February 22, 2024
The Chamber held its Year of the Wood Dragon Banquet at the Eight Restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown on Thursday, 15 February 2024 which was attended by more than 380 members, VIP guests, members of our community and friends of the Chamber. What a fantastic celebratory evening it was!
The Chamber is extremely delighted to have hosted some very special guests of the evening including the Hon. Andrew Giles MP, Federal Minister for Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, Deputy Premier of the State of New South Wales the Hon. Prue Car MP, NSW Deputy Leader of the Opposition Robyn Preston MP, the Hon Damien Tudehope MLC, Leader of the Opposition in the NSW Legislative Council, the Hon. Mark Buttigieg MLC, NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Multiculturalism and representing NSW Minister for Multiculturalism, the Hon. Stephen Kamper MP, City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore AO, Mark Coure MP, Matt Cross MP, Alex Greenwich MP, Jenny Leong MP, Jason Yat-Sen Li MP, Kellie Sloane MP, City of Sydney Deputy Lord Mayor Robert Kok, City of Sydney Councillors William Chan, Sylvie Ellsmore, Lyndon Gannon, Shauna Jarrett and Linda Scott, Councillor Kun Huang, Councillor Nancy Liu, Councillor Barbara Ward, Regional Director NSW & ACT Department of Home Affairs Sneha Chatterjee, CEO of Multicultural NSW Joseph La Posta, 1996 Australian of the Year Dr John Yu AC, Chief Superintendent Darryl Dunbar, Area Commander, Metropolitan East, NSW Fire & Rescue, and Det Supt Martin Fileman APM, Commander of Sydney City PAC. We thank all our guests for the honour bestowed upon us by their attendance.
Congratulations to this year’s joint winners of the Chamber’s 2024 Year of the Dragon Project of the Year Award, being Soul of Chinatown (led by Peter Wong, Kevin Cheng and Hayden Wong) for the Chinatown Comedy Club and the Dragon on Dixon team of Basalt Studio (led by Anthony Ho and Fiona Ho) and Haymarket HQ (Andrea Plawutsky). Their respective projects have brought a positive impact to our local Haymarket precinct and the Chamber acknowledges their significant contribution.
A BIG THANK YOU to our event sponsors and supporters Millon Wines (for the award-winning table wines), Community Bank Darling Square (for the evening’s entertainment), Charles Darwin University (for the lion dance), and also to all prize donors for their generous contribution of special prizes for the raffle and lucky draws (ICC Sydney, Community Bank, Millon Wines, EQness, Athena Partners, Surfside Hotels Group, Chat Thai Haymarket & Boon Cafe, Dynasty Karaoke, La Cosmetique, ArtSHINE, Gong Grocer, Local Sauce Tours, Mr Roses, Forcast, The Eight Restaurant, Anthony Sim Lawyers & Associates, VTS Lawyers).
We are also grateful to Uncle Michael West of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council for his Welcome to Country, the Choy Lee Fut Pennant Hills lion dance troupe, drummers from the Da Hung Lion Dance & Martial Arts Australia, XO Music band, photographers Michael Thompson and Michelle Haywood, our designer Christina Siu, printer Think & Grow, the management and staff of the Eight Restaurant for their excellent banquet and service, and the management of Market City for their tremendous help and support.
Last but most certainly not least, we express our gratitude to all our members for their continuing support of the Chamber and to the Executive Committee event organising team led by our President Vincent Lim and Vice President Ruby Cheung, our fantastic MC Serena Tran, and other EC members Simon Chan AM, Jonathan Wong, Richard Hughes, San Koh, Brad Chan, Jessie Xiao, Yvonne Young, and our co-founder George Wing Kee.
We look forward to seeing all of you again at next year’s Haymarket Chamber of Commerce Lunar New Year Banquet. Until then, wishing all a healthy and prosperous 2024!
PS. You can also read about our most enjoyable banquet in a post by one of our guests and a good friend of the Chamber’s, Vivienne She, on her website entitled At HCC’s Year Of The Dragon Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration Banquet.
