The summit saw Cowra-based manufacturers, farmers, processors, retailers and other employment areas come together to identify and take action on attracting, retaining and training people in the skills needed by Cowra shire.

President of the Cowra Business Chamber, Simon Davis, said that while he would have liked to see more people physically attend the summit, there had seen good response rates to the pre-summit survey.

“I was expecting a few more given Council has been pushing it and we’ve been pushing it through the chamber, but just because they aren’t physically in the room doesn’t mean we haven't got the buy in,” he said.

“We got a really good response rate on the survey so obviously we’ve got the engagement.

“But we need to identify the problem before we can fix it, that’s what this is about. Anything of this nature is good for the town,” he said.

Mr Davis said the Cowra Business Chamber was looking forward to capitalising on the results of the summit.

“If we can tick a few boxes and plug gaps in our collective staffing it is always a good thing,” he said.

“I’ve spoken about it before and I think everyone else agrees, we collectively don’t do a good enough job training the people we have, and we don’t do a good enough job communicating with the schools and employment agencies.

“Whatever is produced from this summit, there will be some substance to it and we can act on it,” he said.