About Us

The Chamber, Capital Area's LGBT Chamber of Commerce

The Chamber, the Capital Area's LGBT Chamber of Commerce is the nonprofit, nonpartisan, largely-volunteer network of over 400 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) and Ally members in addition to the nearly 5,000 LGBT supporters who own or are employed by businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies in Washington, DC, Virginia, and Maryland. The Chamber is an affiliate of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and was awarded Chamber of the Year 2012. The Chamber ranked18th on the Washington Business Journal’s Book of Lists. The Chamber’s primary mission is to advocate, promote and facilitate the success of LGBT businesses, professionals and their allies in the Metro DC region.

The Chamber is the place to...

  • Meet exciting people and expand your network
  • Do business within the community
  • Find the guidance you need to pursue a new career
  • Talk to future clients, customers, or employers
  • Network with people who share your passion for growth
  • Gain useful tips, ideas, strategies, and insights
  • Interact with LGBT community leaders
  • Build your leadership skills and mentor others

The Chamber The Capital Area's LGBT Chamber of Commerce is on the grow!  Good professional-to-professional relations give you many reliable contacts and can open doors you may have never considered. In today’s world you can’t leave your business relationships to chance. Please consider joining The Chambetr, Metro DC’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce today – we’re out for your business!

Mission

The Capital Area's LGBT Chamber of Commerce, mission is to advocate, promote and facilitate the success of LGBT businesses and their allies in the Metro DC region.

Vision

The diverse LGBT community is well-recognized as a key driver in a thriving Metro DC economy. This is happening because of The Chamber’s work to build synergies between LGBT business owners, LGBT professionals and organizations intent on doing business with the LGBT suppliers and professionals. Business equality for all is resulting in economic prosperity for all in the DC Metro region.

Values

  • Engaged – it takes a connected group of people to fulfill the mission.
  • Respectful – all people of all backgrounds are appreciated and served.
  • Fun – advancing business is good and ought to be fun to do.
  • Civic Minded – we care about our communities and their well-being is tied to our success.

Community Leadership

The Chamber builds bridges across greater Washington's LGBT and allies’ communities by bringing together men and women professionals of all ages, races and backgrounds to form a dynamic network that helps you succeed. Members work in a variety of fields, including technology, financial or strategic planning, marketing, public relations, advertising, arts, media, journalism, hospitality, architecture, consulting, real estate, law, banking, insurance, publishing, travel, specialty services, education, health care, government, associations, international affairs, and management.

Events

The Capital Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce calendar of events consists of three major event types. We have 4 Signature events and 97 scheduled Core events. Our third types of events are known as the Special events and happen sporadically throughout the year and are for unique offerings to our members and sponsors.

The Signature events speak to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community at large as well as the political and business communities. These events help to strengthen, grow and build awareness of the viability of the LGBT business community of the Washington DC metropolitan area. Our signature events are our highest-profile events and consist of the Annual Awards Dinner, Capital Pride weekend, The Mega Networking and Social event and g.life. All of the Signature events have multiple levels of financial partnerships available.

The Chamber created the Annual Awards Dinner to showcase the achievement and impact of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender business in our region. Each year, the Chamber recognizes outstanding individuals and organizations that have contributed to the economic, social and cultural fabric of the LGBT Community in the Metro DC area.

The Chamber hosts the Mega Networking event where we partner with and offer dozens of LGBT professional, networking and social groups the opportunity to connect with thousands of other LGBT and Allied professionals to inform, recruit and strengthen their own organizations.

g.life builds on the Mega Networking event with a much larger Community Partners project and ads a seminars and workshop series while encouraging vendors from all over the region to interact and communicate with the LGBT market. All components of g.life are free for attendees. 

In addition to the 4 signature events we have 93 Core events and programs prescheduled for 2013. The Core events can be broken into networking mixer style events and educational events.

There are 11 Networking Thursdays (NT), a mixer event that happens on the 2nd Thursday of every month for the past 22 years at different member host venues. The counterpart to the NT is the Women’s Wednesday that is also a mixer style event and will occur 12 times on the 3rd Wednesday of each month also at different member host venues. New in 2013 is our CAGLCC VA event series. There will be six mixer style events that occur in Virginia and are for the purpose of serving our members that work and or live in VA. All six of the CAGLCC VA events will be on Tuesdays late in their varying perspective months and will be hosted by different members in the state of Virginia.

In addition to the networking mixer type events listed above, we offer educational events. One of our greatest programs is the MasterMind Group that has been meeting every Thursday morning at 7:30 for almost a decade. This group acts as a think tank or an independent shared board of directors for each of the attendee’s businesses. In addition to MasterMind we have 8 Business Matters Lunches geared specifically to address the needs of the small to medium sized business owner. Another program now in its second year is the SmartNetworking event where we cross an educational component and a networking mixer with some networking skills to offer one of the most powerful programs we ever done. Our final Core program is our two Association and Nonprofit breakfasts designed to provide educational and networking resources to our members that work in the not for profit sector.
 

The Chamber Is Inclusive

Joining The Chamber is easy and connects you with the community. You can also opt-into our free e-list for regular E-Newsletter and e-blast updates. Collaboration with and promotion of locally based businessesIn addition to individual and partner memberships, CAGLCC welcomes business membership. Business members include Discovery Communications, Diversity Services, Inc., Eagle Bank, KPMG, LogoMotion, Marmillion and Company, Metro Weekly, The Washington Blade, the OtherPages, OmniStudio and Witeck-Combs Communications. Nonprofit organizations like Food & Friends, One In Ten, and Whitman Walker Clinic also belong. The Graphic Issue provides graphic design expertise. Image X Photography provides our event photography.