I personally live in the Netherlands but wouldn’t it be fabulous to organise a small Keystone type event in the UK? I see more and more British girls joining CDH. I don’t know if the Beaumont Society do this? But a franchised CDH event would be really good. I would definitely fly over for an event like this. Brighton conference centre would be a fantastic venue.
I have no idea what the attendance stateside is or if there would be enough attendees in the UK to make it float but the idea is great.
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January 30, 2024 3:34 am
22 Replies
February 1, 2024 2:54 pm
@hvdt Hi Helene
I would LOVE for there to be a 'Keystone-like' event in the UK, and have previously enquired about whether such a thing already exists (spoiler alert: it doesn't):
Crossdressing events in the UK – General Chat “Life as it Goes On” – Crossdresser Heaven Forums
My personal take is that it would be easiest to organise something like this on the back of an existing event, such as Sparkle (Manchester) ... or to build it around one of the 'Leeds First Friday' events (the first Friday of every month). These would provide an existing (and very vibrant) social aspect to proceedings.
According to their website, Sparkle attracted 22,000 visitors in 2023.
Leeds and Manchester both have the advantage of being relatively central in the UK (Leeds is better in this respect) with abundant accommodation opportunities. All that would be needed would be to book a venue in which various talks / makeovers / workshops could be provided over a two or three day period.
This would reduce the risk of someone investing a significant amount of money in such an event only to find that it never got off the ground.
If that model proved to be successful, there would be the possibility of growing it into a larger event over time.
An initial, relatively small, trial would at least show whether the concept was viable.
Thoughts?
Ellie x
February 3, 2024 12:55 pm
@ellyd22 I suppose it would be possible to arrange for a group to arrange to meet for Leeds First Friday in suitably agreeable future date. If this date was of sensible date going forward that group could all book in the same hotel, safety in numbers for the nervous. Also any makeover services would be able to work for multiple girls or the confident could help those who need help. Just a thought and any comments welcome.
February 3, 2024 1:47 pm
@melaniejames LFF is already a highly, and wonderfully, organised thing which is gaining an international reputation. They have nine makeover services in attendance, all of which are usually fully booked; they organise evening events such as Cocktails at 9; they have an infrastructure to cope with nervous newbies; they have a comprehensive list of recommended CD/TG friendly hotels; they have a list of regularly-used venues which are all crammed on the first Friday of every month.
It's big, it's successful, and it's growing.
So ... the whole accommodation and social aspect thing is already in place, and there isn't anything at all stopping a group of us coordinating a CDH social on one of the those 'First Fridays' and meeting up for a memorable evening. That would be a very easy thing to achieve.
To turn it into a more of an embryonic 'Keystone' you'd want to tap into that existing infrastructure (without treading on anyone's toes), and build something that STARTED on the Friday and then extended over the Saturday - with some talks and workshops on the Saturday afternoon, a social event on the Saturday evening (plus the opportunity for further bar-based socialising) and then something for late on Sunday morning before everyone departed.
It would all be do-able with a little bit of thought and effort ...
Ellie x
February 3, 2024 2:11 pm
@ellyd22 That sounds very practical Ellie and socials could be arranged with minimal expense and kept informal at first. I know some quite influential professional groups that started that way.
Janet x
February 4, 2024 2:01 pm
@janetw would seem to be a good way for those interested to meet and form a sisterhood.
April 16, 2024 5:04 pm
I knew about Leeds. I guess I never connected the dots. LFF...12x/year. I MUST attend this!
/EA
April 16, 2024 5:08 pm
All that would be needed would be to book a venue in which various talks / makeovers / workshops could be provided over a two or three day period.
Be forewarned. This is a LOT of work. But totally worth it.
/EA
February 7, 2024 3:20 am
@hvdt I don't really know the format of Keystone but there is Sparkle - https://www.sparkle.org.uk/ - in the UK
January 30, 2024 8:06 am
I love the idea too 🙂 I don't see anything like it on the Beaumont Society website though, so there's probably a reason we don't have such an event over here.
Keystone is for the whole trans community, and one of this year's event descriptions mentions this being about 0.5% of the population as a whole. Assuming the same percentage in the UK, where we only have about 1/5th of the population size of the US, that might be just 335,000 people in total. Then, only a certain proportion of the community are going to be out and/or able to travel, afford to stay in hotels etc.
I'd love to be proved wrong, but the chances are that the numbers are just not there that would allow such an event to float in the UK.
January 30, 2024 8:19 am
@finallyfiona We dont have anything of that proportional percentage here in the Netherlands either. I think we have a lot more freedom so we maybe don’t feel the need to congregate. I just think it would be good for visibility and a lot of fun. I think symposia are helpful in sharing and educating. Maybe time to dip the toe of curiosity in the Beaumont Society’s pond.
April 16, 2024 5:33 pm
These types of events start small. A few dozen girls gathering for a loosely formatted program. One that encourages socializing over a structured agenda. Over time they might grow into something with a much larger attendance, various educational sessions, etc. Or they might stay small.
The event I attend every year, Desert Crossroads in Palm Springs CA, started very small and never got very big. It's relatively easy to plan because its driving theme is socializing. The only important head counts are the dinners. It could go like that indefinitely. Most of the girls that attend live within 2 hours driving distance.
I don't see why you couldn't do something similar in the UK. Little grassroots events could pop up all over!
/EA
January 30, 2024 8:27 am
I'd also note that Keystone isn't some ComiCon sized event. The total attendance is somewhere between 700-800 - a very modest sized event. So you don't need a US-sized population to get that level.
Everything of this nature needs a few people to start the ball rolling! 😉
January 30, 2024 2:51 pm
The 2023 Keystone Conference had about 750 attendees. For your reference, the First Event Conference in Boston has about 500-550 attendees.
January 31, 2024 4:58 am
@lexicd44 It seems do-able if someone with the experience in organising events dares.
January 30, 2024 3:19 pm
I know little about the Beaumont Society but a quick look at the website seems to imply that it is almost exclusively for transgender or transitioning ladies and gentlemen. How much time the society has for 'simple' cross-dressers I don't know, but I suspect it's not much. I expect someone will enlighten me if I have got this completely wrong.
January 31, 2024 4:48 am
@rebeccabaxter When I lived in the UK some 35 years ago the Beaumont was pretty much exclusively CDs. Maybe their demographic has changed. I know the do hold open evenings.
January 31, 2024 5:03 am
Hi Helene,
I would certainly support the idea although I suspect if we UK girls want it to happen we would have to organise it ourselves. I know there are events and there have been some useful posts outlinining these.
January 31, 2024 11:19 am
Same here, I like the idea, but living in The Netherlands wouldn't be conducive to a well organised convention in the UK. I think I could organise a Dutch contingent for a visit.
February 5, 2024 12:18 am
Thank you Helene for starting this conversation and thank you for everyone’s thoughts on the subject, this is definitely something that I would seriously consider attending in the near future.
Samantha xx
February 5, 2024 3:23 pm
@samanthaj It's something I think I'd like too, it would have to be with "sisters" for my first outing though 👠
February 11, 2024 10:56 am
Hi every one , this is a good idea , we could meet people that we only chat to on the CDH site , it would also help with the shy c/ dresser who could dress as much as they felt comfortable with , it should be somewhere central , Birmingham ,Leeds ,Manchester .Also some of the suppliers might set up a market stall offering outfits etc, the list is endless but might be best to start small and work up to bigger better events .
April 16, 2024 11:34 am
I'm a bit confused as to what Keystone actually is? I've looked on the website & other than saying there are a number of speakers I can't actually figure out what goes on there. It's obviously popular so I'm intrigued as to what it is.
