We’re in the basement of city hall. The room is not very full. Most of the people here are white cis gay men. Everyone at the front appears to be white and not young.
Apparently, at the last meeting some people were thrown out by security, but this time only the chair can eject people.
The board is now introducing itself. The first guy does all the stuff. The woman finds sponsors. Social media. Treasurer. So most of the people deal with office stuff and one guy actually does the festival?
The chair says they are focused on the community. They got control of pride in 2012 and need to be self-financing by 2018. The chair is invoking Orlando. They have some successes. Good at advertising, bigger great, low crime rates, worked with black pride.
Subsidised walking places for NGOs. Did a hustings. Did a lgbt history month event. They are claiming they ran the Soho vigil after Orlando.
They did some survey on survey monkey. 90% of respondents were cis. Most were men. Mostly atheist. Hugely white. 74%
They got respondents through their social media presence. The sample was large.
People come to pride because they want to celebrate. A small number have come to make a statement. Many just come for the parade. Satisfaction with the parade was high.
Volunteers were helpful. Accessibility was lures good. Allies felt more represented in the parade then lesbians did.
People are happy to see corporate involvement.
The community engagement board has some vacancies. You must be a member and official representative of a community group. The board vets every group in the parade.
They’ve got a silver in accessibility and are trying to improve.
‘Pride’s got talent’ continues to grow. It was a ‘very professional’ final (of unpaid talent).
Pride in London has joined international pride organisations. There is now a UK pride organisers conference.
Pride’s got Talent will be split. They want to provide an umbrella for festival events. They will do something for history month and Idahobit.
They want to reach out to women and minority groups including trans people, bme people and young people.
307 groups in the parade.
Announcement podiums through the route.
Trafalgar square had done speakers. The red arrows flew overhead. (Doing great reachout to minority groups…)
Lgbt businesses got involved.
The us ambassador got emotional at the Orlando tribute.
Official after parties raised some funds.
Most volunteers were cis gay white men.
Income is going up. Costs are below income. Funding from the mayor will go down next year.
Most of the costs are on Trafalgar square. Then the parade, then Soho. Then the picnic.
Sponsorship grew this year, including gifts in kind. They got 7 new giant companies to give them stuff. They got money from gay businesses. They collected change etc from people. They will collect for a charity.
They want to diversify their funding. They have grown their fundraising team. Now they’re showing corporate logos.
The communications guy is now talking about good media coverage. Much of this was due to Orlando. The abfab involvement also helped.
Their research got a BBC news story.
They got coverage from a bunch of news outlets. Social media engagement has been high. A million page views. Lots of twitter followers. They have more followers than other pride campaigns. They have an app with lots of downloads.
The proposing bobby story got lots of coverage.
The campaign was #nofilter which was meant to refer to people in the closet. And as a call for people to celebrate the spirit of pride and authenticity.
This was a massive success, they say. They got some free ad agency support. This was the biggest pride campaign ever. They got on telly. They showed some trans couples. They got on MTV. They wanted more women, trans, bi and BME people in their ads. And they won some marketing adverts.
The marketing came in under budget.
They put up billboards on Westfield, put up some films. They took their hash tag nationally.
They are revealing the shocking news that not everyone is 100% out all the time.
Made an impact on the marketing industry. One of the trans people is a soldier. Which is very positive.
Their research indicated that looking at trans soldiers makes cis people more comfortable with trans people. As did the involvement of mainstream brands.
The sponsors were happy.
Now they’re taking questions:
Somebody is adding about the parade route.
They can’t afford to do the festival in a park.
Uk Black Pride wants to know how survey data will be used.
The community board uses it for their review. They want to figure out why black respondents are less satisfied with the event. The data is stated with sponsors and to improve pride, but is not sold. It is also used for their educational outreach.
Now there is a question about parks. The board member is taking about all the parks.
Now somebody is taking about security. The board member is taking about volunteer training.
What happens when the 5 year mandate has been met? The mayor is very committed to pride.
Will pride ever have paid tickets? They want to keep the event as free as possible, so they ask for suggested donations. There is no plan to have paid tickets. They are committed to appropriate crowd control.
What about emergency services in pride? The emergency services are an important part of the city. We are very grateful to emergency services and want them to be part of it.
The 2017 date will be confirmed imminently.
The lgbt cons want to know why political groups are placed at the back of the parade. The board wants every group on the parade to be respected. They try to avoid putting groups next to each other that won’t get along.
Jo is asking also about politics at the back and also about individuals who want to march outside of a group.
The board days they were concerned about health and safety in light of Orlando. If everyone who was concerned about Orlando had marched, it would have brought central London to a standstill. They need to pay for stewarding, which means supporting paid groups first.
Somebody who wants biodegradable confetti cannons on Twitter. They are expensive to clean up.
Somebody wants to know the relationship between the picnic and black pride. Could the parade be as diverse as black pride? Also why was the sound system so crap at the black stage?
There was some poor communication around staging.
The trans representative from the CAB is happy there were more trans people than previously and how will the board increase trans participation? The board member is keen to help on trans stuff and also to speak over the trans representative. They only have so much budget. They want to have a trans cafe, but need to make collective decisions. Their sponsors are really great for trans visibility and we can learn from our sponsors. There are a lot of vacancies and they want trans volunteers.