Orlando LGBT chamber grows, wins U.S. award
Lisa Brown is in the business of marketing and promotion, so you might think she doesn’t need help with networking.
But she said joining MBA Orlando, a chamber of commerce for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender business people, elevated her networking dramatically — especially with some larger corporations that have joined in recent years.
“It’s been a great way to get into the bigger corporations, like Marriott or Darden. Years ago, there weren’t many allied members; it was only the LGBT business owners. But MBA has reached out and developed that,” said Brown, who runs Bowled Over Promotions with her wife, Dawn Kallio.
Bowled Over is one of 23 firms in the area that are certified as LGBTowned businesses. MBA is pushing Orlando and Orange County to recognize LGBT-owned businesses
“It’s been good for our business, because it’s about building relationships ...” Lisa Brown, owner, Bowled Over Promotions
when awarding contract work. That’s one of the factors that have earned the Orlando business group top honors this year from the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, as Chamber of the Year for 2017.
“I think they’ve been doing incredible work,” said Justin Nelson, co-founder and president of the NGLCC. “They’ve been building their membership; they understand the need for certification of LGBT companies and they responded to the Pulse tragedy last year.”
The group isn’t just for LGBT business owners, said executive director Kellie Parkin.
MBA stands for Metropolitan Business Association, which was an incognito term taken up when the group formed in 1992, a different era when it came to equal rights and recognition for gay people. Ten years after its founding, the Orlando group became a founding member of the national chamber. MBA Orlando has about 270 member businesses, with about 750 people as registered representatives of those companies.
“We are an LGBTfriendly business organization. Anyone can be a member. We hope they’ll (nonLGBT members) be an LGBT ally; most are allies,” Parkin said. “We’re growing in members, but moreso I think we’re growing in terms of sustainability, and in substance and visibility.”
The NGLCC started certification for LGBT-owned businesses in 2004, and MBA Orlando members started using the national certification program at that time. Certification may require some proof of LGBT status, which can include a marriage certificate to a same-sex spouse, proof of living arrangements with a same-sex partner or letters of reference.
Parkin said the Orlando chamber is pushing to have the city and Orange County recognize the certification of LGBT business owners in its supplier diversity programs — along with businesses owned by minorities, women and veterans. The county and city mayors couldn’t be reached for comment.
Some large federal agencies and pro sports organizations, including the National Basketball Association, already recognize LGBT certification when awarding contracts to suppliers.
Parkin said the MBA board fired off an email and a Facebook post seeking donated gift cards on the morning after the shooting that killed 49 people and injured at least 68 at the gay nightclub.
In a few hours, the chamber reports, it collected more than $12,000 in gift cards, which were carried in a duffel bag to Orlando Regional Medical Center for distribution to victims and their families.
Members of MBA continued their involvement in the shooting response. A former board president of MBA, David Baker-Hargrove, helped coordinate mentalhealth counseling for victims and others in the community who were traumatized by the attack, through Two Spirit Health services, a not-for-profit he founded. Others with MBA helped find housing for family members who were visiting after the tragedy.
Brown runs MBA’s networking groups, or RED Groups, which stands for Referral Exchange Development. Two groups of about 15 to 20 members exchange business referrals and get to know each other. Each group restricts business members so that only one business in a certain niche — for example, only one residential Realtor — is a member, to eliminate overlap and competition.
“It’s been good for our business, because it’s about building relationships, and about learning from others what a good referral is for them,” she said.
Nelson said he and others from the national chamber will travel to Orlando next month to announce the award, which members will receive in August at NGLCC’s annual conference in Las Vegas.