Annual Dinner

About the Dinner

Columbus hosted one of the first ever Human Rights Campaign dinners in 1983 and has been doing so ever since. Every year we pack a ballroom at the Ohio Union on Ohio State's campus and bring the community together to celebrate our spirit and pride and to energize the room for the fight for LGBTQ rights that remains ahead of us.

The dinner features speakers and entertainment from HRC and beyond. Attendees learn about what HRC has been doing and gets inspired by the stories of members of our community. Recent speakers and entertainers have included Kimberley Locke, Fortune Feimster, and Joe Biden. During a reception before the dinner, guests can mingle and interact with the community, as well as bid on items at our silent auction.

Behind the Scenes of the Dinner

It takes an enormous volunteer effort to pull together the annual dinner. Volunteer leaders start working nearly a year in advance to secure the venue, plan the program, find sponsors, put together the silent auction, and make sure the event goes off without a hitch.

The dinner committee co-chairs are supported by several subcommittees:

• Corporate Sponsorships - The corporate sponsorship team works with businesses and organizations throughout Central Ohio to line up sponsors for the event and coordinate to make sure that those sponsors are recognized at the dinner.
• Silent Auction - The silent auction team connects with local businesses to donate items to the silent auction, gathers and catalogs donated items, and curates the items into an appealing auction for the night of the dinner.
• Table Captains and Ticket Sales - The table captains and ticket sales team works to promote ticket sales to the community with a special effort to recruit table captains who endeavor to fill a table at the event with friends, family, or colleagues.
• Program Book - The program book team works to put together our digital program book for the dinner, including lining up advertisers and drafting content for the book.