The underlying objective of the organizers, led by Jaume Urgell, was to establish and gain support for an gay chamber of commerce for the Iberian pensinsula and business school’s gay and lesbian club at their Business School.

ieOUT was asked to present its successful launch and activities. Frank Uffen presented a brief history of ieOUT’s initiatives and activities, a summary of the conclusions of the LGBT@WORK conference and several suggestions and recommendations for gay and lesbian clubs at business schools in Barcelona.

The panels and conference provided plenty of network opportunities. Familiar faces such as IBM’s Albert Kehrer and Google’s Bernardo Hernandez were joined by representatives Stephanie Blackwood of NY-based LGBT marketing firm Double Platinum and Selisse Berry of Out&Equal and, David Pollard, ING Group, among others

An interesting aspect of the conference were several meetings with representatives of different Catalan and Barcelona governments. It became clear that each level is working towards active policies to improve equality policies, professional and business opportunities and promotional campaigns to attract gay travelers. The meetings focused on providing an international best practices and building support for Xarxagay and its partner organizations to establish a Spanish LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

For more information visit Xarxagay.org & iglcc.org