Ken Matthews, chairman of tourism giant Skyline Enterprises, voiced one of a handful of calls for the council to take more steps to prevent flooding of central Queenstown, rather than "continue to lie down" by mitigating the effects.
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Clive Geddes said the council was open to a dialogue with the business community.
However, he told the 35 assembled business, tourism and media representatives at the forum its purpose was to give the council feedback on how it planned to deal with floods.
Flood-protection proposals involving the Shotover Delta, which would have created a 300mm to 500mm buffer zone, had been blocked by many opposing submitters and the Water Conservation (Kawarau) Order.
Mr Geddes said the district council and the Otago Regional Council (ORC) asked Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith to amend the order and he understood the minister was approaching objecting parties.
Alastair Porter, chairman of the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce, remarked on the out-of-town perception the entire resort was flooded, saying "Queenstown Bay" would have been a better description in interviews.
Mr Geddes said he and other council staff had been careful to tell media the town centre was open for business.
Bradley Building owner Jeff Bradley said the council should "use its clout" to encourage insurance companies to offer flood cover to businesses with foreshore premises.
ORC environmental engineering and natural hazards director Dr Gavin Palmer told the forum Lake Wakatipu peaked at 311.5m above sea level in the early hours of Saturday, May 1.
A major difference from the last Queenstown flood was that business operators and the wider community were able to check council websites for regular updates on river and lake levels and make their own decisions about trading and flood-prevention measures.
The number of visits to the water level information pages of the ORC website soared.
The need for more informed council representatives on the streets to engage with the community was identified at last night's forum.
Mr Geddes said access to the bay foreshore and lower Beach St should have been restricted earlier for public safety reasons as the area had become a worksite involving contractors and machinery.
The mayor said while it was "never, ever possible the flood was going to become a civil defence emergency," it was important the district's two civil defence controllers were involved in the exercise.
QLDC emergency management officer Brenden Winder said after the flood was over, the council had to get rid of 65 tonnes of sand - mainly brought in for sandbags - and many tonnes of driftwood and debris the lake deposited in the CBD and on the foreshore.
About $80,000 was spent on the response and some clean-up costs were ongoing.
