A Professional Network for Women in Industrial, Logistics & Development
If you work in industrial, logistics or development, finding a professional network that actually reflects your industry can be difficult.
Industrial touches a long list of professions. Logistics and supply chain professionals move products and manage distribution networks. Developers, contractors, engineers and architects build the facilities where that work happens. Manufacturers and operators use them. Brokers, lenders, owners, attorneys, title professionals, property managers and other specialists support the projects and businesses behind them.
Women work across every part of this industry, but they do not always have many opportunities to meet one another.
That is where WILD comes in.
Women in Industrial, Logistics & Development, or WILD, is a national professional network for women working across the businesses, buildings and systems that make industrial work.
Who is WILD For?
Our members work throughout industrial, logistics and development, including logistics, supply chain, manufacturing, construction, engineering, architecture, development, real estate, ownership, finance, lending, property management, operations and professional services.
Some work directly with industrial properties. Others run businesses, manage projects, move products, finance growth, design facilities or support the companies operating within them.
What connects the membership is industrial.
That broad mix is important because industrial rarely operates within a single profession. The projects and businesses we work on depend on people with different areas of expertise working together.
Why Build a Network Across Different Parts of Industrial?
Your day-to-day work may keep you within one part of the industry.
A logistics professional may spend most of her time with transportation providers, warehouse operators and customers. A construction project manager may primarily work with subcontractors, architects and owners. A lender may spend her days with borrowers and underwriters. A broker may be focused on tenants, landlords and transactions.
But the industry around each of those roles is much larger.
Meeting women in other specialties gives you access to people who understand parts of the business you may only encounter occasionally.
It can also help you understand how decisions are made before or after your part of a project begins.
A manufacturer can learn from a logistics provider. A developer can learn from an operator. A broker can learn from a contractor. An engineer can learn from a property owner.
That knowledge makes it easier to understand the full picture.
Professional Networking for Women in Industrial
Networking is a big part of most industries, but industrial is particularly relationship-driven.
Projects often involve the same companies and professionals at different stages. A contact made through one transaction may show up years later on a development, expansion, relocation, financing or construction project.
WILD creates opportunities for women to build those relationships beyond their existing companies and immediate professional circles.
Our events range from technical education and industrial project tours to smaller member gatherings, professional development programs and virtual networking.
The goal is simple: give women across industrial more opportunities to know the people working throughout the industry.
Learning More Than Your Own Role
One of WILD’s priorities is practical industry education.
You do not need to be an electrical engineer to benefit from understanding industrial power. You do not need to work in logistics to understand how a warehouse operation affects building requirements. You do not need to be a developer to understand what happens between acquiring land and delivering a finished project.
That is why WILD programming looks beyond any one profession.
Through programs such as the BuildHER Education Series, project tours and discussions with professionals working directly in the field, members can learn about the technical, operational and development issues affecting industrial businesses and properties.
The more you understand about the work happening around your own, the easier it is to ask the right questions and understand the decisions being made across a project.
Women in Logistics and Supply Chain
Logistics is a major part of the WILD network.
Women working in transportation, warehousing, distribution, fulfillment, supply chain and third-party logistics are directly connected to many of the decisions that shape industrial facilities and markets.
Where companies locate, how buildings are configured, how much space they require and how products move through a facility are all influenced by logistics.
Bringing logistics professionals into the same network as developers, owners, builders and other industrial professionals creates a better understanding of both the facilities and the operations inside them.
Women in Construction and Development
Construction and development are another important part of WILD.
Women working in project management, preconstruction, estimating, engineering, architecture, development and related fields are responsible for planning and delivering the industrial facilities businesses rely on.
Their work overlaps with utilities, municipalities, lenders, owners, tenants, manufacturers, logistics operators and real estate professionals.
WILD gives women working in these fields another way to connect with both their peers and the professionals on the other side of the projects they work on every day.
Women in Industrial Real Estate
Industrial real estate is one part of the larger WILD network.
Brokers, owners, property managers, asset managers, investors, title professionals, attorneys, lenders and others involved in industrial property all play a role in how businesses find, finance, occupy and operate facilities.
For women in industrial real estate, WILD also provides access to people outside the traditional real estate network.
That can mean meeting the logistics professional evaluating distribution locations, the manufacturer planning an expansion, the contractor building the next facility or the engineer solving a site issue.
Those connections help put the real estate itself in a broader industry context.
WILD Is a National Network
WILD began in Northern Nevada, but the network is not limited to one market.
Women working in industrial, logistics and development across the country can participate through WILD’s virtual membership, which includes access to select digital programming, educational content, the WILD Member Directory and online member conversations.
For women who regularly participate in Northern Nevada programming, WILD also offers in-person membership based on career experience.
As the network grows, so does the opportunity for members to connect with women working in other companies, disciplines and markets.
Membership for Different Career Stages
There is no single point in a career when a professional network becomes useful.
Someone in her first few years in industrial may be looking for exposure to different career paths and people outside her company.
A mid-career professional may want to expand her industry relationships, increase her visibility or learn more about areas adjacent to her own work.
An experienced executive may be looking for opportunities to meet other industry leaders, mentor younger professionals, speak or contribute her expertise.
WILD membership is structured to include women at each of those stages.
The result is a network where experience can be shared across generations without limiting the conversation to a single career level.
Looking for a Professional Organization for Women in Industrial?
You may have found WILD because you were searching for women in logistics, women in construction, women in supply chain, women in industrial real estate or a professional organization for women in your field.
You are in the right place.
WILD brings those fields together because the industry itself brings them together.
If your work connects to industrial, logistics or development and you are looking to meet more women who understand the industry, learn from people working in other specialties and expand your professional network, take a look at WILD membership.
We would love to have you find your place in WILD.
