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Blue Ridge | CONVERGE: Leadership Conference

September 25, 2026 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM (EDT)

Description

Across North Carolina, LGBTQ+ people and allies are building businesses, leading organizations, creating art, advocating for their communities, serving their neighbors, and turning local ideas into meaningful change. Blue Ridge CONVERGE brings those people together.

Event Details: 

  • Date: Friday, September 25th 
  • Time: 2:00 - 6:00 pm 
  • Location: Missed Path Sanctuary
  • Your registration includes:
    • Admission to the complete four-hour CONVERGE experience
    • Interactive conversations with regional and statewide leaders
    • Guided networking with attendees from across Western North Carolina
    • Opportunities to discover organizations, initiatives, and community resources
    • Catered food 
    • Music from a live DJ
    • The opportunity to request a place in a limited-capacity equine leadership workshop

Hosted by the Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce, CONVERGE is an intimate, retreat-style leadership gathering designed to connect Western North Carolina’s grassroots leaders and community builders with one another and with resources from across the state. Whether you already lead an organization, are building something of your own, or want to become more involved in your community, you belong in the conversation.

Not Your Typical Conference

CONVERGE is not an afternoon of sitting in rows and listening to presentation after presentation. Instead, featured leaders will host small-group conversations at individual tables. Attendees will rotate through the space, meet people working in different areas of leadership and community service, and participate in guided discussions.

This interactive format gives you an opportunity to ask questions, exchange ideas, discover resources, and build relationships that can continue long after the event ends. No distant stage. No endless slideshow. Just honest conversations with people doing meaningful work across Western North Carolina and throughout the state.

Optional Equine Leadership Experiences

Attendees will also have an opportunity to participate in one of two limited-capacity equine leadership workshops facilitated by the team at Missed Path Sanctuary. These small-group experiences will explore leadership, communication, trust, and collaboration through guided work with the sanctuary’s horses.

The workshops will take place during portions of the featured-leader conversations. Participation is optional, advance selection will be required, and availability will be extremely limited. Additional workshop descriptions and reservation instructions will be announced soon.

A Venue Built Around Connection

Located on 19 acres at the base of Mount Pisgah, Missed Path Sanctuary is a nonprofit equine rescue approximately 25 minutes from downtown Asheville. Founded by Marc DiFrancia and Mike Cooper, the sanctuary gives rescued horses a second chance while creating opportunities for people to develop trust, self-awareness, communication, and leadership.

Its core values of compassion, responsibility, and connection make Missed Path Sanctuary a natural setting for an event focused on belonging, collaboration, and what becomes possible when people come together.

Come Ready to Connect

CONVERGE is being built for more than exchanging business cards. It is an opportunity to understand the work already happening throughout Western North Carolina, meet the people behind it, and discover how your experience, ideas, and leadership can contribute. Come with your questions. Come with the idea you have been waiting to share. Come ready to meet the people who can help you take the next step. Most importantly, come ready to connect.

Space is intentionally limited. Register today and be part of the first Blue Ridge CONVERGE.

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Contact Information

Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce
Name: Abby Mederos
Phone: 704-837-4050 ext. 7102
Email: admin@clgbtcc.org
Details: Macgregor VanBeurden, m.vanbeurden@clgbtcc.org
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