Hawkesbury Chamber Breakfast Meeting - October 2024
Event description
Start your day with members and guests at our special Small Business Month BIG Breakfast Meeting.
"Leveraging Government to Grow your Business & Our Very Own Hawkesbury Success Stories."
This breakfast is a NSW Small Business Month initiative to assist Hawkesbury Businesses.
Enjoy a sumptuous BIG breakfast (bacon, eggs, the lot!) in this great local venue
Great speakers and networking. Learn about issues that may affect your business and connect with like-minded business people.
Panel 1 - Government/Business
- Susan Templeman - Local Federal Member for Hawkesbury
- Service NSW
Panel 2 - Our Success Stories
Shane McLaughlin  | Co-Founder of local Hillbilly Cider A move to an orchard in Bilpin in 2007 was husband & wife team Shane and Tessa McLaughlin’s inspiration for creating this local favourite Blue Mountains cider. Shane’s first batch of Hillbilly was fermented in the cellar he dug out by hand under the house. With 20 years wine and cider making under his belt, Shane adapted techniques from time spent in the cider regions around the world including Normandy, Hereford and Somerset. He blends Aussie classic apples as well as heritage cider apples. Hillbilly Cider is the only cider in the world that uses the Julie™ apple. The first new commercial apple discovered in the Sydney/Blue Mountains area since the Granny Smith apple 100 years ago! The Julie™ was a chance seedling discovered by Bill and Julie Shields at their orchard located next door to the Hillbilly Cider shed ‘Hillbillification’ – Encompassing all that is great about living life in the slow lane. Getting out into nature, good times with mates a chilled cider in hand. Surrounded by world heritage national parks in Bilpin – this lifestyle was our inspiration for creating Hillbilly Cider |
Lee Etherington  | Founder of the world famous brand Wild Hibiscus Flower Co. and local distillery Gingle Bells Gin Lee's journey began back in 1998 making Lilli Pilli Jam but his first big success came from dropping a Wild Hibiscus Flower into a glass of bubbly - the ladies went mad for it and before he knew it Lee was exporting those little flowers all around the world (they were even served at Barrack Obama's inauguration ceremonies!). This evolved into the world's most innovative cocktail garnish company featuring edible flowers including butterfly pea and Bulgarian rose. Today they supply edible flowers to hundreds of distillers, brewers, wineries and tea providores all around the world. Lee also has plantations of hibiscus flowers in Malaysia where around 100 small lot farmers are employed. In central Thailand he has plantations of Butterfly Pea Flowers in 2019 his Thai company Siam Hibiscus Limited exported 220,000,000 hand picked blue flowers! In 2023 they have started construction of their new distillery and factory on their 80 acre farm at Kurrajong Heights. Here Lee has planted over 2,000 finger lime trees of all different colours. Lee also grows all the native pepperberries, kaffir lime, tahitian lime, lemon myrtle and most of the other botanicals used in their gin. They will soon be opening a cafe at their farm bringing everything together and soon you will be able to visit and try all their gins on the deck and take a walk through the acres of mature camellia's and native food plants and maybe even a VIP buggy tour around the farm and up to their main finger lime orchard which has views from the Hunter Valley to Woollongong. |
Nick Ayres  | Co-Founder of local distillery Karu Distillery Launched in 2018 by husband and wife team, Nick's focus has always been to create quality spirits that highlight the science and art of the distillation process. Based in the Devils Wilderness NSW the range has grown to include Affinity a contemporary Australian gin, Lightning a navy strength gin, Morita a chipotle vodka and Outcask a golden rum. Karu is one of Australia's most awarded distilleries, in 2021 Lightning gin took out the Trophy for best contemporary gin at the International Wines & Spirits Competition. |
Discover their inspiring stories and how they overcame their challenges.
Be inspired and have a say.
It's all part of the Chamber's Community Wealth Building initiative, so come along and enjoy a scrumptious brekkie and learn how your business can benefit.
Seating is limited so book early!
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity