Some of the best conversations in our live webinars don't come from a pre-approved agenda or a carefully prepared set of slides. They happen when someone unmutes, perhaps even turns on their camera and asks the question they have been thinking about for weeks. That is the idea behind our Open Question & Answer sessions...you bring whatever is on your mind and we work through it together, live.
It is a format that has become incredibly popular with our community, and the questions we get are a big part of the reason why. They range from the very practical to the more complicated questions around building a business, navigating the Innovator Founder route and working out what comes next.
Our next session takes place next Wednesday 7 October at 10am, and if you have a question sitting at the back of your mind, this is your chance to bring it along.
Why the open Q&A works
The Innovator Founder route asks a lot of people. You are building a business, learning a new system and making important decisions, often while managing life in a new country.
There is plenty of written guidance available, but sometimes reading an answer is not quite enough. You want to be able to ask a follow-up question, explain the situation in a little more detail or hear how something works in practice. That is where the Open Q&A comes in.
We have seen founders ask about everything from the early stages of an application through to building their team, funding their business, preparing for ILR and understanding what happens once they are established in the UK. The questions are often very specific to the person asking them, but there is usually something in the answer that someone else in the room has been wondering about too.
That is what makes these sessions so useful. You are not just listening to someone talk through a presentation. You are hearing real questions from other founders and getting the opportunity to learn from the discussion as it develops.
Bring the question you've been sitting on
Perhaps you have been wondering about something in your business plan but are not sure whether it is worth asking, or you have reached a particular stage of the visa process and want to understand what happens next.
Maybe you are thinking about funding, your founding team, hiring, scaling, ILR or simply how other founders are approaching a particular challenge. Or perhaps you have a question that feels too small or too specific for a dedicated webinar. Bring it along!
The beauty of an open session is that there is no need to wait for the right topic to appear on the calendar. If it is something you are thinking about, there is a good chance another founder is thinking about it too.
Not every question needs an Open Q&A
While the open sessions give you the freedom to ask whatever is on your mind, we also know that some subjects deserve more time and a much deeper conversation. That is why we also run dedicated live webinars throughout the year, focusing on particular areas where we know founders have questions.
Finance is a good example, so on Wednesday 21 October at 10am, we will be holding Answering All Your Financial Questions, giving us the opportunity to spend a full session digging into the financial questions that come up regularly for founders.
From understanding funding and financial evidence to thinking about the financial side of building and growing a business in the UK, dedicated sessions like this give us more time to explore a subject properly and get into the detail.
You can find out more about that session here:
Innovator International
And there will be more to come.
We are continuing to look at the subjects that matter most to our community and build dedicated webinars around them, so keep an eye on our Upcoming Events page to see what we are covering next.
Innovator International
Next week's Q&A session is free and open to all registered members and registration is required via Zoom. These sessions are not recorded, so there will not be a recap to come back to afterwards. If you have something you want to ask, make sure you register and join us live.
And remember, you do not need to arrive with a perfectly formed question. Sometimes the most useful conversations start with something as simple as, "I'm not quite sure how this works..."
Innovator International
