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Live Q&A Events

Welcome to the Talk about Autism Live Q&A Events section!

On this page you will find a list of all of the Live Q&A events which we run in the Talk about Autism community, as well as information on how these events work and how you can participate. If you've never heard of a "Live Q&A" before, it works sort of like a chatroom does - only instead of everyone talking all at once, people type their questions and the person being interviewed types their response.

Previous events:

You can view a transcript of our previous events by visiting the pages below and clicking "Replay":

What is a Live Q&A?

If you've never heard of a "Live Q&A" before, it works sort of like a chatroom does - only instead of everyone talking all at once, people type their questions and the person being interviewed types their response. You can see what this means by taking a look at a past Live Q&A we held with Brian Lamb OBE. Simply visit the page below and click the "Replay" button and you'll see what we mean:

Brian Lamb - 27 November 2009 

You can also browse all of our previous events by browsing through the menu on the left-hand side of your screen or by clicking any of the links in the section just above this one.

How to participate

Each Live Q&A event takes place entirely online, on this website, and all you have to do is visit the right page at the right time (see the section above for Upcoming Live Q&A Events).

Prior to the event, you can visit the event page and sign up for an email reminder. This reminder will be sent to you shortly before the Live Q&A begins. We suggest that you sign up for a reminder so that you don't forget about the Q&A!

During the Live Q&A you will be able to ask questions and submit them. To do this you will need to type your name and question into the text box which appears when the event starts. Once you enter your question and send it, you won't be able to see it again until it is selected by the person being interviewed. This keeps our Live Q&A Events tidy and less confusing to all of those who are watching. You can be anonymous if you like, and registration is not required.

All of our Live Q&A Events are discussed in the Talk about Autism community, in the Discussion Forums. Prior to the Q&A, we discuss what questions we might like to ask. Talk about Autism usually chooses a few of those questions in advance to get the Live Q&A started. After the Q&A is over we continue the discussion, airing our thoughts and engaging in friendly debate about the issues. To locate the relevant discussion, see the section above - each Live Q&A event lists the related discussion just beneath it.

Anyone can read the discussion, but to participate you'll have to register to the Talk about Autism website. It's free and won't take but a minute to sign up, so if you'd like to join please visit this page and see the "Where to start" page: http://www.talkaboutautism.org.uk/where-to-start

What if I can't attend the Live Q&A but I want to ask a question?

If you can't attend the Live Q&A as it's happening, please visit the relevant discussion to post your questions in advance so that we can ask them on your behalf. You can then view a transcript of the event after it concludes. The next section explains more about that.

To find the relevant event discussion, see the section at the top of this page which lists all of our upcoming and previous Live Q&A Events - you will see the relevant discussion just beneath each event.

As you can imagine there will probably be quite a lot of questions for the interviewee to answer in the hour they will be with us, and they probably won’t be able to answer all of them - but we'll do our best to get as many of your questions answered as possible.

What if I want to view the Live Q&A event after it takes place? 

All of our Live Q&A Events are kept on this website, and you can view them at any time.

To view the Live Q&A after it takes place, you can come back to the event page and "Replay" the event. You can think of the Replay function as a transcript of the event.  

See the section at the top of this page which lists all of our current and previous Live Q&A Events to find previous events and replay them.

Need some help?

If you have any questions, please either email the Community Manager on mike@talkaboutautism.org.uk or post your question into the Feedback & Help area of the discussions.