London hosted over 150 pride organizers and activist from all over Canada for the annual gathering.
“We joined Fierté two years ago. They are a collection of pride organizations across Canada. So, we where really exited and thrilled to show up for our city and, pun intended, proud to host this conference,” said Chad Challander, vice president of Pride London.
This conference is meant to networking, share ideas, go to workshops related to the challenges the community have, and help to build pride across Canada.
Dan Shier from Queen City Pride – Regina, Saskatchewan- said is important to get together, “What’s the point to organize a pride festival alone, when other prides could be doing something amazing? This conferences give us the chance to collab and share ideas.”
He also explained the workshops that happen during the conference are vital, “It’s important for we as organizer and pride activist to be aware of things that affect everyone. The workshops talked about LGBT youth homelessness, how to do better programming for seniors, all the way to how to organize better pride festivals.”
President of Fierté Canada Pride Wilbur Turner says the conference helps the community to build energies.
“We get to together to share challenges and successes. That help us to build back our spirit and come back to our prides will new energies,” said Turner.
He also said this year conference is historic, “We had Premier Wayne as our keynote speakers, and one of the things she said that pride is not only good for our community, but it also helps to build a better world for all of us, and I think that’s amazing.”
The 2017 conference will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.