The event
We recently hosted a 33-member all-star-cast dinner debate on “are we doing enough” to support LGBT+ diversity in the IP profession. This is the first time a group of (mostly out) LGBT+ IP practitioners gathered in the Bay Area.
The event included an interview with world renowned Chef Dominique Crenn, a presentation of K&S’s LGBT+ initiatives by Tom Leonard and 4 breakout rooms full of our clients and contacts to discuss our experiences on diversity.
Our stellar attendees included biotech comanies Genentech, Gilead, Novabay or Adverum Biotechnologies, and big tech companies Splunk, Uber and Facebook.
James Snaith, along with Tom, was brave enough to stay up until 4 am BST and host one of the rooms, along with two other friends of the firm, Greg Zinkl (former Amgen, now Genentech) and Amanda Conly (of Brand & Branch, working with Ben Scarfield) and myself. We then all got back together to share the takeaways.
Interestingly, all groups agreed that outreach by companies and individuals is essential to promote diversity and that this should extend beyond universities and the diverse “bubble” in the Bay Area. It was also refreshing to see some champions fighting the good fight, even if they are straight! Another takeaway was that diversity efforts are closely monitored by companies when evaluating outside counsel. They want to see real efforts on diversity, beyond employee statistics and obviously unauthentic tag-ons.
Building community
Beyond the immediate thank you note already sent to everyone, we will be following-up by sharing the takeaways and hopefully starting an active IP LGBT + community that can make that difference. This is only possible if we make our own the best quote of the night “I am gay everyday!”.
We were pleased to hear very enthusiastic feedback from the attendees, including from the head of IP at Genentech that was impressed with the event and our special guest Chef Crenn. We have already been in discussion with Skydio off the back of this. They’re a startup developing drones and currently looking for representation in Europe.
A bit of background
In spring 2019, Kilburn & Strode organized (with success) back to back dinners for Senior Women in IP in NYC and Boston. Each gathered local female IP professionals to discuss whether the IP profession, their company or they themselves were doing enough to help women in IP. With the enthusiastic feedback we received at the time, it was easy to imagine this could work if applied to LGBT+ IP professionals.
Well, two factors made the whole adventure a tiny bit trickier: a little virus everywhere and the fact that women might be easier to identify than rainbow loving peers.
It was logical to address the first one: the event would go online. Yet we needed a guest that would make a difference to set us apart from other fusty virtual events. That’s how I got the idea of reaching out to Atelier Crenn, a 3 Michelin Star restaurant with its world renowned Chef Dominique Crenn. Chef Crenn is the perfect combo of entrepreneur, innovator, diversity (her wife is Mario Bello…) and French bien sûr. I was speechless when Atelier Crenn’s marketing director responded to my email early June saying they’d be interested in providing a dinner kit and wine for the event.
Addressing the second factor felt like detective work … but this is where the power of a network comes into play and, thanks to some really good friend of K&S, we managed to reach out to about more than 40 people with a spectacular invite prepared by marketing and entitled “Dinner debate with Atelier Crenn on July 8th”.
Needless to say, I felt like a groupie interviewing Chef Crenn on innovation and diversity as she is big on both.
Takeaways
We learned that, when organizing events, go where others won’t: see how you can connect a guest to the audience. In the time Chef Crenn shared with us, we discussed her love of innovation (she’s partnering with a startup company that has a different approach than Beyond Burger, by growing animal cells artificially from a few cells taken harmlessly from an animal) or diversity (she thinks more than ever that we need to stay vigilant as we are still legit to ask ourselves about LGBT+ efforts, event more so now).
#stayconnected for more news on our future events here, including a Senior Women in IP, the West Coast edition.
Best,
Freddy and James
Take me back to the #StayHub ►