It's less than a week since the Dubbo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) Rhino Awards night.
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Dubbo’s night of nights shines a light on the city’s dedicated business people. Winning an award can set a business apart for years to come.
But each rhino awards evening takes almost 12 full months of planning, and DCCI executive officer Toni Beatty is already looking to next year.
"I'm doing my fifth year now," she told the Daily Liberal, speaking not of last Friday's gala but of the 2017 event.
“I love going out and meeting new potential sponsors and old ones...and just getting out there and meeting all these fantastic business people that we have in the community,” Toni said.
“I’ve actually made quite a few friends out of these sponsors that we’ve had for years and new ones. It’s really good.
“I’m from a business background so it’s keeping me in tune with all the businesses still and what they’re about.”
Already ideas are flowing for next year’s award night. She admits she might take a couple of weeks off from planning, but Toni is already thinking of potential sponsors for 2017.
“We normally like to start early in the year, we form a sub-committee, a rhino committee and from there try to secure platinum sponsors for each category and...then pick up lots of other little sponsors,” she said.
“We’re very fortunate to have some great in kind sponsors, like Qantas did flights for us, Quest Apartments put up our entertainers, signage, trophies.
“Without sponsors we can’t produce the great night that we have...it’s the night of nights of Dubbo.”
A lot of effort goes into the evening, and Toni said it’s often the small things that take her and the organising committee the most time and effort.
There are themes and logos to design, banners, signage and trophies to select, and even table decorations to order and arrange, Toni said.
After four years of Rhino Awards planning, Toni said she has found the key – “start early”.
”Planning to start even earlier this year!” she said.
“I’ll have a little bit of a rest but not much. My mind keeps going.
“This year was fantastic. It’s pretty hard to keep the bar going up and up – like ‘what can we do to improve it?’ You’ve just got to keep raising the bar.”