1. Sign Up to Host Your Event

Start planning for your event by first registering your intent to host an event or activity! Big or small, and even if you're not quite sure what you'll host, that's okay. We'll send you our free digital toolkit to help you out and to get you started.

Sign Up

2. Gather a Team

Hosting events can be easier as a team! Rally your co-workers or friends to help put the event together. You could even get your workplace pride group involved.

But remember: if you're planning it alone, that's great too!

3. Create a Plan

Plan the scope of the event, and you want to achieve. Usually it's one or more of the following:

• To visibly stand against LGBTQIA+ discrimination and build LGBTQIA+ inclusion.
• Bring LGBTQIA+ people together to celebrate identity.
• Raise money to fight LGBTQIA+ discrimination all year long.

If you're by yourself, we always recommend starting simple and building on your event each year – especially if this is your first time hosting something. From smaller morning teas to larger events and receptions, there's no limit to what you can achieve.

Browse our activity ideas if you're looking for inspiration:

• Inspiration: At Work / At School / With Friends / By Yourself

Finally, determine what your budget will be and where the money will come from. Do you have budget available or will you rally your team to bring snacks and morning tea supplies? Will this be a free event, or will there be a ticket cost to attend?

4. Get Buy-In

Depending on where you're hosting your event, it can be useful to start conversations with the people you'd like involved. If your event is at work or an education institute, contact your leadership team to share your idea, get their support.

If you're working with LGBTQIA+ guest speakers, performers or other contractors to bring your event to life, now's the time to reach out and book them in.

5. Accessibility

A great event is one where everyone can participate. Plan how your event is accessible to everyone who wants to get involved. You can explore:

Food - Cater to diverse dietrary and cultural needs.

Venue - Physical accessibility of facilities, including gender neutral bathrooms.

Speakers and performers - Plan diversity of the people in the spotlight, and prioritise those who identify as LGBTQIA+.

Registration - If your event includes a registration process, include a question that invites attendees to share whether they have any access requirements. This will help to ensure no one is left out.

6. Promote Your Event

We've created free printable and digital posters that you can use to promote your event, or you can make one yourself.

Use social media, or internal work channels (like Yammer, Teams, your internal online portal, or Slack) to share your event details too. If you received support from your leadership team as part of the planning process, it can help to ask them to share the event, why it is important to them, and invite their networks to attend.

Ticketing platforms like Eventbrite or Humantix allow you to keep track of everyone who is attending, and contact them in the lead up to build excitement (or update any event details).

7. Ask Attendees to Donate

It can be scary to ask attendees to donate to a cause when hosting an event. The key to making this an easier process is to plan ahead, and integrate this into your event where you don't even need to ask at all.

You could:

Add the donation to the cost of the ticket, and make this clear in the event promotion. For example: "$10 from every ticket will be donated to support the great work of IDAHOBIT Australia".

Integrate it into the event costs. For example, you could donate $2 from every drink or food item sold.

Invite a donation for entry, like a gold coin or a quick donation via a QR code.

Make it part of the event. If you have an emcee or guest speaker, ask them to host an activity that includes fundraising. This could be taking up donations as part of the event, or reminding people of what the event is aiming to achieve.

8. Host Your Event

Time to host your event. Take photos and enjoy what you've created! You could even share the images online!

9. Show Appreciation

Give everyone who helped out – and yourself! – some kudos. This could be in front of an audience at the event itself, or by giving them a small gift or certificate afterwards.

Share the impact of your event with everyone who attended or helped out, by sharing photos and feedback from attendees. If you raised money, people love to hear the amount that was raised all up too – and hearing about how their donation will impact the community.

10. Plan What Comes Next

Take advantage of the buzz you've just made and plan how you can keep up the momentum. You could:

1. Host LGBTQIA+ inclusion training or guest speakers
2. Host a follow up event for Pride Month or Wear It Purple Day
3. Something else entirely. Talk with those who helped out on your event, and come up with something together.

Ready to Start Planning Your IDAHOBIT Event?

Sign Up