Eventbrite Honors Pride Month With a Burlesque Show at Company Event

(Bloomberg) -- In an era of heightened sensitivities to inclusion issues in the workplace, Eventbrite Inc. selected an unusual way to commemorate Pride Month. The San Francisco company, which makes online ticketing and event-management software, hired a group of dancers with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations for a burlesque show at a client conference.

The performance, a vaudeville-style mix of singing, dancing and striptease, took place Monday on the first night of its FlyCon show for employees and business partners, said people familiar with the event. The welcome show was listed on the official agenda with a vague description of an “immersive live experience” and “genre-bending entertainment.”

Vivian Chaves, the director of community at Eventbrite, said the performance was designed to affirm marginalized groups. “Celebrating Pride is core to our employee and creator communities, and as you may expect from Eventbrite, we will be marking this month with a diverse set of live experiences,” she said in an emailed statement. “We are very thoughtful about striking a balance between free expression and ensuring the live experiences we’re facilitating are respectful of the broader community.”

Eventbrite said it’s also hosting a speaker series focused on diversity and inclusion and that it hired a choreographer for drag queens to put on a dance class for employees.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which sparked the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights movement. Technology companies celebrated the occasion this week with public displays of appreciation for the LGBT community. Apple Inc., whose chief executive is openly gay, spent a portion of its annual conference Monday showing off a new Apple Watch band with the colors of the rainbow flag. Uber Technologies Inc.’s ride-hailing app has been outlining routes with rainbow colors. And Google put up a Pride-themed doodle logo and a celebratory blog post Tuesday.

Not everyone in the LGBT community is pleased with the corporate celebrations of Pride. Activists chastened Google’s YouTube for hosting videos from a conservative comedian and commentator that some viewers found to be homophobic. They said the use of a rainbow logo on YouTube is hypocritical.

At Eventbrite’s FlyCon, Julia Hartz, the CEO, was among those in the audience at the burlesque show held at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox, a Denver venue that Eventbrite rented for the evening, said a person familiar with the event. The conference brings together independent venue owners, festival organizers and others in the industry with Eventbrite executives and staff. The goal is to give attendees tips on how best to promote their events and manage their operations using Eventbrite services.

The burlesque act was intended to wow members of the entertainment industry who are used to seeing spectacles, said the person familiar with the planning. It had the intended effect on at least one person in attendance, who wrote on Twitter: “When the work conference kicks off with a burlesque show, you know you’re in the right industry. #flycon2019.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Nico Grant in San Francisco at ngrant20@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr

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