The annual Thrive event, put on by the Greater Houston LGBTQ plus Chamber of Commerce takes months of planning.
It was supposed to be held Thursday, January 30th at the Federal Reserve's location in Houston. Planning started last summer and the event was on the Fed's space for until Monday night.
Tammi Wallace, the organization's co-founder, president, and CEO got an email from the Fed at nine that night, telling her they could no longer host. She had been on the phone with the caterers just a few hours before.
Wallace shot back that she was floored and said she couldn't believe it was real. Thousands of dollars had been invested, hundreds of hours of time and moving it less than three days out would be impossible. She says "when we didn't get the information as to the why, we assumed what it was and of course, they did verify that in their follow up email."
The reason was due to a Trump administration executive order curtailing anything DEI related. Wallace says Thrive is an all-day business event.
"We focus on helping businesses grow," Wallace says. "Instead, it was framed through the DEI lens."
The event is going forward at the Hilton Garden Inn at the Texas Medical Center. She cites two major reasons.
"We put a lot of time, money, and investment into the event so it needed to move forward," Wallace says. "More importantly, it needed to move forward because we are not going to let what is happening under the Trump administration to detour us from the work we are doing to support our members and our community."
125 people are registered to attend the all day event.
Here is the email exchange between Wallace and a Fed employee:
Hello Tammi,
I am incredibly sorry to have to do this, but we are no longer able to host the Thrive event on Thursday. I am aware this is extremely short
notice, and we deeply regret the difficulty this creates for the event.
We would like to be helpful in finding an alternative location, if possible.
Are you available tomorrow morning for a call to discuss?
Chris,
I am floored to get this email from you and with no explanation as to why you are stating you have to cancel the event. This event is impossible for us to move and with less than adequate notice. We have thousands of dollars invested in this event, not to mention the time investment it would require for our team to work, literally hours and hours to shift this event, that we do not have over the next two days. We have over 120 people registered and some of them are flying into Houston for this event.
We have been working with your team as late as 6PM today on this event. So, I am confused. Why are you stating that you have to cancel this event?
Hello Tammi,
I apologize. I know how late this communication is coming, and I understand the difficulty it creates.
As I’m sure you’re aware, a number of executive orders have been implemented by the new presidential administration that pertain to the work of federal agencies. In particular, any initiative related to DEI has been curtailed. Our operating understanding was that the Thrive event was permissible because of its business and economic development focus. Unfortunately, this evening, we learned that we could not host the event and remain in compliance with the executive order.
We deeply regret having to make this change. If we can be helpful in finding another location for the event, we’d like to do so. If we can use our network to find something on short notice, we’ll make the calls. Again, I apologize, and if a phone call tomorrow would be helpful, let me know.
Chris,
As our team talked a short while ago, this was our fear as to the reason why the event could not be hosted at the Federal Reserve Bank. We understand that this has nothing to do with you or your team.
Our biggest concern at this point, outside of finding a suitable venue and logistically shifting the event, is the additional costs that may be incurred on short notice. So, we do need your help in working your network to help us find another location that may be willing to work with us considering the situation and short timeframe.
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