By Steve Hubrecht 

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Invermere couple Bryan and Lauren Kroker recently won a prestigious business award.

Their company — Vision Project Services — may only be a few years old, but has gone from strength to strength, and in early June it won the 2024 Canadian SME (small and medium enterprise) Small Business Award for a business with fewer than 50 employees, beating out a field full of cutting-edge artificial intelligence companies.

The pair received the award at gala in Toronto on Friday, June 7.

Bryan, true to his farm boy upbringing and his love of small town Invermere, modestly told the Pioneer that “I was surprised and honoured (to get this award) . . . everything we’ve achieved at Vision Project Services has been done by committee . . . I actually feel that this award belongs with other people who work for me.” 

In further evidence of his strong small town values, he explained that he was surprised to find out the awards gala was quite literally a red carpet affair held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (the Met Centre) attended by 700 people. 

“I initially thought it would be a smaller, barbecue type event,” he told the Pioneer. “Part of the reason we went is that I thought it would be a really great date night.”

Make no mistake – those small town values are exactly what has helped propel the Krokers to success.

“What probably won us the award was our brand recognition and our growth,” said Bryan. 

The company launched in 2021 and offers top-to-bottom construction renovations, interior and exterior, as well as planning and landscaping (as Bryan put it “anything to do with your property, we can do it”). 

When Vision Project Services started it had a staff of two. In just three years that’s expanded to a staff of 30 – significant growth indeed. Bryan chalks this up to a commitment to relationships and honesty, and explained he takes genuine pride in his staff’s personal growth.

This means Vision Project Services is able to attract and retain high-calibre staff, even as the Columbia Valley experiences a labour shortage, he explained.

Bryan grew up on a farm in rural Alberta which he credits with forging his work ethic.

“It gave me problem solving skills and taught me how to operate when times are good and when they are bad” he said.

He had a passion for skiing, and in 2004 he moved west to Kananaskis, then later to the Banff-Canmore area, and became a snowcat operator. Bryan loved the ski industry so much that he spent a couple of years pursuing an ‘endless winter’ – spending the North American winter in Banff-Canmore and then the North American summer at ski hills in Australia (where it’s winter in July and August). In between he made sure to return to his family’s farm to help with planting in the spring, and harvesting in the fall.

Bryan eventually launched a consulting business, travelling to other ski resorts to teach snowcat operations, and to develop terrain parks, among other things.

In 2016 that role brought him to the Columbia Valley. Bryan fell in love with the place, and it’s now home to him, Lauren and their kids. He has been operations manager at Panorama Mountain Resort for years now, a role he continues in and that he loves even as he and Lauren grow Vision Project Services.

During the awards gala, Bryan used his acceptance speech to encourage other small business owners to focus on what really matters: creating meaningful relationships with other people.