A lot has changed in the last 15 months… As we have all realized the value of being together in person, which we used to take so much for granted, we’ve also as a global society realized how easily we can be connected online. Even the oldest generation is now getting used to making video calls with the younger members of their family – and business people are realizing that many of the hours spent in airports could have been put to better use if only that “unmissable” meeting had been conducted by phone.

Here at Inflection Point Intelligence, things are no different. A crucial part of our hedge fund training program - the Henley Executive Hedge Fund Program which we developed in partnership with Henley Business School – has always been networking. In more normal times, our networking took place over cocktails in the major financial centres of the world. But difficult times call for innovative solutions. And so we have moved our networking online. 

What does that mean? Firstly, we now run biweekly webinars, featuring hedge fund and finance professionals discussing topics of interest. In April, for example, we’re covering both what happened at Archegos and also the rise of NFTs. At the webinars, students, alumni, teachers and other industry professionals come together to interact and learn. These webinars are an elective part of the hedge fund certification program but are also open to members of the IPI Career Network. So members of the network can get some hedge fund education benefits without having to take the full hedge fund course.

What other benefits do you get from networking? Well, one benefit is the opportunity to find a mentor. So we’re taking that benefit online too, by implementing mentoring software. This will enable members of the IPI Career Network to find industry professionals who can help them with career aspects that they’d like to work on. We’ll be offering one-to-one pairings, and also group mentoring. This supplements the hedge fund training we offer, by helping people who can’t necessarily find a mentor at their own work to find one from our community.

And of course, one of the unforeseen benefits of being forced to move online is that we’re now available on-demand, around the world – so our students in Iceland and the Cayman Islands are able to network with our students in Russia and Japan, and our IPI Career Network members in India can collaborate with their fellow members in Italy…

It’s been very exciting to extend the network and community like this, and it’s definitely been an upside of this terrible time. We won’t be stopping as things revert to “normal” either - we’ll be back to in-person events as soon as we can, but we’ll be continuing with the online offerings because – they’re just such a good idea!

At IPI’s hedge fund training school, we like to say that completing our hedge funds training and hedge fund certification courses is not the end, but just the beginning…the real value is in what you do with the education, and networking is the first step in that journey.

Join us and Learn From Experience!