More than 116 nominations came in for this year’s awards, which was whittled down to more than 60 finalists across seven categories.

Cowra Business Chamber President Jordan Core thanked everyone in attendance. 

“Nearly 200 guests, which is a fantastic result,” he said. 

“Great effort to have 200 of you in the same room, thanks for supporting business in Cowra.”

Cowra Mayor, Councillor Bill West said the evening highlights the diversity of business in Cowra. 

“I'm delighted to see so many of you have come along tonight to support the business chamber and to acknowledge the achievements of our business community,” Cr West said. 

“Tonight really does highlight the diversity of industry, business and groups across the landscape of our community.”

The biggest award of the evening, the Excellence in Business for 2018, went to The Salon Collective. 

The Salon Collective owner Alicia Ball said the award highlighted a year of big changes for the salon, including a name change and moving to a new premises. 

“I’m really shocked and honoured by this award,” she said. 

“We’ve made some big changes in our business this year, it was very daunting, but it’s all paid off.”

The Salon Collective, formerly known as Ambiance Hair, now employees seven women and has a growing clientele, Alicia said.  

“I have a phenomenal team of seven women who work so hard, they are the backbone of me and my business,” she said. 

“Our clients are continuing to grow, it’s just phenomenal. 

“A big thank you to my team, our clients, to the Business Chamber who have done amazing work this year.” 

One of the other big awards for the night was the Business Leader of the Year for 2018, which saw two joint winners – Dr Peter Davidson from Kendal Street Medical Services and Annie Crasti of VERTO Cowra. 

Dr Davidson thanked his colleagues Dr Guy Date, Dr David Richmond and Dr Louise Baker, who was also nominated for the award. 

“Louise Baker said to me, probably ten years ago, this town should have 20 doctors… and we should have students and interns,” he said. 

“We just got new registrars this week, we have two full time students from Canberra University… she drives that, almost on her own.”

He also thanked the whole staff at Kendal Street Medical Services and the Cowra Business Chamber. 

“It’s a fabulous practice and we have a fabulous team with whom I enjoy going to work,” he said. 

“Congratulations to the Business Chamber… and I'm also pleasantly surprised how vibrant this business community is in Cowra.”

Annie Crasti said it was “great honour and a big shock” to be named a joint winner of the award and highlighted the variety of services offered for job seekers at VERTO. 

“We have many triumphs on our case load,” she said. 

“I’d like to thank the people who are responsible for the nomination, the judges, the Business Chamber, congratulations to the other nominees.”

Annie also paid tribute to the businesses who work with VERTO and their clients. 

“Thank you also to the businesses who trust us to work for you, we try our best to get it right and hopefully we are,” she said. 

“A special thank you to the team I work with… to the team I have worked with and our current team.”

“Thank you to the businesses who trust us, we want people to spend money in Cowra, we need to employ people in Cowra, lets train them.”

President Jordan Core also took the time to read out a nomination sent in for Annie: 

“She actually cares, not pretend cares like most, but actually cares for her community and the people who live in it,” the nomination said. 

“She saw I was struggling and took me aside for a chat, by the end of our conversation she said I can’t promise, but I’ll do everything I can to help. 

“That was Thursday, the Thursday afternoon she calls me and says I have an interview on the Friday, Friday she comes and picks me up and takes me there. 

“By 10am I had a job and I had no one to thank but Annie.”

The evening kicked off with the award for Excellence in Hospitality and Tourism, which went to the Cowra Motor Inn, owned by Nicole and Mick Robinson. 

Nicole thanked her team and those who helped them start up tours for both visitors and locals around the Central West region. 

“I’m quite happy just to be nominated,” Nicole said. 

“We started last year with four tours... one of our tours is the Elvis Festival… We filled a coach, which is beyond my wildest dreams.”

“Come on one of our tours and experience this great region.”

The winner of the Excellence in Innovation for 2018 went to Mulyan Pty Ltd, with Ed Fagan accepting the award. 

“Firstly I was pretty surprised to be nominated because like everyone in here, what we do day to day is what we do day to day and most people don’t there’s anything overly special in what we do when we go to work everyday and I’m no different,” he said. 

“It’s also a huge amount of risk. We do a lot of things other people aren’t doing and quite often we aren’t sure of the outcome

“It is fulfilling to get this because we have taken a lot of risk.”

Melissa Richens from Cowra Family Day Care took out the Excellence in Sustainability for 2018. 

“I want to thank the educators who work for us, the admin staff and thank you all of our peer group who worked on a culture of wasting less.” 

She also highlighted the efforts of the business to create a sustainable future. 

The Entrepreneur of the Year went to Lyn Gray and Mark Dixon of Fly Oz Cowra. 

Their award was accepted by Fly Oz staff Kel King and Brijesh Jogiya. 

“Thank you to each every person who we’ve dealt with this year,” Brijesh said. 

“We specialise in all kinds of pilot training, even though we are in a relatively small town, we are one of the biggest providers of all types of aircraft training.”

He mentioned the building of the new hangar at the airport as a great achievement of the team. 

“Everything was done using local businesses so Lyn, my chief instructor, she believes that the more locals you support, you get the support back,” he said. 

Weeroona Aged Care Residence was also named Employer of Choice for 2018. 

“Really, at the end of the day, aged care is a very hard profession, it takes a lot of diligence and a lot of hard work from your staff and also caring,” Director of Nursing, Bronwyn Sharp, said. 

“Really your business is only as good as the team you’ve got.

“You have to provide them with support and guidance and also encouragement as well and out of that, you get your positive workplace.”

Bronwyn mentioned that Weeroona had hired five new employees last week and there were plans for expansion in the near future. 

“Aged care is a growing industry, just this week, we’ve employed another five members to our team,” she said. 

“Watch this space.”

The evening also featured a talk by one of Australia’s leading business coaches, Ian Parker.