LGBTQ Business & Professional Networking Event @ PUBLIC (N. Adams, MA)

Berkshire LGBTQ+ Business, Professional & Community Leaders gather monthly on 3rd Wednesdays, 5:30-7:30 p.m. to get to know one another, learn from one another & allied business, chamber of commerce, & local government leaders about resources to help their businesses thrive. and this month we are sharing some of our business priorities & new initiatives for the new year.

We are deeply grateful to this month's hosting queer-owned business, PUBLIC Eat+Drink, owned by Jared Decoteau, who also owns District Kitchen & Bar in Pittsfield, and who is part of a wave of exemplary queer entrepreneurs who have founded some of the best & most creative restaurant/bars in the region. Jared's staff's hospitality is legendary, their food incredible, & their cocktails are as creative as the ambience.

Berkshire LGBTQ+ business owners and professionals are coming together at a different queer-owned business each month to get to know one another and increase the community’s capacity to respond to political, economic, and demographic challenges that are especially impacting our rural LGBTQ+ community and its businesses. It also provides another opportunity to celebrate new LGBTQ+ businesses and leaders setting up shop in the Berkshires because of the region’s long-term and growing public support of diversity and equity.

The monthly networking event is designed to foster connection, collaboration, and creative dialogue among local LGBTQ+ business owners, professionals, community leaders, and allies. In partnership with the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce, Q-MoB, and media sponsor Berkshire Magazine, the networking events offer a platform to reflect on the rich history, the vibrant present, and the promising future of LGBTQ+ business in the Berkshires. Each gathering will feature insights from LGBTQ+ business owners, entrepreneurs, andallied leaders in the region.

“In this time of tumultuous change, it’s vital that our local LGBTQ+ business owners and professionals come together to support one another and work in solidarity with our many allied businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations," said Q-MoB Executive Director Bart Church.

“The Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce is proud of the Berkshire’s leaders and ordinary citizens who are standing up for the business innovation and growth that a community’s long-term commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion bring,” said Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Alexandra Eberhardt. “The Berkshires and the whole state of Massachusetts are becoming magnets for new businesses and innovation because diversity and equity are really good for business—and we are seeing LGBTQ business leaders from more repressive parts of the country moving to places like the Berkshires, where they are not just tolerated, but welcomed with open arms. Courage is contagious!”

UPCOMING MONTHLY BUSINESS, PROFESSIONAL, & COMMUNITY LEADERS NETWORKNG EVENTS:

• 1/21/26 Public Eat+Drink in North Adams, MA
  
  Please register for each individual networking event here on Eventbrite so our hosts will know how many people to expect. And if your Berkshire-based queer-owned business would like to host a monthly networking event, please email Angie Montalvo-Greene at or email Bart Church

THANK YOUS: The Co-sponsoring organizations are grateful to the following organizations for their strong support of the Berkshire LGBTQ Business, Professional & Community Leaders Networking Series:

• Berkshire United Way for a Venture Grant to Q-MoB to foster intergenerational collaboration in the LGBTQ community
• Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation's South Berkshire Fund, that supports Q-MoB's efforts to offer activities in the South Berkshires & Hill Towns
• One Berkshire for all their support of new and established LGBTQ businesses in the Berkshires
• Berkshire Magazine's LGBTQ Guide, which remains the most comprehensive listing of LGBTQ businesses and organizations in the Berkshires

CARPOOLING/RIDE-SHARE: If you need a ride or are open to carpooling, please indicate that when you are registering, & our ride coordinator will try to match you with people nearby who are interested in carpooling or offering rides.

CONFIDENTIALITY OF YOUR DATA: We use the data you provide to make statistical reports to Berkshire United Way & Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, 2 non-profit foundations that funded part of the costs of getting these monthly networking events rolling. Your contact information will be kept strictly confidential and only shared with the 3 co-sponsoring organizations (Mass LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, Berkshire Magazine Pride Guide, & Q-MoB), and the host LGBTQ-owned business, and only to be used to promote participation in the on-going monthly networking events, and to invite participants to subscribe to the newsletter/email list of each of the sponsoring organizations (which is optional on the part of all participants).

REACHING US DAY OF THE EVENT: If you have trouble finding us, will be late, or need to cancel the day of the event, please call/text Bart at 413-344-8162