California Gay & Lesbian Chamber - Orange County Inaugural Reception a Success

What an incredible evening last night, March 3, 2011, at the Anaheim White House.  Being our first ever launch event for the California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, our expectations were modest, and yet the LGBT business community of Orange County decided they would turn out in force and exceed even our wildest expectations.

We had over 75 attendees from all throughout the Orange County area, as well as some strong support from our friends at the Long Beach Community Business Network (www.LBCBN.com) and our friend Ed Delehanty of the San Diego Park Manor Suites Hotel.  Businesses ranged from Earthbound Media Group to the St. Regis Monarch Bay hotel.  Financial experts from Trilogy Financial Services, AFLAC, Wells Fargo Advisors and Merrill Lynch were also in attendance, as well as tourism folks from Pirate's Dinner Adventures, the hotels highlighted above and Sea Cruises.  Also very important, key individuals spearheading LGBT rights in Orange County over the years, including Archer Altstaetter of Boink Events and representation by the Orange County Lavender Bar Association (www.oclba.org) and Pride Orange County (www.PrideOC.com) rounded out what turned out to be a great group showing incredible enthusiasm for taking this launch event to the next step by forming a leadership team to develop the Orange County LGBT business community's opportunities for education and networking.

A special thanks is in order to Gabriel Serrato of Serrato and Company (www.serratoandco.com) for helping us connect with Bruno Serato and his team from the Anaheim White House (www.anaheimwhitehouse.com), a perfect venue to hold this launch event.  Bruno, Joaquin and Sylvano went above and beyond to ensure a perfect time was had by all.  We also received a warm congratulations letter from the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (www.NGLCC.org), an organization very excited to see this kind of excitement and growth of LGBT business in the Southern California area.  The folks from NGLCC are coming to both Southern and Northern California in two weeks for a road trip, educating businesses up and down the coast on the benefits of NGLCC membership and certification.  More information on this can be found at:
http://www.californiagaychamber.com/profile-business.cfm?businessid=795

NGLCC Congratulations Letter: www.californiagaychamber.com/pdf/nglcc_california_chamber_of_commerce.pdf

Stay tuned for more exciting news to come from Orange County in the coming months, as our newly forming leadership team puts forth some new events and new ideas for taking the LGBT business community of Orange County onwards and forward!

Photos from event:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49270&id=156570647698329

California Gay & Lesbian Chamber - Orange County Inaugural Reception

Please join us as we host our 1st inaugural Orange County reception at the Anaheim White House. Our goal is to both introduce the California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to Orange County, and to provide a platform from which Orange County LGBT-owned and friendly businesses can connect, network and do business with one another.

By bringing together the LGBT business community of Orange County, we believe a true Orange County LGBT Chamber of Commerce can be formed by local LGBT business leaders to serve this important market as well. In the meantime, from this inaugural event, we will be scheduling future LGBT business educational workshops and seminars in the Orange County area, as well as hosting additional networking receptions in other regions of Orange County including south Orange County [Irvine, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, etc.] and other regions including Huntington Beach. There are gay and gay-friendly business people in this region and we aim to bring them together!

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We have many years of experience in the business-to-business non-profit world, including board chairman and president roles with IGLTA [www.iglta.org], the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce [www.laglcc.org], the Long Beach Community Business Network [www.lbcbn.com] and more. Our team has also been instrumental over the past year in helping to bring together the west coast LGBT Chambers of Commerce at the Pacific LGBT Summit held in Long Beach this past summer, as well as took a lead role in putting together the Pacific LGBT Tourism Summit held in Seattle in January 2011.

We work closely with and partner with the GGBA [San Francisco], the DBA [Desert Business Association], the Long Beach CBN, the LAGLCC and the GSDBA in San Diego. We also have strong relationships and alliances with the LGBT Chambers in Seattle, Dallas, New York and Miami as well as the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce [NGLCC] in Washington, DC.

We hope to bring these relationships and experience to Orange County, working to team up with local LGBT leaders in business including the Orange County LGBT Center and other leading LGBT organizations in the region. From this team effort, the LGBT business community of Orange County will become a force on par with its size and economic strength! Join us in this new-found collaboration and celebration of the Orange County LGBT Business Community!

Thursday, March 3, 2011
6 to 8 pm
no-host bar
Cost: none - open to all gay and gay-friendly business folks alike

RSVP HERE: http://www.californiagaychamber.com/common/window-rsvp.cfm?businessID=745
Event Information Here: http://www.californiagaychamber.com/profile-business.cfm?businessid=745

Anaheim White House website:
www.anaheimwhitehouse.com

California Gay & Lesbian Chamber Launches iPhone/iPad/Android Version of Site

The California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce the release of its mobile phone and tablet versions of its website, found at www.CaliforniaGayChamber.com/mobile/ .

In 2011, more and more web traffic is mobile, being driven by the increased technologies in cell phone bandwidth (3G and 4G) as well as the increased adoption of smartphones, including the iPhone, Android-based phones and Blackberries.  Optimizing a website for the smaller screen size while also taking into consideration the concept of a touch-based navigation of a website versus the original mouse-based navigation demands taking an entirely new approach to a website's mobile design.  Bigger fonts and large, clickable screen areas merged with an aesthetic interface are the name of the game now.

The California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce's mobile website takes advantage of these concepts, automatically sensing whether the user is viewing the site from a PC, a Mac, a smartphone or a tablet and taking the user to that optimized web page.  Since the tablet experience is more similar to a smartphone than a laptop, with simply a larger screen, the same touch-based navigation was maintained while being optimized with larger images and more detailed information being made to flow across the screen.

Keeping in mind that online users, both on their phones and on their computers, demand quick access to information helps to determine the functionality of these new sites.  If a user is looking for a business directory listing, that user needs to find that information quickly and easily.  List menus work great when they can provide fast access to that information, and search pages fill in where a more detailed entry needs to be searched for.  These rules were also used when building the navigation of the California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce's mobile website, providing quick and easy access to the membership directory, highlighting featured members, as well as ensuring fast access to chamber information, membership benefits and corporate partnership opportunities.

Viewing a member's business profile has been optimized for the smartphone screen, and links to a member's Facebook and Twitter profiles take the user to the mobile-optimized versions of these sites as well.  Clicking on a member's business address automatically takes the user to the smartphone's built-in mapping program for quick access to locating the business and finding directions.  Clicking on a member's business phone number automatically brings up the dial pad of the phone, and on an iPad, brings up a menu allowing for the member to be added to the iPad's contact database (since iPads are not phones).

Lastly, all of the information update forms for members were translated into a mobile format as well, allowing chamber members the opportunity to update their membership listings quickly and easily.  Online registration was also made easier, requiring only a username, password and e-mail for a more seamless initial registration process due to the smartphone's smaller screen size.

Launch of California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce

We wanted to take this time to announce the launch of the California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce... a non-profit association designed to build business opportunities for LGBT and LGBT-friendly businesses in California and advocate on their behalf through partnership and leadership.

How We Plan to Get There: working as partners with local LGBT Chambers of Commerce as well as with businesses wishing to make stronger outreach to the California LGBT community.

As the California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce begins in 2011, our initial goals, mission & purpose are quite straightforward.

• Assist in establishing local LGBT Chambers of Commerce throughout California
• Promote membership in existing LGBT Chambers of Commerce in California
• Work with national and statewide corporate partners to bring sponsorship dollars to local LGBT Chambers of Commerce in California
• Advocate on LGBT business issues & initiatives by aligning with strategic partners
• Work with local and statewide LGBT tourism initiatives
• Assist in the development of local LGBT business education programs

Membership with the California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is unique. Our goal is to encourage membership in your local LGBT Chamber of Commerce as well as with our organization, allowing us to help your business grow at a statewide level while working closely with your local team to enhance your business success. Thus, our pricing model is two-tiered, with one price ($295) for those businesses that are not a member of their local LGBT Chamber of Commerce and a second, reduced price ($150) for those that are.

PRICING:

• You ARE a current member of a Local LGBT Chamber: $150
• You ARE NOT a member of a Local LGBT Chamber: $295

If you are not a member of a local LGBT Chamber, your annual membership dues of $295 will include 1-year of introductory membership in your local LGBT Chamber as well. If a local LGBT Chamber does not yet exist, the full rate of $295 will still apply. Funds will be used to help develop a local LGBT Chamber in your area.

So stop on by and let us know what you think.

www.CaliforniaGayChamber.com

Cheers,

Matt Skallerud

Welcome to the California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce

We're excited as we set the foundation for a mid-October launch of what we hope to be a major new organization on the California LGBT business scene... the California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Led by Matt Skallerud, with over 10 years of non-profit leadership experience with the IGLTA (www.iglta.org), the LAGLCC (www.laglcc.org) and more recently, Travel Gay Canada (www.TravelGayCanada.com), this new organization is designed to both take a leadership role in building business opportunities with LGBT and LGBT-friendly companies throughout California, as well as partner with the existing local LGBT Chambers of Commerce throughout the state, bringing membership, sponsorship and educational opportunities to those communities with a strong LGBT business community in place.

Stay tuned as we wrap up some of our final steps in preparation for a mid-October launch of the California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

www.CaliforniaGayChamber.com