were present for at least 30 minutes (half) of the session, which qualifies them for the CPD Certificate for the event. This suggests that audience engagement for the full duration of the session was successfully maintained and continues to increase as the CAA continues to refine the structure and approach for these sessions.
As a mark of the programme’s ongoing success, feedback on the event has been overwhelmingly positive. Responses indicated that:
- 100% found the presenter(s) to be engaging.
- 100% found the event to be well organised.
- 93% found the event to be just the right amount of time. (Up from 85% in the previous session)
- 85% of attendees were architects or practitioners of architecture.
- 100% would like to see the CAA CPD programme continue.
Nevertheless, this report highlights that there are still areas for improvement, namely that:
- 71% of respondents felt that there needed to be more time for engagement with the speakers (i.e. more time for Q&A). Note that this is down from 85% for the previous session, indicating that the restructured increase in Q&A time has been useful and effective
- 5% of respondents felt that the event was too short, and that more time should have been scheduled (the event was one hour and twenty minutes long). Note that this is down from 20% in the previous session, indicating that an increased time of between 15 minutes to 30 minutes (meaning sessions should be about 1.5 hours) is a healthy session period.
Feedback from respondents overwhelmingly support the continuation of the CPD programme and in particular, seek more sessions on the following areas:
- Sustainability & Sustainable Projects (i.e. Case study focus)
- Materials and Construction Methods including Energy Efficiency in Design
- Artificial Intelligence and Impact upon Architectural Practice & Profession
In view of the feedback and to build on the continued success of the CPD Programme, four areas of observation and improvement are suggested:
1. Promotional Strategies – continue to develop and expand on existing networks of engagement to build interest in the CPD programme, expanding and encouraging greater registrations via member organisations and also sign-ups to the newsletter. Feedback from some Institutes of Architecture have indicated that more time is required by their organisations to send out newsletters to respective members. Greater streamlining of communications and marketing will be important in increasing participation.
2. Attendance Retention – develop a component of newsletter or social media outreach to serve as ‘reminders’ to ensure that all registrations are used, and a larger portion of registered attendees will commit to actually attending. This has been observed as an ongoing trend that only about 50% of registered attendees attend events on the day.
3. Feedback Monitoring – continue to maintain consistent feedback sheets and questions to ensure that trend-mapping to monitor the CPD programme, enhance and review success of the programme can be undertaken.
As we approach the conclusion of one segment of the CAA’s CPD programme (Awards Showcase) and move towards our next collaborations with Sintali to deliver EDGE Certification, as well as featuring the works of other Council Members and Trustees (Climate Framework – September and Design for Education – November), I look forward to continuing my work in supporting the CAA’s outreach and to assist in delivering sessions for the remainder of my tenure.
Hugo Chan Youth Representative Commonwealth Association of Architects
CPD Event Objective
This Season of the CAA’s CPD programme continues to celebrate award-winning projects and individuals from the 2024 CAA General Assembly held in August this year in Kigali, Rwanda. The objective of this showcase season is to serve both as a celebration of the individuals and projects from the awards programme as well as to provide a forum for thought-provoking conversations through real-life ‘concrete’ case-studies of projects and individual designers and students who push boundaries to deliver thought-provoking propositions addressing the climate and urban challenges of our age.
Learning Outcomes for Attendees
The sessions learning outcomes were to be able to:
1. Be introduced to how architecture can be a vehicle to support social change within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals through a series of case study projects in Prof. Lari’s work through the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan and Barefoot Social Architecture.
2. Understand how architecture can be a powerful tool for addressing the pressing issues of climate change and injustices around the world, as exemplified through Prof. Lari’s architectural philosophy of “decarbonise, democratise, decolonise.”
3. Be introduced to the concept of ‘social architecture’ and explore what that means in the context of designing and building in the age of climate crisis.
Participant Reflection
As part of attendee’s reflections, five learning questions were asked:
1. What was the key takeaway message you learnt from this CPD Session?
2. Following today’s CPD Session, what does the term ‘Social Impact’ mean for you in the context of architecture and design? Has today’s CPD session changed your idea of what this term means?
3. What is a key idea, construction technique or design method that you learned from today’s CPD session that you feel you can apply to a project you are working on in your home country or practice environment?
4. In your opinion, which of the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) do you think applied to the project case study we heard from today? Multiple answers can be selected. 1
5. What do you see as a key challenge in your home country or practice environment which is preventing further progress towards ecologically sustainable development and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
Principal Contributors
This event featured Prof. Yasmeen Lari as presenter and was supported by three CAA Council members. The informal conversation section following the event was moderated by Mr. Hugo Chan, Youth Representative CAA .
Prof. Yasmeen Lari (Presenter)
Barefood Social Architecture
Heritage Foundation of Pakistan
Mr. Hugo Chan (Moderator) Youth Representative, CAA
Mr. Jacob Mwangi (Technical Coordination) Executive Director, CAA
Mr. Asim Jalal (Technical Coordination) IT Coordinator, CAA
Recording – Online Platform
A digital recording of the event has now been prepared and will be made accessible to the public via our website.

1 Still Image from ZOOM Recording during the Lecture.

2 Still Image from ZOOM Recording during the Question & Answer Session.
Event Promotion
As part of an ongoing review of social media strategies, a number of additional event promotion methods were adopted, in addition to the standard CAA CPD Newsletter. The following strategies were used in aid of promoting the event:
- CAA CPD Newsletter
- CAA Press Release to Institutes of Architecture* (New) - LinkedIn
- Twitter - Instagram - ArchDaily
In the subsequent sections, a brief review of the event promotion strategies is considered, alongside broad comments on potential adjustments to increase interest and registration numbers.
CAA CPD Newsletter
Two principal newsletters were issued to registered newsletter recipients for this CPD event, alongside follow-up resends. The first newsletter was sent on 20 May 2025, with targeted supplementary emails re-sent 24-48 hours later to individuals who did not open this email. A second newsletter was issued on 27 May 2025, just over a week prior to the event. For this event, there were a total of 1,300+ emails registered. A record of the newsletter is in Appendix A .
Newsletter 1 – 20 May 2025
- The newsletter was successfully sent out to 1,349 emails, representing an increase in subscriptions from 1,317.
- Of this, 41.4% or 550 emails were opened. This is a minor decline from 46.4% or, 611 emails for the previous session
- Of this, 13% or, 173 persons clicked to register on the ZOOM Link provided. This is slightly higher than 11.2% or, 147 persons from the previous session.
Newsletter 2 – 27 May 2025
- The newsletter was successfully sent out to 1,345 emails
- Of this, 38.8% of emails (516) were opened, slightly down from the previous session of 39.7% or, 525 emails.
- Of this, 7.7% or 102 persons clicked the link to register, once again, slightly down from 8.2% or, 108 persons in the previous session.
Analysis
These values are placed in comparison to our last CPD event held in October 2024 (the previous Council):
Newsletter 1 – 23 October 2024
- The newsletter was successfully sent out to 1,293 emails, representing 97% of registered emails.
- Of this, 62% or, 807 emails were opened.
- Of this 12% or, 151 persons clicked to register on the ZOOM link provided.
Newsletter 2 – 29 October 2024
- The newsletter was successfully sent out to 1,295 emails, representing 97% of registered emails.
- Of this, 51% or, 656 emails were opened.
- Of this 6.2% or, 80 persons clicked to register on the ZOOM link provided.
In view of this in comparison to the most recent newsletter campaign, it is concluded that the newsletter readership and click-rate is comparable, indicating that a degree of interest is being maintained.
It would be appropriate to discuss in due course however, whether there are ways of improving the newsletter structure in terms of its visual interest and simplicity to improve click-rates and registrations.
The social media Following of the CAA on LinkedIn continues to grow steadily and for this event, a series of posts were used to highlight the event. At the time of this event, the number of followers of the CAA on LinkedIn was between 500 – 650 persons. A total of four posts, comprising the posters and Instagram posts were used on this platform and on average, garnered between 200 – 400 ‘organic ’ views Engagement involved linking as well as a number of shares by other persons to their own networks. Overall, the continued social media presence on LinkedIn remains important, and it was noted in feedback that 6% of individuals heard about the event via this channel, showing minor but growth for outreach.
The event was shared on Facebook and pinned (in the leadup) to the event. The post was noted as being liked by multiple persons as well as being shared by two Individuals.
A trial livestream of the event was also held on Facebook via the CAA Page. This was met with some success, noting that a variable number of persons joined the Facebook Live feed at various points throughout the event. It is noted that in future, where attendance may exceed the ZOOM Assembly capacity, this will be an important alternative channel to live stream our events.
X (formerly Twitter)
For this particular event due to minor technical delays, no posts on X (Twitter) were publicised for the event.
The CAA Instagram account, launched in October 2024 has now grown to just over 300 followers and events are strongly supported through sharing and views on the platform and via the ‘stories’ function. For this event, two posts were shared, with the first post garnering 1,771 views and the second post garnering 598 views. This shows a significant natural growth of the platform as a major potential source for highlighting events. Instagram is also being used by a number of our member institutes in ‘ resharing’ news of the event to their members, showing important and continued presence on this platform will be important. The response sheet indicates that 12% of respondents found out about the event via this platform, already surpassing Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, despite CAA presence on Facebook and X pre-dating our Instagram account.
ArchDaily
ArchDaily, which is the world’s largest online platform for news and information on architecture was approached via its ‘calendar of events’ section for publication of the event. This was successfully accepted and our event was publicised via ArchDaily. A copy of this is contained in the appendicies and can be accessed here:
https://www.archdaily.com/1030169/caa-lifetime-achivement-award-lecture-professoryasmeen-lari
Summary of Findings – Promotion Strategy
To garner additional information on the promotion of CPD events, an additional survey question was added to ask attendees where they heard about the event and from what source. Preliminary data notes that a majority (54%) of registered attendees registered for the event via the CAA Newsletter, which remains our most direct and effective way of outreach to member individuals.
It is important to note that the diversification of our marketing and communications strategy has started to prove effective and will continue to be important in raising awareness of the CPD programme. It was noted that:
- 6% found the event via LinkedIn
- 7% found the event via Facebook
- 11% found the event via Instagram
- 17% found the event via their National Institute of Architects
The data highlights the importance of diversifying our outreach. Continued engagement via social media as well as setting up of regular emails for Regional Vice-Presidents to share news of upcoming events, both via the newsletter and standardised templates (press releases) will be important in growing the attendance for future CPD events.
Overall, noting that both the Instagram and LinkedIn accounts for CAA are less than a year old, that they have been able to direct a non-unsubstantial number of attendees toward our events is indicative of how a diversified social media strategy will form a pillar of promotion in the CAA’s continued efforts.
Attendance Breakdown
Number of Attendees
Summary
- Total number of registered participants: 489
- Total number of unique viewers: 163
- Maximum number of concurrent views: 140
Additional information:
- 326 participants were registered to attend but did not attend.
- 133 participants were present for 30 minutes or more – qualifying for the Certificate of Participation
Analysis:
- As mentioned in previous reports, there continue to be attendees who join in different intervals. This has been attributed to technical and internet connectivity issues. Consolidation of individual times to ensure that all attendees who cumulatively attend for more than half the session receives the certificate of participation.
- It is noted that for the current sessions of CPD Programme, the number of individuals who qualify for the certificate is high as a proportion of total attendees (86%).
- A continuing issue remains with a number of individuals who elect to register to attend, but who subsequently decide to
CPD Attendance Summary
A comparison is made to the three most recent CPD events by the CAA denoted by the trend chart below. Whilst attendance was lower than previous events, the attendance (which qualified for the certificate) was comparable in numbers to the CAA’s most recent series of events.
From these numbers, it is also noted that on average, approximately 50% of registered attendees actually attend the CPD event. Whilst not currently an issue, it should be noted that the CAA’s current maximum attendance capacity is 500 persons. There may in future be a need to warn or advise attendees that they should do their best to attend, so that their ‘reserved’ registration spot is not ‘lost’ if we have events which are hitting upwards of 500 persons.
Registration & Attendance
Numbers
4 Trend Chart – Registration & Attendance Numbers
Of the 163 unique viewers at the event, a total of 133 participants, or 85% of attendees were present for at least 30 minutes (half) of the session, which qualifies them for the CPD Certificate for the event. It was noted that there were several individuals whose internet appeared to break up and rejoined. Overall, retention rate was considered high, but indicates that there continues to be an opportunity to maintain audience interest, and to ensure that they are present for the full duration of the session.
Professional Background
It was noted that the vast majority of attendees identified as architects. Compared to the previous event, a growing number of individuals identified themselves as academics and/or researchers and several architecture adjacent professionals (engineers, quantity surveyors, urban designers) were also registered as attendees. In addition to this, several students of architecture were also in attendance, indicating that the CAA is slowly improving its outreach beyond the traditional core audience of architects, and enabling a more diverse cohort of architecture professionals to participate in our events.
Regions & Countries Represented
The event was well attended by all regions of the Commonwealth, including individuals from outside the Commonwealth. The vast majority of our attendees were distributed across three principal regions: Africa (26%), Asia (24%) and Caribbean & Americas (26%). These three regions made up approximately 76% of all attendees.
Regional Representation of Attendance
5. Chart – Regional Representation of Attendance
The table below provides a detailed breakdown of the attendees separated by nations. Note that attendees outside the Commonwealth are denoted by the asterisk ‘*’ for reference. It was noted that 120 of the participants were recorded as being from the Commonwealth (90%) and 14 were registered outside (10%). It is also worthy of note that based on available data, this event represented the most diverse representation in terms of attendees from different nations, with 35 countries represented, including 11 from outside the Commonwealth.
Breakdown of Attendees by Nation
Event Feedback
Feedback on the event has been overwhelmingly positive. There were a total of 43 survey respondents received within the first week after the event, representing approximately 27% of total unique viewers (163). Out of these responses:
- 100% found the event was of interest
- 100% found the event to be well managed.
- 93% found the event to be just the right amount of time
- 100% would like to see the CAA CPD programme continue.
In comparison with previous sessions concerning the management, the following observations were made:
- 66% of respondents felt that there needed to be more time for engagement with the speakers (i.e. more time for Q&A). It is noted that this represented a drop from the last session, in which 85% of respondents felt that the Q&A session was too short. This indicates that the CAA has improved the delivery of audience driven questions for the audience.
- Only 7% of respondents found that the session was too short, a substantial decline from 20% of respondents for the previous event. This indicates that a revised programme of approximately 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, comprised of 10-minute introductions, 40 – 50-minute presentations and 15 – 20 minute Q&A appears to be a preferred model structure for events of this type.
A review to responses on the question around ‘future topics’ was found to predominantly focus on ‘sustainability’, with comments being:
- Architecture’s Alignment to the 17 SDGs
- Green Building Techniques
- Passive Building Practices
- Vernacular Architecture
- Disaster & Climate Risk Reduction
Other, less conventional topic suggestions also included:
- Artificial Intelligence – Impact on design process and future of architecture
- Modern role of the architect in the construction industry
- Best practices in architectural education, advances in learning, teaching and assessment in education.
- Business of architecture and how to run a practice.
Concluding Observations
From the attendance information and feedback, the following observations with identified areas of improvement and further development to continue to build on the success of the CPD programme is made:
1. Thematic Engagement
• Sustainability continues to be a principal theme which audiences request CPD sessions on, across various topics.
• Noting the release of the CAA Practice Library and new website, there is an opportunity to strengthen our ‘case-study’ focus events, potentially by hosting future regional ‘sustainability’ deep dives featuring speakers from our good practice library.
• A few additional ‘new’ topics should be considered for the 2026 programme, particularly around new technologies and how it may impact the profession, such as Artificial Intelligence. Commitments to diversity and inclusion – such as accessible design principles and their impacts in terms of achieving the SDGs should also be considered as future topics.
2. Promotional Strategy Enhancement
• Continued refinement of our social media strategy is critical to the ongoing success of the CPD Programme.
• Continued growth of our media presence on LinkedIn and Instagram principally will be important in building support of both professionals and a younger audience.
• Continued engagement of National Institutes of Architecture – and their promotion of CAA events via their social media networks is crucial. Thus, the ongoing support of Regional Vice-Presidents in promoting events and acting as a major communication conduit will be important. It is suggested that a template ‘press-release’ style media package for events should be issued to all regional vice-presidents in tandem with newsletters and other materials to facilitate this.
3. Attendance & Audience Retention
• Continued reminders to be worked into the CPD introduction to remind viewers that minimum half-attendance is required to ensure they comply with CPD requirements.
• Separate reminder in newsletters should be added to ensure that ‘spare seats’ on ZOOM are not wasted. It is noted that the 500 person ZOOM Assembly is purchased by CAA at great expense, and it is noted that this should be supplied to those who actually attend.
4. Continued Feedback Monitoring
• This report is an updated template from one previously supplied by Peter Oborn (Immediate Past President) for use as a template to monitor feedback.
• Ongoing development of a standardised template by Hugo Chan will continue as part of feedback monitoring strategies.










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Caption



� On World Environment Day, 5 June 2025, the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) is honoured to welcome Professor Yasmeen Lari Pakistan’s first female architect and a global leader in sustainable, humanitarian design for a keynote lecture as part of the CAA Online Learning Programme.
This special event also marks the launch of the CAA’s 60th Anniversary celebrations, highlighting six decades of advancing climate-conscious architecture across the Commonwealth.
Join us to explore Professor Lari’s pioneering work in zero-carbon, community-led design and her vision for inclusive, climate-resilient architecture.
� Thursday, 5 June 2025, 11:00 AM (UTC+0)

� Online Event

� https://comarchitect-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yhZDyvefQaKKCb6seJ1gkA



Caption



� As the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) celebrates its 60th anniversary, we are thrilled to announce that Professor Yasmeen Lari will deliver a landmark lecture on World Environment Day, 5 June 2025.
Known globally for her work in barefoot social architecture, Professor Lari has revolutionized how we think about sustainability prioritizing community resilience, lowcarbon design, and social justice.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear from one of architecture’s most influential voices.
� Thursday, 5 June 2025, 11:00 AM (UTC+0)

� Online | Open to all

� https://lnkd.in/gCMwvzXd

hashtag#CAA60 hashtag#YasmeenLari hashtag#WorldEnvironmentDay hashtag#SustainableDesign hashtag#SocialArchitecture hashtag#BuiltEnvironment hashtag#ClimateLeadership

Appendix F : Sample – Certificate of Participation