A. Yes, and that's why they fail. Obviously, your purpose in presenting the seminar is to convince people to buy your product. But if the seminar is a blatant promotional pitch, people become annoyed - even disgusted. On the other hand, if you present information of genuine value, attendees will think well of your firm and be more inclined to do business with you. Attendees know they will be sold but want to learn something, too.
Free seminars work well when introducing new products or technologies.
They are also ideal for products which require an in-person demonstration, such as software or computer systems. After all, the seminar is free . The mere fact that the seminar is free is not going to get people to come running to your door. Executives, managers and professionals in business are flooded with invitations to attend free seminars and don't have time to go to even a small fraction of them. Worse, many people don't think that anything obtained for free is valuable.