LGBTQ+ group OutBritain marks King Charles' coronation with major Plymouth business event
PlymouthLive feature by Business Editor William Telford
OutBritain will run conference at Duke of Cornwall Hotel in Plymouth with LGBTQ+ PR agency Dorcas Media
The UK’s leading organisation for LGBTQ+ businesses is to hold a major conference in Plymouth and celebrate the King’s coronation at the same time. The OutBritain Coronation Showcase will be an informal symposium with relaxed networking, presentations from businesses and organisations.
OutBritain was set up in mid-2021 to support small and medium sized businesses where at least one owner identifies as LGBTQ+ and already has many members around the country. The event will bring business people to the Duke of Cornwall Hotel, Millbay, on May 4, two days before King Charles is crowned at Westminster Abbey.
On the agenda in Plymouth will be discussions on how LGBTQ+ businesses can raise their profile and promote their services via the media. New CIC social enterprise SHARED Connections’ Patriciah Petrie will talk about the easy access to information newly granted asylum refugees might need to settle and integrate within Plymouth and the wider South West.
Ben Grimes and Jo Winfield, from Plymouth’s GSL Media, will be talking about the importance of online website brochures, design, videos, SEO performances, and the influences of social media in business. Plymouth playwright Chris Savery and actor Andy Blackwell will also speak about their work which featured at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The two-and-a-half hour conference will be opened by the OutBritain chief executive and co-founder Matt Dabrowski at 6pm. Mr Dabrowski said: “We are excited to be holding our first event in Plymouth to promote LGBTQ+ businesses across the South West region and UK.”
Mr Dabrowski is originally from the USA but now bases his organisation in London and Scotland, where he initially started OutScotland in 2020. He said that in the States the LGBTQ+ business community generates about US$1.3tn in revenue every year.
OutBritain was set up to offer professional support for LGBTQ+ business leaders, and Mr Dabrowski, who had been an executive director of the Connecticut LGBT Chamber of Commerce in the USA, now wants to focus on the UK. He said: “OutBritain was officially launched in the Summer of 2021, with the ‘Out’ brands bringing a greater focus on the the importance of LGBTQ+ diversity in supply chain management and procurement in the UK marketplace.”
Mr Dabrowski said he realised the UK is now recognising the benefits of LGBTQ+ certification, and “a more structured approach to diversity” in procurement and supplier management. He set about researching the potential to introduce the LGBT Chamber of Commerce model he had been part of in the USA to the British market.
He said: “The aim of OutBritain is to promote economic opportunities for LGBTQ+ people and LGBTQ+ owned businesses and entrepreneurs in the South West. Achieving business and economic parity is a vital step in any equality movement.”
OutBritain is now working with Plymouth-based Dorcas Media, an LGBTQ+ public relations and marketing agency, to stage the city’s first OutBritain event.
“As the exclusive, third party LGBTQ+ certification body in the UK, OutBritain will verify that eligible businesses are majority-owned by LGBTQ+ individuals, and grant LGBTQ+ Business Enterprise (LGBTBE) accreditation,” Mr Dabrowski said. “In turn, certified LGBTBE companies gain access to OutBritain and OutScotland corporate sponsors, members, partners and affiliates.”
Kevin Kelway, who runs Dorcas Media with his husband and fellow director Ian Fleming, was recently awarded the prestigious British Citizen Ward (BCA) for his community campaigning in the city over the past 30 years, with Dorcas Media celebrating 10 years in business this year. Anyone from the LGBTQ+ and general business communities looking to attend the conference can book here: