WorldPride, the global LGBTQ+ 17-day festival, finished up in early March in Sydney, the first city in the southern hemisphere to host in the festival’s 20-year history.
Compass Group Australia is committed to ensuring all team members are able to bring their whole selves to work, to feel safe and feel supported as we continue to develop a dynamic and diverse workforce reflective of the communities that we serve. Our Pride pillar is focussed on increasing LGBTQ+ awareness in our broader teams and across all layers of our business and fostering an inclusive community, reducing exclusion, invisibility, homophobia and stigma in the workplace.
To celebrate our LGBTQ+ community within and around our business, many Compass Group sites and teams around Sydney and Australia participated in the WorldPride festivities, decorating their sites with the Progress flag and planning team events. In Sydney, Compass Group Australia’s Restaurant Associates team at Sydney Town Hall, was thrilled to host six prestige WorldPride functions including the kick-off of the festival the Progress Flag Raising Ceremony, the Coming Back Out Salon, Ultra Violet, the Sissy Ball and more.
“Logistically, these events were all very different and proved challenging with some events bringing 2,800 guests to the historic halls of Sydney Town Hall,” shared Venue Manager Rohit Maini. “For each event, the Front of House team executed their job seamlessly – setting up each event and organising even the smallest details from drinks of food, managing Point of Sales, serving drinks, troubleshooting any challenges and overseeing each event. They also managed the various stakeholders – vendors, contractors, even created great relationships with the NSW Police that were essential given the magnitude of the event and number of people attending”.
Throughout the month, the team embraced the challenge while still having fun, enjoying the incredible atmosphere and working hard to deliver a quality experience for so many Sydneysiders and global visitors.
“WorldPride was very important to our team both personally and professionally. At Sydney Town Hall believe in respect, collaboration and care and couldn’t think of a better event than WorldPride that would be so closely aligned with the way we show up as a team.”
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