In mid-March, the Greater Seattle Business Association hosted its first ever LGBT economic summit. The goal of the Summit was to bring together LGBT business leaders from five states and Canada to share information, provide critical input on challenges facing the LGBT community, and to build relationships.
The Summit, which took place at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel, welcomed dozens of LGBT business leaders from Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Hawaii and British Columbia as well as twelve different LGBT chapters. The groups met to explore such topics as:
- Leveraging power of LGBT businesses
- Blue State tourism
- Maintaining Left Coast politics in a post-election era
- Working together to promote diverse supply chains
- Unlocking the power of bringing marginalized communities together
“We decided we need to come together and invite outside businesses, and actually start talking about and exploring the power that comes when all of us work together,” GSBA President Louise Chernin told King5 News. “When you see that there are thousands and thousands of LGBT business owners and allied business owners and that together, we can affect laws, we can work on issues of equality, and we can support our community and non-profits, it will empower us.”
The event started with a breakfast and continued on with a panel discussion with such prominent LGBT-owned business leaders as Roger Nyhus or Nyhus Communications, Gladys Gillis or Starline Luxury Coaches and Roz Edison or Marination. There were also speakers from the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, the State of California Diversity Task Force and King County Council.
The LGBT Economic Summit was part of The Western Business Alliance (WBA), a coalition of LGBT and allied chambers of commerce located on the west coast of the U.S. and Canada. Formed in 1992, the WBA is committed to expanding economic opportunities for the LGBT and allied community by promoting equality through business.