First, there was the Langley Women's Business Network, created by the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce to support women at all stages of business.
Then, in January, the Langley Next Gen Business Network for under-40 professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners was launched.
Coming soon, the chamber will start up the Langley Asia Pacific Business Network to build connections among Langley’s increasingly diverse business community , likely later this year.
Cory Redekop, chamber CEO, said it is a response to an increasingly diverse chamber membership.
“When we see we have a growing cohort of our members in one sector, well, then let's focus on what else we can be doing for that group,” Redekop said.
“It's member driven.”
To mark its first year, the Langley Women's Business Network released its “State of Canadian Women in Business” research report in August, a document that – among other things – showed while woman make almost half the work force at 48 per cent, they are less likely to be senior managers (at 39 per cent) and less than one in five private businesses in Canada are majority-women-owned.
For Dana George, an investment and wealth advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, plus a member of the network steering committee, it demonstrated the value of having a network where women can help each other get ahead.
“In terms of being employed in leadership senior management positions women are still largely under represented,” George observed.
“However, that is changing, and as you can see in our report. It's trending upwards in the right direction. The way that you establish movement is by coming together and supporting each other and creating a movement together and that's what we're there for," she shared.
"The Langley Women in Business Network is really meant to be that exclusive place where women in leadership, women in business, women in professions can come together and create a community to continue to push boundaries – to strive for that parity in business. “
George hopes there will come a time where her daughters and other young women “don't even understand that there was ever a difference. That they're not going to live in a world where they have to worry about their gender and whether they're good enough for the profession or the job or you know the educational requirements. They will just live in a world where equality is a given, not the exception.”
“Having an organization like this, where it's filled with women of all different professions and careers and businesses, and to be able to look around the room and to look at each other and to be able to say, 'I see you, I feel you, we've got you, we understand you,' there's just something so welcoming and so powerful and so supportive in that feeling.”
The Langley chamber's newest network group is for some of its youngest members, who represent a growing demographic, said Ollie Dickson, 31, owner of Epoch Integrated Health and chair of the fledgling Next Gen Business Network.
“You're starting to see a lot more younger entrepreneurs come in [to the chamber], younger business owners come in,” Dickson noted.
“People who aren't necessarily far along in their career or their business life cycle.”
Dickson was still in his 20s when he started up his Langley clinic in 2022.
He said the chamber was a huge help to a new arrival like him, who was still learning the fundamentals.
“I didn't have any idea about business,” Dickson recalled. “But I had to learn and grow, and definitely network.”
He sees the network group as a place where under-40s can meet other people, and have a place where they can find help, as well as a means to help grow their business.
“We're going to focus on having panels, on having keynote speakers. We're going to focus on how to run your payroll, focusing on taxes, that sort of stuff. Things that people don't necessarily know, who may not have a business background, right? I, myself, I'm a massage therapist.”
Social media, social networking, LinkedIn, all those different avenues offer ways to connect with different people, but there is a particular value to in-person conversations, Dickson believes.
“Sure, that's great, you're on one side of the screen and you're sitting there texting whoever it may be, but at the same time, having to sit down and have a face-to-face conversation and learning that way too, that's also super beneficial.”
He is also a proponent of giving back.
“We're going to look at things like scholarship opportunities. We're gonna look at doing maybe some philanthropy work with different organizations around the Langley area, too,” Dickson said. “I think not only is it important to invest in ourselves, but it's also important to invest in the community, and give back to them as well.”
He invited prospective new members, "anybody under the age of 40 who wants to join the next gen chapter of the chamber," to visit the chamber website at www.langleychamber.com/nextgen.
The Langley Women's Business Network can be contacted at www.langleychamber.com/womeninbusiness.
