SOCIAL NETWORKING

GAY PROFESSIONAL NETWORK Thursday 20th May at 7pm at the Shadow Lounge in Soho, London

GBA members and their colleagues have been invited to join the The Gay Professional Network meeting next Thursday.

GBA Board member Jean-Francois Dor says:

- we shall start at 7 pm for the registration & networking and at 8 pm Councillor Jeremy Hooke, cert PFS, Former Lord Mayor of Norwich, will say a few words on the importance of practicing safe business practice. Jeremy was the youngest Lord Mayor of his time and younger than I :-) .Jeremy will take questions after his brief presentation.

To celebrate the launch, there will be surprises and a free Raffle, some people will get some really enticing gift and memberships. This will be announced after the short speech.

There will be ample time to network after this until the Club opens at 10 pm and yes you are welcome to stay on.

As usual in my parties, there will be hosts making sure that even if you arrive on your own, this will not be long before you will be presented to someone that will be meaningful to your business or career.

Bring as many friends as you would like as long as you register them and do not forget your business cards and leaflets.
Let me also know what you would like to find out or need help with: suppliers, financial advise, insurance, clients or anything else that can help you further your businesses or career.

For your free registration please click: http://gpn.eventbrite.com for the launch on the 20th and http://gaypronet.ning.com to register to the site.

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A limited number of specially priced places for GBA Members (first come, first served) are available for this conference for 'mainstream' and gay businesses/organisations and professionals.

The Conference is designed to help you increase your sales to gay and bisexual customers - not about academic theory but about proven business techniques and sales & marketing campaigns that work! It is about better targeting consumers with a high level of disposable income, increasing sales and boasting profits into 2011 and beyond.

A day at the GAY BUSINESS CONFERENCE should:

* help you grow your firm/business/organisation through hearing from successful business leaders sharing their experience and advice on how to targeting customers who identify as gay and bisexual, and

* meet and network with other delegates, sharing sales, marketing, customer service, product and service development, operations advice, ideas, techniques etc.

Speakers include:

* Juan P. Julia, President of Axel Hotels and "Gay Businessman of the Year 2008" - flying in from Barcelona to talk about how he is developing the first International gay hotel group with a "heterofriendly" approach

* Ian Johnson, Founder of Out Now Consulting - explaining the 'gay market' and giving an exclusive early release of findings from the '2010 Out Now Global LGBT Market Study'

* Neil Spring, Co-Founder of Village Drinks - sharing how he has grown his professional networking organisation from a few hundred members to over 15,000 gay and bisexual professions in the UK and abroad

* Matthew Todd, Editor, Attitude Magazine - talking about the challenges he and his team face in making Attitude a success both as a magazine and as a business and share his insights and tips for increasing sales to gay and bisexual customers

* Kim Watson, Media Director, Millivres Prowler Group - providing insights into how Millivres Prowler understand and serve the broad, diverse gay market and giving her thoughts on the future of the 'gay market' and possible strategies to help you build your sales

* Andrew Roberts, Chief Executive, AMRO Worldwide - talking about the company he founded in true entrepreneurial style and giving insights into various marketing campaigns for AMRO Holidays, including the infamous "So Gay" poster campaign

* Matthew D'Arcy, Director, OMTAC and Director, GMen Brighton - presenting a whistle-stop 'mini-Masterclass' on the use of the Internet & Social Media (Search Engine Optimisation, Web 2.0, Facebook, Twitter etc) for engaging gay and bisexual customers and clients

For full details please see the website: http://www.gaybusinessconference.com

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The GBA Board is sorry to announce the resignation of Chairman Gino Meriano. Gino played an important role in developing the GBA during his time as Chair 2007-2010, with many successful events and especially developing the new GBA brand, design, website and rolling events with his partner Mike.

The GBA Board are now in the process of planning the next phase of the GBAs development, including looking at how our Trade Association odel can work with recent developments in social networking and online forums.

We are particularly interested in hearing from people who would like to join the board and who can offer support in creating events and seminars, help with newsletters and websites, be involved in membership development and marketing, and other roles that can improve GBA membership benefits.

If you have suggestions please contact hello@gba.org.uk