By CLIFF DUNN
You might not know that Keith Blackburn, President and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (GFLGLCC), is a local business and community leader by all the time he spends out of the country—until you realize that his travels directly benefit and impact local businesses and allied trades in the place he calls home.
“Nearly 28 percent of travel in South Florida has been related to the LGBT community—that’s huge,” Blackburn told the Agenda earlier this year. He wants to see more of that market spend its tourism dollars in Greater Fort Lauderdale, but Blackburn has a deeper dream for the Gayborhood and its surrounding communities.
Long-term, he and his chamber partners want to see the area become an international hub for global commerce, to make it a commercial center as well as a tourist destination.
To help accomplish that, the GFLGLCC has teamed up with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) to help facilitate the first U.S. Government-backed trade mission to Bogotá, Colombia.
The trip (which will be held from September 11 through 15) marks the first U.S. government-certified LGBT trade mission, which was made possible through a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed last year between officials of the NGLCC and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Blackburn sees this as an opportunity for local business owners to take part as credentialed delegates to the inaugural LGBT Summit of the Americas, which will be held in conjunction with the trade mission.
The summit will bring LGBT business leaders from the U.S. face to face with their counterparts in Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Uruguay. Among the speakers who have been invited to attend are the Honorable Angelino Garzón, Vice President of Colombia, and the Honorable Peter McKinley, U.S. Ambassador to Colombia.
The trade mission, says Blackburn, is an opportunity for South Floridabased LGBT-certified businesses to meet buyers and business leaders, and to personally meet officials in Bogotá (including the U.S. Embassy’s commerce attaché) and build valuable connections that are crucial to international export and import trading.
Blackburn, a native of Washington, D.C., has spent much of 2012 building the kinds of alliances he hopes to foster in Bogotá, traveling this spring to the ITB-Berlin show, the world’s largest travel trade expo. GFLGLCC, which was formed in 2011, is a 501 (c) (6) non-profit, with a mission to “promote business and economic opportunities for the LGBT and LGBTfriendly community, and to serve as “an advocate and resource for all member businesses that promote equality.” For more information on the GFLGLCC trade mission and summit, or to become a GFLGLCC member, visit gogayfortlauderdale.com