They came, they saw, they networked.
More than 100 business leaders attended the Surrey Board of Trade’s third annual Tour of Industry last week, receiving a firsthand impression of the scope and potential of business development in the city.
Three busloads of ‘tourists’ visited different lists of companies throughout Surrey during last Friday’s morning tour – conducted by the board in conjunction with real estate specialists Colliers International – before converging for lunch at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Cloverdale campus and a talk by Surrey City Development Corporation’s Jim Cox.
And, judging by participants who stopped to sample a few vintages at South Surrey’s River’s Bend Winery on Colebrook Road, those on the tour came away impressed with the breadth and diversity of industry already established in Surrey, and ideas about how businesses could more closely co-operate to support each other.
The potential of home-grown business was a continuing theme of conversation as the winery’s Jacquie Alberding poured samples of River’s Bend’s current product, including the Black Horse Cabernet – bearing a label depicting owner Court Faessler on his horse.
“He always wanted to name a wine after his horse,” Alberding noted.
She said one of the fun aspects of representing River’s Bend is helping people discover that while some of the wines use grapes grown in the Okanagan, others are entirely the product of the winery’s 15-acre vineyard.
“The most rewarding part is when people come in to our store and take one of the estate bottles and they are blown away that the grapes are grown right here – I get a kick out of that.”
Wayne Berg, chief commercial officer for Coast Capital Savings, said local businesses becoming more aware of each others’ operations, markets – and needs – is “a win-win all around.”
“It’s part of the raison d’etre for a board of trade to promote business and we’re doing this with the intent to support local industry,” he said.
Malcolm Earle, senior vice-president of Colliers International, said the involvement of business leaders and community leaders is “really critical” in boosting the business potential of Surrey.
“If you can get the word out amongst people who are active in the community, the information gets out faster,” he said.