You have to strike while the iron is hot, and the Southland Chamber of Commerce clearly saw something cooking with potential business between Gore and Tamworth.
The "Growing Together In Business" luncheon was held at the Croydon Lodge last Friday, with hopes of the sister city relationship growing beyond just country music.
After lunch, the various attendees watched a panel featuring members of Tamworth’s regional council: mayor Russell Webb, general manager Paul Bennett, and Cr Matt Sharpham alongside Gore Mayor Ben Bell and the general manager of regional strategy for Great South Bobbi Brown.
The panel, hosted by Southland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Sheree Carey, fielded questions from the audience and discussed potential ideas.
Mrs Casey said it was time for the sister cities to start thinking beyond the acoustic guitar and the cowboy boots, venturing into where each can help each other.
"Tamworth’s tagline is, I guess, ‘country music and so much more’, and Gore is that as well.
"So how can we look at the similarities and opportunities, to get some tangible things put in place?
"Information sharing and the like, just to be able to expand on this sister city relationship to be more than just about country music," she said.
Tamworth had a bounty of agricultural technology and opportunities for farmers to upskill and get their game really going, and Gore had some insight for our transtasman sister city farmers as well.
Talk of increased tourism between the two regions was also floated, commercial growth in Tamworth and how they achieved it, instead of simple residential builds — there was plenty to learn and put into the thinking cap for a Tamworth and Gore future.
Mrs Carey said it was a fantastic event and now it was up to the two councils to figure out what the next 10 years could look like.
"It was a great event. I think there’s a lot of opportunity there.
"It’s just up to the councils now to follow up on it and see where they can go," she said.
