Video Text- Why Is Joining a Group so Important
I’ve been adding on a caveat to all my videos lately about the virtual meetings that are available for everyone to attend. You may be wondering why I take the time to mention this every video- Because there’s immense value in attending meetings that allow you to converse directly with other inventors.
We recently launched the Rural America branch of the Inventor’s Round Table. Our group has been around for 12 years and is a gold seal approved group from the United Inventor’s Association. We started as an in person group in the Denver Metro area before growing to other Colorado locations and then a Salt Lake City, UT location. Then the pandemic hit and we got to learn the value of virtual meetings.
One good thing I think we can all agree came from the pandemic is the optimization of the virtual meeting platforms. We use google meetups to still host the Colorado and Utah meetings virtually and occasionally in person, but have recently added a Rural America branch so we can offer a venue for people who aren’t close enough to those locations to attend.
Sometimes the best information you can get is from the inventor next to you, whether in person, or on a video call. Meetings offer the opportunity to hash it out with others who have been where you are and learn from their mistakes and successes. What worked? What crashed and burned? Inventing is a costly endeavor and there are so many mistakes that can be made, especially early on. Think how much you could benefit from learning from the mistakes of others, potentially saving you dollars?
We all learn from asking questions and the inventing process if very fluid in nature, what you learn from one step impacts how you make your next step. And sometimes it’s better to know certain things sooner rather than later when money is involved. Like why it’s a poor decision to file your patent pro se. While you legally can, it can lead to too narrow of parameters for your patent. I worked with a guy several years ago who filed an original patent but with too narrow parameters and worse yet, it didn’t even work! So when he fixed it and tried to file a new patent, his application was denied because it infringed on his original! Nothing but money lost that could potentially have been avoided if he had had the opportunity to talk to other inventors.
Dialogue that occurs during a meeting between all who attend helps you learn more and maybe even answers questions you didn’t know you had. Something I’ve learned with experience is that if one person has a question, a lot of other people need that question answered as well.
If you live in a large metropolitan area there may be other groups that have regular meetings, you don’t have to attend ours, just make a point to attend somewhere. But if you aren’t in a big city, just hate traffic and dealing with parking, or have small kids that make it hard to get out to things in the evenings, please take the time to look up when the next virtual meeting is occurring and attend. You might be surprised at what these have to offer and what potential mistakes they can help you avoid!
Find out about upcoming meetings from the Inventor Lady website: http://www.inventorlady.com
