By Geoff Morgan
Photo by jeanbaptisteparis
On a humid evening in August, a tray of hors d’oeuvres passes through the lobby and patio adorning Edmonton’s Latitude 53 art gallery. Every Thursday through the summer, this rooftop on 106 Street comes alive with Edmonton’s working socialites. There’s music, booze and – sometimes – a bit of sunshine.
“It’s growing in popularity and in strength every year,” says Latitude’s Jenna Frost. This year’s Rooftop Patio Series was exceptionally popular, surpassing the expectations and projected goals based on previous years. “It’s becoming more of an institution as people are more familiar with the gallery. We want to build that familiarity and that comfort.”
Frost works at ED Marketing by day and volunteers her time on Latitude 53’s events committee by night. She says she has learned practical skills from participating in professional groups like Latitude. “I think in any group where you get to experience something new and get involved with new people you’re always going to be learning. Latitude does a great job of involving people and giving them a hands-on experience. I think with any hands-on experience you’re going to be learning something.”
While Frost and her fellow volunteers at Latitude pour drinks and usher attendees from the art gallery onto the patio. Members of the Junior Chamber International are circling trays of hors d’oeuvres through the crowd. JCI Edmonton, a professional group of young executives, sponsored the series and helped coordinate with the restaurants who supplied the food for the night. More than just free food, the event is staffed with volunteers both from the art gallery and from JCI. The stress, and the satisfaction, of organizing a well-attended event like the Rooftop Patio Series is not something members of JCI or Latitude 53 learnt from a book. Participating in committees and community organizations like JCI – members say – has given them a hands-on education and additional career boost that simply can’t be taught in a classroom.
“I wanted to learn new things and get out there and have new experiences, and that’s what JCI is all about,” says Eric Brown, an investment advisor for ScotiaMcLeod.
Not that members don’t already have a formal education. Brown for instance, studied for his anthropology and classics degree at the University of Alberta before working his way into the banking and finance sector. Sitting with a latte shortly after the financial markets close, Brown reveals that after the first years of his formal education had ended he made two strategic moves. He enrolled, studied for and passed the Canadian Securities Course and the Conduct and Practices Handbook to break into the world of financial services. But he also found JCI and began developing and learning hands-on business soft skills, networking skills and gaining experiences organizing and contributing to events like the Rooftop Patio Series.
“When I first started off I was a little bit shy. I still remember my first networking event I went there and stood by myself in the corner. But everyone there was so friendly, walking up and introducing themselves. I’ve learned to build meaningful contacts, The additional business savvy that he’s learned since starting out in his financial career he credits to his involvement with JCI.
When asked if he has learned and gained experiences from his involvement with JCI that couldn’t be taught in a book, he says, “Absolutely.” Brown was one of the volunteers circling trays of hors d’oeuvres through the rooftop patio on Thursday nights through the summer. “It’s given me more confidence for speaking in front of a group, for going up to people that I’ve never met before and for a network of people around the city.”
Described as a “worldwide federation of young leaders and entrepreneurs,” JCI stands for Junior Chamber International. The group organizes speaking events, networking events, conferences and community workshops. Members also host teaching seminars with Junior Achievement where they teach students as young as Grade 3 about money management and the basics of personal finance.
“Some of the speakers that we invite are pretty prominent business people, so just being able to meet these people and interact with them. That’s the kind of connection that I need to be able to make at Scotia,” he says.
Looking back on his career, John Stobbe, a former JCI member and past-president of the Edmonton chapter, says that his involvement in professional groups has given his career a boost. “What it did is it gave me experience: experience running projects,” he says of his time volunteering with JCI. In the past year, Stobbe was made a senator of JCI and he continues to be involved. “I think these kinds of groups are really useful to anybody doing projects and trying to get ahead in their own career and getting connected in the community.”
He recalls one project where the club was able to attract huge numbers of people to University of Alberta’s landmark, “the Butterdome,” for a JCI event. “It was a huge motivational seminar where we had like 5,000 people together over at the Butterdome,” he recalls. “Putting things together like that, as a junior person in any organization, you may have to wait 10 years to do something like that. Whereas at an organization like JCI, you get to handle projects like that early on in your career.”
Handling projects like a motivational speech at the Butterdome or the Rooftop Patio Series downtown comes with both the stresses of organizing and promoting the event but also the joys of success. Brown is hard at work organizing JCI’s national convention which will be held in Edmonton this Sept. 22-26. Frost is preparing for one final instalment of the rooftop patio series Sept. 16. Though the series was supposed to end in August, popular demand has brought life to Latitude 53’s rooftop patio one more time this fall.
Category: Work
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