PARADE WILL SHAMROCK

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parade clover

Parade for Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick’s Day is right around the corner! The Lehigh Valley will be decked out in green in the upcoming week. What better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? The Molly’s SouthSide Saint Patrick’s Day Parade will kick off Saturday, March 17 at 1 p.m. at the ArtsQuest SteelStacks campus in Bethlehem. It will feature all types of entertainment, some including the Mackay pipe band, Merida from Brave, and CAT Country 96. You can also head to Molly’s for some more adult fun and performances from the O’Grady Quinlan dancers and bagpipers!

Allentown will also be joining in on the party! The 61st Allentown St. Patrick’s Day Parade will take place on March 18th and will process from 1:30 – 4:30 pm.

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International Women’s Day!

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women's business

Women’s Accomplishments

Today is International Women’s Day! A day to celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of women throughout time all across the globe. Locally, the Lehigh Valley is a thriving area with a diverse workforce with many women leading successes within the business community. On March 1st, Lehigh Valley Business named 28 women from throughout the Greater Lehigh Valley as its 2018 Women of Influence honorees. They will be honored on May 9th at the sixth annual Women of Influence luncheon and awards ceremony at Cedar Crest College, Allentown.

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LGBT Business Summit

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LGBT

LGBT: Inclusion in the Workplace

The Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce Business Council hosted the LGBT Business Summit on Tuesday, March 6th. The event focused on inclusion and diversity in the workplace and highlighted the LGBT business community. The LGBT Business Summit kicked off with a general session featuring Amber Hikes, executive director of the Office of LGBT Affairs for the city of Philadelphia, in which she spoke about the importance of understanding and respect of LGBT people in the workplace.

The Summit also featured breakout sessions which covered a variety of LGBT topics. “Power of the LGBT Dollar” presented by Bob Witeck, president, and founder of Witeck Communications, was the first breakout session. He spoke about marketing insights and future trends in targeting the LGBT consumer market. Simultaneously, in another breakout session, Kristin Leayman, Corinne Goodwin, and Jon Conrad presented “Transitioning with your Transgender Employees” which focused on employees during their transition. The next session was given by KingSpry partner, Keely J. Collins. She spoke about the best practices for implementing diversity and inclusion policies with her presentation, “Dialogue of Diversity: How to get the conversation started”. The final breakout session was presented by Lester Bahr, CPA LLC, and Dinoli Rowlands, VP Branch Manager, PNC Bank. Their session “Become your own boss and maintain success” centralized on starting your own business and maintaining it.

The LGBT Business Summit included an open networking hour during lunch, which gave LHV business owners the opportunity to meet and talk with other professionals in the Valley. Also, following the open network was a panel discussion on “Allies at Work”, which explored the roles of allies in LGBT inclusion within the workplace. Futhermore, the event concluded with keynote speaker, Eric Alva. Eric Alva was the first American soldier injured in the Iraq War. He was hailed a hero and went on to play a key role in the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He’s a gay rights activist and spoke about embracing diversity and making the world a better place. See below for more information about this event!

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