The Grand Hyatt Shanghai witnessed the rise of LGBT inclusion in businesses in China as it played host to the third annual WorkForLGBT on June 17.

The event saw 43 companies exhibit and 600 jobseekers attend, with more than 100,000 engaging in the event online.

“All 43 companies who registered for our job fair this year again pledged support for LGBT employees”, said Steven Paul Bielinski, Founder of WorkForLGBT, which ran the event.

“The record setting number of firms attending this year shows the importance of LGBT talent in China today”.

Bielinski encouraged more Chinese companies to support LGBT employees, noting that despite inviting more than 50 top Chinese companies Aibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, no big local company attended.

“Although we see LGBT advertising from Chinese brands, gay people expect local companies to take systematic and concrete actions in support of LGBT diversity and inclusion at work, including for their own staff. Marketing alone is not enough,” he said.