Farewell to Brenton Geyer
by Richard Keane, CEO
After a decade of extraordinary engagement and contribution, all of us involved at TEAM LPV bid a heartfelt farewell to the original influencer, Brenton Geyer.
From my perspective as CEO, Brenton has had an extraordinary impact on LPV’s brand. His acute sense of style, creative vision and connection to the broader arts and LGBTIQ+ community has resulted in an amazing array of partnerships and engagement opportunities that have conveyed key messaging to our HIV community and far beyond.
Brenton made his debut at LPV in 2014, in the lead up to the 2014 International AIDS Conference, which was held here in Melbourne. Brenton’s role was to conceive and produce a public exhibition to act as a cultural focus for the conference and a showcase of the work being done for LPV’s stigma campaign, ENUF.
This campaign drew attention to stigma that people living with HIV experience in their day to day lives, not just locally but on the biggest stage of all. It bought together a range of high profile ambassadors and allies including activists, academics, scientists, physicians and politicians, like Natasha Stott Despoja and Senator Dean Smith, standing in allyship, challenging myths and calling out discrimination in a message of unity to say ENUF!
Brenton’s creative development of LPV’s ‘Share my love’ campaign unpacked and represented the U=U (Undetectable=Untransmittable) message in a new tangible and human centred way that took the scientific data and evidence that underpinned it and explained the everyday impact of what the message meant for us – that finally all people living with HIV could have the potential of attaining the healthy sexual and reproductive lives, free of the risk of forward transmission that we so richly deserve and without reservation, truly share our love.
Brenton’s creative vision and production skills for our brilliant 30th Anniversary event held at the Southbank Theatre, was a perfect ‘pearl’ themed celebration that brought together our organisation’s founders, contemporary leadership, allies, partners and members to pause for a moment and look back at what we had achieved and the changes we have been privileged to witness over the last 30 years of lived experience and self-advocacy from the sound of a united and diverse positive voice that echoes through every aspect of the ethos of our organisation.
Brenton provided oversight of the transition of LPV’s key calendar events from in person to online formats including World AIDS Day and International AIDS Candlelight Memorial events. Meeting the unique challenges in growth and capacity required to sustain a sense of community connectedness throughout the challenges arising from COVID19 lockdowns, which saw communications become the wheelhouse of our organisation’s response to the second pandemic people living with HIV had seen in our lifetimes.
Along with that renewed focus on communications, he oversaw the creation and development of LPV’s new multi-media channel Poslink+, with a focus on LPV’s own content creation, bringing together newsletters, videos and a brand new podcast.
His unique concept development and implementation of Living Positive Victoria’s annually-changing health promotion campaigns that carried contemporary and engaging messages over our media channels and events such as the Midsumma Pride March are further examples of his influence. If you’ve seen our banners waving when we march with pride – you’ve seen Brenton. If you’ve been to World AIDS Day event or a candlelight memorial – you’ve seen Brenton. If you’ve attended Planet Positive and seen our wonderful volunteers and staff in an LPV t-shirt – you’ve seen Brenton. So then, to the ultimate “scene queen” we take a moment to reflect on an enormous contribution, raise a glass, make a toast and wish the unique and talented Mr. Brenton Geyer our very best wishes for all his future endeavours.
Brenton will be participating in a panel discussion for the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial: 40th Anniversary at the Positive Living Centre on Sunday 18 May – Register to attend.