{"id":283575,"date":"2020-11-06T18:59:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T08:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=283575"},"modified":"2020-11-06T18:59:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T08:59:38","slug":"speaker-shares-gympie-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/11\/06\/speaker-shares-gympie-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Shares Gympie Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gympie Chamber of Commerce president Tony Goodman, accompanied by Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig, was the guest speaker at Thursday’s KCCI breakfast meeting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

November 6, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gympie Chamber of Commerce president Tony Goodman was the special guest speaker at a breakfast meeting of the Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce and Industry held in Kingaroy on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

He was joined by Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig (see separate report<\/a><\/strong>) on stage as the pair addressed a crowd of about 80 local businesspeople gathered at Kingaroy Town Hall.<\/p>\n

Mr Goodman shared his experiences of building up the Gympie Chamber since he became president, taking the membership from about 30 to 160.<\/p>\n

He owns a furniture and homewares business, Bella Casa Gympie, in Mary Street, and has worked to turn it – and Mary Street – into a “destination” for the local community.<\/p>\n

This has included lobbying council to have trees lit up at Christmas, organising “Christmas On Mary” and other late-night shopping events, and working to make the Gympie CBD an area of pride for local residents as well as attracting tourists.<\/p>\n

But he admitted the journey had not been without criticism.<\/p>\n

“If you stick your head above the parapet, you’re going to get whacked a few times,” he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This included some well-publicised run-ins with the then-Gympie Regional Council.<\/p>\n

When Mr Goodman took over at the Chamber of Commerce he said he decided it should “put a stake in the ground” and become “fiercely independent” to tackle some of the issues in Gympie, which included a low socio-economic status, high unemployment and empty shops.<\/p>\n

The Chamber began bringing in specialist speakers from outside the region to talk to local businesspeople – something he encouraged the KCCI to do, too.<\/p>\n

These talks aimed to get people “thinking differently, outside the box”.<\/p>\n

Guests included people such as Terry Ryder<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and Rohan Toll, project manager at the Queensland AI Hub<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Other speakers at the KCCI breakfast meeting included South Burnett Mayor Brett Otto (see separate report<\/strong><\/a>) and local chef Roberta Schablon (see separate report<\/a><\/strong>)<\/p>\n