Category: First Event News

Trans Club of New England’s First Event, being held January 30th to February 3rd, 2019 is an excellent transgender conference geared to every point in your journey.  This year we will hold the conference at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough MA.

This Tuesday, January 29th is the last day to reserve your spot at First Event before prices increase 25%.

This year’s program has been revamped and updated:

We have a record number of workshops this year – OVER 150!

Transgender Job Fair at TCNE! Bring your resume or contact information! These companies are committed to building a diverse workforce and are actively recruiting for a wide range of professional positions

New programming by and for transgender people of color.

The Frances J. Cardullo Banquet featuring our key note speaker, CeCe McDonald. with her talk Be The Change, See The Change: A Guide to Operating in Solidarity

Enhanced transmasculine programming.

The First Event Ball, presented by New England Mother Legendary Athena West, 11pm-2am Saturday night. This is NOT to be missed. Want to know what to expect? Check out Athena’s World Aids Ball or watch the new FX show Pose.

A transgender wellness track on Saturday, with free HIV/HCV/STI testing to anyone who would like to participate and a full day of workshops dedicated to our physical, emotional, and mental health.

The Closet is a First Event exclusive popup thrift boutique.

Sunday workshops and vendors. Our conference is just getting too big to wrap up Sunday morning, so we have extended more programming into Sunday.

We are always tweaking existing programming to better serve you and to make room for all of the great new stuff. Some key changes this year:

Youth and family track is moved to Sunday (see all that is happening here). In addition to the dedicated day on Sunday, youth and families are encouraged to attend workshops and events throughout the conference.

More mingling at the John Warrener Memorial Fashion Show. The fashion show isn’t just about our models – it’s a chance for all of us to see and be seen. We’ve switched to a social dinner reception format to allow us to eat and mingle together.

The workshop schedule is up and  you can see it all here: First Event Workshop Schedule.  For pricing and packages please click to our registration page.

You can only save 25% IF you register by Tuesday! Need to stretch your budget? We try our best to accommodate all who wish to attend First Event regardless of ability to pay click to the Ken Garber Memorial Scholarship program.

The following leading Massachusetts employers are confirmed for the first First Event Job Fair, presented in partnership with the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce. These companies are committed to building a diverse workforce and are actively recruiting for a wide range of professional positions:

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First Event is excited to welcome back to our event Karen Marks, CiCi Eberle and the First Event Jazz Cafe and Open Mic! After singer/songwriters Linda Marks and Cici Eberle do an opening set, the mic will be open to musicians from the First Event community!  One vocal mic will be available, as well as Linda’s stage piano or an amp to plug in your guitar (please bring your own DI cord). Please sign up in advance, so we know who will be playing!  To sign up before the conference, drop a note to lsmheart@aol.com, and let us know what you will be doing (singing? instrument?). We look forward to seeing and hearing you!

First Event is delighted to have with us two very talented musicians, Ro Colegrove and Kerr Griffin. They will be playing in the First Event Atrium on Saturday, February 2, 12PM to 1PM

Ro has performed at the legendary Club Passim (Cambridge, MA), Tupelo Music Hall (Londonderry, NH), and The Vanilla Bean (Pomfret, CT).  He has opened for many accomplished acts including Meg Hutchinson, Vance Gilbert, Edie Carey, and Anne Heaton. He has also shared the stage with folks like Rose Polenzani, Nicole Reynolds, Melissa Ferrick, and Lucy Wainright Roche.  He was the recipient of an Iguana Grant from Club Passim in 2008, a grant that awards approximately $45,000 in grants to independent musicians across New England every year.  He was a 2016 Kerrville New Folk Finalist. 

Kerr Griffin is an Americana crooner, DIY musician, transgender man and veteran of the Boston area cover band scene. After developing a chronic allergy to sequins and “Superfreak”, he decided to strike out on his own writing and performing the lyrically-driven acoustic music he’d always loved. Since then he’s been cultivating his own unique brand of acoustic rock that feels new but with roots that are comfortingly familiar.

All of us at First Event want to send a big FIRST EVENT THANK YOU to the following organizations for mentioning First Event to their members! We invite everyone to check them out! Many thanks to….

Just a quick correction to postcards TCNE/First Event handed out at the Transgender Day of Remembrance in Boston.  On the cards we want to update the following:

•  Free AIDs Testing:  We had stated we are offering free AIDs testing to anyone who would like to participate. The postcards should have read, “We are offering free HIV/HCV/STI  testing to anyone who would like to participate”
  
• Facebook Page for First Event:  We had listed the wrong address for our Facebook page for First Event.  The correct link is https://www.facebook.com/First.Event.Boston/

Our apologies if this caused any confusion.  If you have questions about these changes, or any questions at all, please email us info@firstevent.org or FB message us on our Facebook Page.

Thanks for asking! There’s lots new at First Event 2019 as we build on our great successes over the past several decades and continue to expand our reach to support the broad transgender and gender non-conforming community.

Here are some of the new things we are most excited about:

• New programming by and for transgender people of color.
• Enhanced transmasculine programming.
• The First Event Ball, presented by New England Mother Legendary Athena West, 11pm-2am Saturday night. This is NOT to be missed. Want to know what to expect? Check out Athena’s World Aids Ball or watch the new FX show Pose. Even better – attend Athena’s Ball December 1st in Roxbury, sponsored by TCNE/First Event. 
• A transgender wellness track on Saturday, with free HIV/HCV/STI testing and a full day of workshops dedicated to our physical, emotional, and mental health.
• Sunday workshops and vendors. Our conference is just getting too big to wrap up Sunday morning, so we have extended more programming into Sunday. 

We are always tweaking existing programming to better serve you and to make room for all of the great new stuff. Some key changes this year:

• Youth and family track is moved to Sunday. In addition to the dedicated day on Sunday, youth and families are encouraged to attend workshops and events throughout the conference.
• More mingling at the fashion show. The fashion show isn’t just about our models – it’s a chance for all of us to see and be seen. We’ve switched to a social dinner reception format to allow us to eat and mingle together.

What do you think? Let us know with a comment below.

If you joined our Facebook Group and find that it has closed please don’t panic! We’ve just moved the First Event Facebook Group over to a First Event Facebook Page.  We’re sorry for any confusion on this, but here’s a handy chart showing the differences between a Facebook Page and a Facebook Group:

Facebook Page	Facebook Group
Facebook Pages enable public figures, businesses, organizations and other entities to create an authentic and public presence on Facebook	Facebook Groups are the place for small group communication and for people to share their common interests and express their opinion. Groups allow people to come together around a common cause, issue or activity
Always Public	Categorized into 1) Open 2) Closed and 3) Private / Secret
Facebook Pages support applications.  We can customize the page as we like with addable applications. We can add more tabs and other features with the help of external applications.	Facebook Group does not support a customizable application feature.
A Facebook page allows First Event to have a more descriptive URL	A Facebook Group does not allow for a descriptive URL

So the page is better option for us at First Event. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and we invite you to join the First Event FB Page now here: https://www.facebook.com/First.Event.Boston/

Rooms are now available to First Event attendees at the discounted rate of $132/night. This rate is for single or double occupancy, including a breakfast buffet. Book directly with the hotel for the best rate and to give back to TCNE/First Event. The Best Western will donate $25 for every room booked direct!

At the time of this article writing, there are only 148 days until First Event 2019.  So while you are waiting for First Event, why not volunteer to help others?  The TCNE and First Event Teams are having another Volunteering and Visibility day on September 15th @Rosie’s Place in Boston.

The event is Saturday, September 15 at 10:30 AM – 1:30 PM, Rosie’s Place 889 Harrison Ave Boston, MA 0211 and we’ll be volunteering to cook, serve and clean up a meal for 75-150 women and children in Rosie’s dining room.  This is a great opportunity to give back.  To learn more and to sign up to join us, click over to the TCNE (Tran Club of New England) website at this link:  Volunteering and Visibility Day at Rosie’s Place.