Dubbo City Council has signalled its intention to remain in the Evocities group for another five years but one Dubbo councillor has suggested the program needs to evolve to stay relevant and benefit the community.
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Evocities has been running since 2010 and its members include the councils of seven inland cities, Albury City, Armidale Dumaresq, Bathurst Regional, Orange City, Tamworth Regional and Wagga Wagga City Councils, as well as Dubbo.
While the original goal of Evocities was to target Sydney residents and encourage them to move out to regional areas, Councillor Ben Shields believes getting businesses to relocate, or start up in regional areas should be a focus.
"The reality is people move to Western NSW and regional NSW because of jobs and opportunity, not necessarily because of glossy ads on billboards or glossy ads in newspapers," Cr Shields said.
"It would be a great advantage for Evocities if they were to further adjust, evolve to a lobbying side where they go round to government ministers and corporations and show them the importance of opening shop in Dubbo.
"Once we have jobs and opportunity in all those cities, that's when people will move, not just by being on the M4 freeway and seeing a big ad for Western NSW. Evocities is a good idea but I think it needs to evolve."
Mayor Mathew Dickerson said he agreed there was more to do when it came to promoting Dubbo as a place for businesses but said that was more the role of the NSW Inland Forum, which includes the same seven councils.
"We had a good discussion at the forum and said the lobbying group should be the seven mayors and the council GMs, that's the group that should be involved in lobbying," Cr Dickerson said.
"The Evocities steering committee should be using their marketing expertise to continue to market the seven Evocities. It gives us a two-pronged attack."
Cr Dickerson said 285 people moved to Dubbo in the last financial year as a direct result of Evocities.
Cr John Walkom also threw his support behind the concept, saying it sparked a brand recognition within Sydneysiders that showed them another lifestyle they could have.
"We can't make people come here but the thing that will make them come is jobs. Evocities does very well, we promote jobs on the website and whenever you look at the statistical information on the website, you can see the job interest is increasing all the time," he said.
"After that, what makes people move is having those services and the amenity in the city they deserve and the bar for Evocities is high. We have those facilities."
