Sponsored by Avon, Amstel, Mercado Livre and Santander, the fifth edition of the event will take place on April 6th, at the WTC, in SP
The fifth edition of the Conta Summit, an event aimed at LGBTQIAP+ businesses and entrepreneurs, already has a date and location set. The meeting organized by diversitech Nha, founded by Raquel Virgnia, will take place on April 6 at the WTC, between Avenida das Nações Unidas and Berrini.
According to the meeting’s founder, the venue was strategically designed to strengthen the presence of the LGBTQIAP+ community in the corporate environment.
“One of the things that the community finds very difficult to see in this business space. That’s why the event will be at the WTC, which is an extremely corporate place”, explained Raquel in an exclusive interview with PROPMARK.
Among the novelties for Conta is the launch of a digital platform created to unite the community, making finding it stop being a one-off event and become a daily event.
With an interface and dynamics of a social network, Conta Comunidade will feature the main trends, articles on LGBTQIAP+ entrepreneurship, free articles, tips on public notices, credits, investors and investments, financial organization and video playlists. In addition, users will be able to write and share posts, open discussions and search for connections.
“There, the person will be able to have a welcoming space because one of the things that entrepreneurs say the most is that they feel alone. It is a social network of LGBTQIAP+ entrepreneurs”, said the founder and CEO of Nha!.
For event sponsors, the application will serve as an alternative for mapping engaged people, in addition to promoting experiences for users. “We are going to be able to show the brands that there is an engaged crowd inside and, with that, they can create actions with these people”, explained Raquel.
The platform also marks the event’s first expansion move to Latin America, adding Argentina and Mexico to the conversation through simultaneous translation.
To mark the movement, the traditional survey, carried out by AlmapBBDO in partnership with the agency and the On The Go Institute, presented by the event will be about the LGBTQIAP+ entrepreneurship scenario in Argentina.
Community instead of business
Sponsored by brands such as Avon, Mercado Livre, Amstel and Santander, the fifth edition of the event will feature actions for participants, but more important than the giveaways, will be the business tables that are being encouraged by Raquel.
“I have been encouraging all sponsors to organize a business table, so that they can do business with the people who are there. Of course there will be gifts from the brands, because it is part of it, but the main point is that they do business”, stated the CEO of Nha.
In addition, the brands are fundamental for the viability of the presence of many of the entrepreneurs who attend the event, since the Conta Summit is completely free and also provides a scholarship for those who want to participate but still cannot afford to stop a day of work.
“In the LGBTQIAP+ entrepreneurship market, there are already people who can make a living from their own business, but there are others who are trying to do entrepreneurship to survive. We have a group of LGBTQIAP+ entrepreneurs who started to undertake to survive, and this is a group that we we need to give them a scholarship to be able to go to the event and have a day’s work to go.
In the view of the sponsors, being present at an event like Conta is a way of uniting purposes and lessons learned.
“It’s initiatives like Conta that help us on this learning trajectory, that connect us with the community to enhance our impact and boost our purpose of democratizing commerce. Bringing people closer together with the causes in which we believe is a priority and that’s only possible when we are together, listening and co-creating solutions for an increasingly inclusive society based on shared growth and development, said Thais Nicolau, director of Branding at Mercado Livre in Latin America.
“The Account is a project of action”
Born out of scarcity, Conta Summit came to fill the lack of a structured and recurring market focused on the LGBTQIAP+ community. “It always caught my attention that there is a super organization of Afro entrepreneurship and female entrepreneurship. All these minority groups, politically and economically, are already, in some way, represented by some projects. I remember looking at the market and seeing that there was a lack a project for the LGBTQIAP+ community that was structured, developing research, debates”, explained Raquel, who also stated that the intention is that Conta becomes, in addition to an environment for connection and debates, an exhibition fair in 2024.
