As the launch event for Mardi Gras, Fair Day is a spectacular festival that promises fun for the whole family. At our 2018 stall in Victoria Park we gave away 3,000 prepaid SIMs to help our customers stay connected with the people they love. In 2019 we handed out fans and compiled an amazing collage of photos of visitors to our stall and in 2020 we had a ball pit for visitors to dive into.

It’s fantastic to see 80 Vodafone colleagues march down Oxford Street for the parade – some wearing speech mark rainbow wings but everyone glittered in a glorious wash of red and white. In 2018, we danced to Heather Small’s Proud with Raine Ingmenn standing next to a massive glitter speech mark and in 2019 we shimmied to Everybody’s Free by Rozalla. In 2020 we marched to a medley of iconic hits and in 2021 we rocked the Sydney Cricket Ground with We Will Rock You.

The centrepiece of the Midsumma Festival, the annual Pride March champions diversity and gives everyone the opportunity of celebrating with family, friends and allies. We marched the one kilometre route to Catani Gardens in St Kilda.

It was great to celebrate pride in Queensland at the Brisbane Pride Festival. We marched down Brunswick Street through the Valley to New Farm Park.

The South Australian capital plays host to Adelaide Pride each year. We marched down Rundle Street to the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden.

We marched through the streets of Perth in support of equality at Pride WA’s Pride Parade. This was our opportunity to show that we support diversity from coast to coast.

Tasmania’s annual pride event celebrates past victories and also looks to the future. We gathered at Bathurst Street and marched to the Parliament Lawns, where the voda-pong table made a welcome appearance.

To commemorate the 2019 International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Inter-sexism and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) we held a networking event with other LGBT+ networks in the Vodafone Central building. This was a chance to reflect on our past and initiate strategies for the future. Samantha Webster from Pride in Diversity was our guest speaker.

The Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) is a rigorous, evidence-based benchmarking instrument that assesses workplaces and their LGBTI inclusion initiatives. Since 2018, we joined more than 700 business leaders and diversity champions at the Hyatt Regency in Sydney to promote LGBTI inclusion.

To mark 2017 Wear It Purple we held a panel discussion on the challenges LGBT+ youth face with Daniel Bourke from our Penrith store, Caitlyn Georgeson and representatives of the Pinnacle Foundation. Wristbands were sent to each store nationally and our front line teams wore purple shirts and accessories.

In 2017 and 2018 we sponsored the lifetime achievement award at the Australian LGBTI Awards. This award celebrates the tremendous impact an individual has made towards equality. In 2017 the recipient was Molly Meldrum and in 2018 Peter De Waal was feted with the honour. In 2019 we were a finalist in the New LGBTI Employee Network category.