Following our official launch event: 'We Are Q-VFX' held at Framestore in June during Pride Month, the Q-VFX team continued the conversation at award winning visual effects and content-creation studio The Mill in London Fitzrovia on the evening of Thursday 25th July. 

At the meet-up we shared themes, ideas and actions from a survey that followed our launch event. The survey had 59 reponses and the results we shared were as follows:

• 48 respondents currently work in the VFX animation and games industry 
• 11 are aspiring to secure a role in the industry, students or otherwise

A huge 94% of respondents said they wanted Q-VFX to ‘become part of a supportive community hub’. 

All of the above results were truly encouraging as Q-VFX set out to create a safe space for those who work in the VFX, animation and games industry. We also wanted to create something exciting for aspiring talent, so again, the result was in line with our ambitions for Q-VFX.  

At future meetups our audience said they would like to see the following:

• 84% stated they wanted to hear from inspirational LGBTQI+ speakers
• 74% requested more thought provoking panel discussions
• 72% said they would like to hear from queer industry speakers
• 72% also said they would like to see more entertainment

We also shared common themes from all of the verbatim comments we received from the  survey and regular phrases such as ‘community’, ‘family’, ‘a safe space’, ‘visible’, ‘a platform’ and ‘global’ underpinned the quotes. 

Following the feedback about creating a global community we were excited to share the launch of Q-VFX Montreal who launched their celebration the day before! To create a global movement in just over a month has been nothing short of incredible!

In line with this feedback we invited our guest speaker, James Wharton, one of Britain's first openly gay soldiers to speak to the assembled crowd. James was the first openly gay person to appear on the front cover of Soldier magazine, and he shared his inspiring story candidly with our audience. 

The evening continued with networking drinks and mingling, with the party carrying on late into the evening in Fitzrovia. 

With more meetups planned, this is an exciting time for Q-VFX. 

You can follow Q-VFX on Instagram and Twitter at @_qvfx, and join the Facebook community group to keep in touch with the team and keep abreast of our next events!