Collaboration was, without a doubt, the winning suggestion for our theme for 2025. Thank you to all our members who voted in our survey, and have helped us find a focus for our speakers/events in 2025.
Expanding on the theme
Curiously, this theme was further supported by the strategy discussion we had in September – about ‘what next’ for the WBII. At the meeting, it was highlighted that we should have more events where we ‘just connect’, learn from one another, share challenges, exchange skills, celebrate our successes and enjoy one another’s company. Another form of collaboration indeed. At this meeting there was also discussion about who we are, who are our members? What can we do for them? How can we grow our community? It seemed, from the discussions, that there was a strong preference for the term ‘solopreneurs’ which many, if not all, of us are – and for the need for ‘colleagues’. This has all been valuable contribution for our planning for 2025.
The Board has taken the input and ideas from these discussions, planned dates for 2025 – which include a few more informal gathering moments, where we hope our members, and those they may introduce us to, see the value of working together, across businesses and alongside one another. Dates will be shared in coming weeks, so you can plan at least, and speakers will be added to the calendar as we have them confirmed. Keep your eyes on The WISE for further details.
Can you help?
Among the questions we are considering as we explore speakers for 2025 are: What is collaboration? What can we learn from others that will help us as solopreneurs? What can we do to encourage collaboration? How can we ensure we remain a safe and trusted space – for ourselves as well as our clients? Perhaps you have other considerations on the theme. Please, do share these with us here; we welcome ideas from the community – from members as well as non-members.
Enhancing our community
During our Strategy session it became clear that in order to feel like a community, we need to act like a community. And so we hope in the coming period to encourage membership interaction. Among the first steps we have taken is the creation of our Community on WhatsApp. There, we encourage members to share news, updates, start conversations, ask questions. It is a space for our members to further ‘shine’. We will also be reminding members how they can enhance their own personal profiles on our website: we hope to encourage contributions to our ‘5 Tips Series’, the Q&As we share and the interviews done on YouTube. All these are moments for members to not only show that they are part of the community, but also when they can benefit from being part of this community.
In conclusion
For those who are curious – the other themes suggested for 2025 were Evolve and Visibility. Who knows, these may come up during the year – or in future themes chosen for our networking and community events. Stay tuned, sign up to our newsletter or join one of our future events – such as our Festive Lunch on 13 December – to get to know us.
Deborah Valentine, WBII Chair