So What Exactly IS a Board of Trade??

I’ve been asked this question a few times since I began working for the Burnaby Board of Trade just short of one year ago. It’s kind of a great question. After all, we’re in the business of growing our membership and not even our own website has a straightforward definition.

There are a lot of times in life when you come across a term/concept/idea/word you simply can’t define. Often, you’ve heard it mentioned many times before, but life’s experiences haven’t granted you the opportunity to quite grasp what it is. You don’t want to ask for fear of sounding dumb. If you really need to know, Google and Wikipedia are terrific resources, but even they sometimes skip over the basics and jump right into the convoluted detail.  Sometimes it’s nice to just get a simple straight answer.

Board of Trade is essentially a synonym for Chamber of Commerce. If there is any meaningful difference between the two, I couldn’t tell you what it is. For some people this is a perfectly sufficient answer. They know about CoCs, they’ve just never heard them referred to as BoTs (or vice versa).

For the rest of you, a Board of Trade (or Chamber of Commerce) is a business organization made up of a membership of local businesses in a community. These organizations work to bring businesses together to develop strong networks, to represent the interests of the business community to local government, and to foster economic development. They also usually provide a range of services and benefits to their members such as specialized or exclusive events and workshops, and discounted rates on common business expenses. In addition they often provide services such as business registration, business name approvals, and certification of Certificates of Origin.

Boards and Chambers also exist at the provincial or state level (such as the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce), as well as at the national level (e.g. the Canadian Chamber of Commerce). These organizations usually work to represent business interests to higher levels of government and serve to advocate on relevant legislation. More in-depth information on the purposes and different models of Boards of Trade and Chambers of Commerce can be found here.

So for anyone who wasn’t sure, now you know. I hope this was somewhat helpful!