Position: President and chief executive officer
Company: Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce
What it does: Advocates for and helps veteran-owned and veteran-friendly businesses and veterans in the workforce.
Career: Newton has led the Veterans Chamber since he founded the organization in 2015. He recently announced plans to step down in October. Newton served in the U.S. Army from 2009 to 2012 and was deployed to Afghanistan for 13 months.
The challenge
As an entity that relied heavily on people being able to meet in person, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst to completely reimagine how the Veterans Chamber provides value to members.
“(We had to ask) what is our value to our members if we’re not able to provide that, and how can we accomplish our role as a chamber without bringing people together?”
“As much as COVID has become politicized, we were very much concerned with the safety of our members. We don’t want to do anything to put anyone in jeopardy. We just didn’t have the option to even test the boundaries. We really had to look at how we create value for our members and fundamentally change that.”
The resolution
Like most businesses and organizations, the Veterans Chamber tried a variety of new programming options.
“We tried virtual programming for a while. We leaned into the value we could provide from a marketing standpoint. We thought about how we could promote our veteran businesses and how we could really leverage the platforms we have to bring the community together. We actually ended up raising $25,000 that went to veteran-serving organizations in the Milwaukee area. We tried a lot of different things, but I think the resolution that came out of that was the realization that chambers of commerce are much more than networking.”
The takeaway
Coming out of the pandemic, Newton’s entire vision for what a chamber can and should be entirely shifted.
“It’s really about being a convener of stakeholders and resources. When small business resources were coming online, we could get that information out. We really became that information hub. I think that’s something we’ve really carried with us in the years since. It’s more than hosting a happy hour. It’s really about building a community.”
Moving forward, Newton said he believes the organization has the opportunity to provide more professional development opportunities for veterans who are early in their career.
