Diva Dialogues: Pride Edition
Creating Safe Spaces
Inclusivity, Workforce, and Belonging in Tourism
Explorers’ Edge is honoured to serve this remarkable region, and the greatest experience we can offer every visitor, partner, staff member, and community member is a place where everyone truly belongs.
This May, Diva Dialogues returns with a timely and important conversation about inclusivity, workforce development, and what it means to create safe, welcoming environments across the tourism and hospitality sector.
Students, youth, seasonal staff, frontline workers, and tourism teams are the backbone of our communities during the travel and tourism seasons. As businesses continue to navigate workforce pressures, it is imperative that we better understand what a truly welcoming work environment looks and feels like, and what practical steps operators and community partners can take to create that environment.
This conversation is not simply about being welcoming in a general sense. It is about understanding what inclusivity involves in practice: workplace culture, safe spaces, youth support, community leadership, visitor experience, and the role tourism businesses can play in helping people feel seen, respected, and supported.
We are proud to be a destination where human rights are respected and where Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer people, their families, friends, and allies are welcomed and supported.
Featured Guest: Seth Compton, OUTLoud North Bay
We are pleased to welcome Seth Compton, founder of OUTLoud North Bay, as part of this special Diva Dialogues event.
Seth brings a powerful perspective through his lived experience, advocacy, and work creating safer spaces for 2SLGBTQ+ youth in Northern Ontario. Through OUTLoud, Seth has supported young people, families, businesses, and communities in better understanding what belonging, safety, and inclusion look like in real life.
His work also connects directly to the realities facing tourism and hospitality operators today, including workforce development, youth employment, workplace culture, and the importance of creating environments where staff and visitors feel respected and supported.
Seth Compton is an advocate and community leader dedicated to creating safe, inclusive spaces for youth, those within the 2SLGBTQ+ community. As Founder and Executive Director of OUTLoud North Bay, he has helped build a youth-centred support hub offering mental health support, harm reduction, life skills development, peer connection, recreation, arts, music, and meaningful opportunities for young people across Northern Ontario.
His work is rooted in advocacy, equity, and inclusion, with a focus on community-driven solutions that help youth feel valued, accepted, and able to thrive. Through his private practice, Northern Lights Equity Consulting, Seth supports businesses and community organizations in building safer, more inclusive environments.
The Agenda
- Creating Safe Spaces: A keynote-style conversation with Seth Compton of OUTLoud North Bay.
- Explorers’ Edge Rainbow Registry Journey: An update from the Explorers’ Edge team on our work to build a more inclusive destination from within.
- Destination Audit Insights: A look at what we are learning through regional 2SLGBTQ+ destination audit work and how those findings can support operators.
- Panel Discussion: A practical conversation on inclusivity, workforce development, youth support, and creating safer spaces in tourism, hospitality, business, and community settings.
- Pride Season Regional Launch: the official kickoff of Pride Season, with activations and community partnerships announced. Checkout Pride in the Wilderness.
You’re Invited
This evening is open to tourism operators, business owners, staff teams, community partners, allies, and anyone who believes that world-class hospitality means welcoming everyone, without exception.
Whether you are already engaged in this work or are looking to better understand where to begin, this session will offer real stories, practical insight, and a meaningful conversation about the role businesses and communities can play in creating places where people belong.
Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Location: Cedar Canoe Books – 72 Main St E, Huntsville, ON P1H 2C7
We look forward to welcoming you.
