For the first time since 2019, the Tenterfield Business Awards are back for 2023. After being inactive since COVID restrictions, the awards will return, at a new venue and with a new team heading the board at the Tenterfield Chamber.
The Save the Date has already been put out on the Chamber’s Facebook page, with this year’s awards planned for Saturday the 16th of September.
The awards will be leaving their old home of the Sir Henry Parkes School of Arts Theatre and moving to the Tenterfield Golf Club.
Prue Birch, board member at the Tenterfield Chamber and office manager at Ray White Tenterfield, tells us that they are still very much in the planning stages for this year after being told that Council would not be supporting the event this year.
“It was very disappointing, but they’ve told us that they simply don’t have the funding, so we’ve decided to push ahead on our own,” Ms Birch says.
Other than the change of venue, Ms Birch tells us the awards will still hopefully retain a very similar format to previous events, and the pre-existing categories will remain in place.
For now, one of the big focus points for the Chamber is reinvigorating membership to the Chamber itself, as well as seeking sponsorship for the awards event.
“We’ve moved from the School of Arts because it was a very expensive venue to hire and set up for the awards,” Ms Birch says, “and we are still very much seeking sponsors, principally financial, for the awards so that we can plan from there.”
In her bio for the Chamber, Ms Birch voices her desire for the Chamber to become a big part of the Tenterfield business community.
“I want the chamber to be an independent, apolitical voice for local businesses to provide opportunities that encourage and nurture local business growth,” she writes.
The Board members thus far are varied, ranging from Property Valuers to Poultry Farmers. The Chamber wants to make it very clear that they are for all businesses in Tenterfield, not just some.
They’re also clear in their objectives of reinvigorating the town, by supporting local businesses, events and tourism and hopefully regenerating the local economy.
“At the moment we only have seven local businesspeople on the board,” Ms Birch tells us, “But the call is very much open now for anyone to join us at our monthly meetings. The more the merrier.”
To find out more about the Tenterfield Business Awards, or the Tenterfield Chamber, visit their Facebook page.
Top image: 2019 winners of the Tenterfield Business Awards
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