By emily@emilystarbuck.com (Emily Starbuck Gerson)

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.

LGBTQ+ people often face higher rates of isolation and discrimination, meaning that this community can especially benefit from gatherings that foster support and connection.

This is especially true for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and professionals, as finding opportunities to learn from people who share similar life experiences can be challenging.

In this post, we’ve curated a list of annual events and conferences for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and professionals. Whether you’re seeking mentorship, training from experts, or just some old-fashioned socializing with like-minded business owners, these events are made for you. While most have already taken place for 2022, keep your eyes peeled for the 2023 dates.

Events and Conferences for LGBTQ+ Professionals

1. Lesbians Who Tech & Allies Summit

Despite the name, the annual Lesbians Who Tech & Allies Summit is inclusive of all techies, centering LGBTQ women, women of color, and non-binary leaders. The ninth summit was in October in San Francisco, with in-person and virtual options.

Their summits feature networking and mentorship opportunities, career fairs, leaders and celebrity speeches, parties, and educational sessions. While much of the content is geared toward the tech world, many sessions focus on broader topics like leadership, diversity, politics, and advocacy, which may appeal to any LGBTQ entrepreneur.

2. Out & Equal Summit

The Out & Equal Summit has been held for over 20 years, creating a place for LGBTQ+ professionals and allies to learn how to create more inclusive workspaces. The latest was in October 2022 in Las Vegas, with a digital livestream option.

This conference is intended for any professional interested in LGBTQ+ workplace equality — especially executives, HR and DEI experts, Employee Resource Group leaders and members, and more. In addition to hosting learning sessions and keynote speeches, this event provides attendees with networking opportunities, workshops, and social events.

3. NLGCC International Business & Leadership Conference

The NLGCC, or the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, is the only organization that offers a certification for LGBTQ-owned businesses (Certified LGBT Business Enterprise®).

It also provides business owners with networking and business opportunities year-round — and at their annual conference. Despite being U.S.-based, their International Business & Leadership Conference claims to be “the largest LGBT business event on the planet.”

In addition to networking and keynote speeches, attendees get access to leadership programming, speeches, B2B bootcamps, expos, matchmaker meetings between suppliers and companies, and more. The 2022 event was in Las Vegas in August.

4. Out Leadership Summit

This organization aims to drive equality and advocate for inclusion in business. They have several talent development programs for emerging leaders, women, and board-level executives.

Out Leadership also hosts yearly summits worldwide to unite leaders and business owners. The 2023 …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron