"It's really humbling...it's a complete honour and a privilege to have a business in Dubbo. To win the western region award is an honour and feather in the cap for my team that works hard day to day in our office, 2022 Western NSW Business of the Year winner Terry Wilcher said.

Along with many businesses, the company weathered the COVID storm to come out the other side with the major award win.

"There were days I wanted to give it away...but I thought it wasn't about me I have to think about...I had staff depending on me. What would happen to them if I decided to pull the pin. I figured that wasn't fair on them," he said.

It was a rare admission from 123 Tix's chief executive officer fresh from championing a sought-after accolade from western NSW's large and diverse business community.

But those were his raw thoughts in the midst of COVID-19 "that restricted everything the world did".

"It was something that shut down the world," he said.

Prior to COVID, Mr Wilcher's Dubbo-based IT business is processing in excess of 70,000 tickets for most of the 192 agricultural show organisers in NSW and other events across Australia.

Then without alarm bells the country's business community in 2020 went down on its knees due to the pandemic.

Blanket COVID restrictions were imposed closing down the entire events industry shuttering the operation of Mr Wilcher's brainchild.

"We were at a standstill. We had nothing to sell.

"All we were doing is refunding people and answering phone calls about 'you ordered tickets and how do I get my money back' so it was quite an intense period of time.

"We refunded over $1 million the very next day, it took a couple of weeks to implement."

Mr Wilcher, originally from the Hunter Valley and moved to Dubbo in 1995, started with his ideas for 123 Tix from his lounge room in 2014.

From a sole IT entrepreneur, he now employs four full-time staff and numerous casual staff on weekends.

His business grew as a ticketing platform since it went public in 2015 that by 2018, has been awarded his company's first Western NSW Business of the Year Award.

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At a gala event on Friday, July 22 at Western Plains Taronga Zoo, his company was adjudged winner of Excellence in Innovation and Excellence in Microbusiness before being called back on stage to receive the top award of the night, his company's second.

The award has placed 123 Tix as the first business in western NSW recognised for the top award twice.

The innovative talents of the 123 Tix team was put to test when one day Service NSW asked the company to help them "integrate" the Dine and Discover program into its successful and simple online ticketing platform.

"That changed everything for us...we could see the event industry coming back through the Dine and Discover vouchers that people put on their phone through the app.

"The sales, the number and excitement were there. The people who have these vouchers have excitement in their faces.

"On a daily basis the organisers were touching base with us, how excited they were, the ticket sales were up."

The business grew as a ticketing platform since it went public in 2015 that by 2018, has been awarded the Western NSW Business of the Year Award.

At a gala event on Friday, July 22 at Western Plains Taronga Zoo, his company was adjudged winner of Excellence in Innovation and Excellence in Microbusiness before being called back on stage to receive the top award of the night.

The 2022 Western NSW Business Awards was attended by more than 190 business leaders from across the regions to celebrate and showcase the diverse array of talents in the business community, and Dubbo's business community has dominated the awards led by Mr Wilcher's company.

"It's been an incredibly tough number of years for the many businesses due to COVID, drought, bushfire and mouse plagues, so these awards are a wonderful opportunity to shine a spotlight on our amazing group of finalists right across the region," Business NSW regional manager Vicki Seccombe said.

Mr Wilcher said his team will continue to innovate as businesses must be doing in the current climate faced by the business community.

"We will always be looking at what we can do better and how we can do something better and what we are going to do to achieve an outcome for the organiser that is different from everyone else, that is different to what they had before."

For the record, Mr Wilcher's ticketing platform has helped more than 33 million Dine and Discover vouchers be enjoyed by over 5.4 million residents in NSW.

But for the businesses that closed down due to COVID, they were stimulated by the program as more than half a billion dollars were floated into the NSW economy despite COVID restrictions.

Outstanding Employee: Jacob Willetts, Western Plains Automotive, Dubbo

Outstanding Young Business Leader: Paul Cavalier, Print Storm, Mudgee & Dubbo; Highly Commended: Bree Martin, Envy Beauty By Bree, Cobar

Outstanding Business Leader: Joh Leader, LeaderLife, Dubbo

Employer of Choice: iClick2Learn, Dubbo

Excellence in Innovation: 123 Tix, Dubbo

Outstanding Community Organisation: LeaderLife, Dubbo

Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion: iClick2Learn, Dubbo

Outstanding Start Up: Quentin Park Alpacas and Studio Gallery, Tomingley

Excellence in Micro Business: 123 Tix, Dubbo

Excellence in Small Business: Topsoil Organics, Forbes

Excellence in Business: AWCON, Orange

Outstanding Local Chamber: Dubbo Chamber of Commerce

Western NSW Business of the Year: 123 Tix, Dubbo