Donna Dia, Founder, The Beauty Beat

The UK’s first luxury consumer beauty event dedicated to women of colour takes place this weekend (Dec 3 - 4) at the Congress Centre on London’s Great Russell Street. The Beauty Beat is the brainchild of luxury events specialist Donna Dia who took her 15 years of experience in the industry and her bulging contact book and put them to good use to conceive and launch this concept. The event has the backing not only of major names in beauty – from Laura Mercier and Nars to Boots and Revlon – but also from social media giant Instagram and payments provider Klarna. Over two days visitors to the sell-out live event will be able to shop an array of beauty brands, that cater to the needs and desires of women of colour, and attend talks and demonstrations on everything from make-up to skincare and haircare. Those unable to attend the event in person can log on to watch the content online.Donna tells us what it was that inspired her to launch The Beauty Beat, what it took to get the venture off the ground and her vision for developing the concept further.Get breaking news as it happens and be the first to know when our podcasts go live by following:  INSTAGRAM and subscribe to our daily newsletter here.