THE Logan Country Chamber of Commerce business awards will not be held in Logan Country this year, with a venue change booked for Springfield.
The Spring Lakes Hotel will host the awards on May 30 instead of it being at Emmaus College on May 16, where it has been held for the past two years.
Logan Country Chamber of Commerce president Kelly Cousins said the decision to move the venue outside Logan was made after long debate among the committee.
She said the move was made because the hall at Emmaus College was not suitable for the equipment and decorations needed for the theme and was more than double the price of the Spring Lakes venue.
"We would need to hire everything at Emmaus, such as tables and chairs, catering and wait staff, whereas at Spring Lakes it's all included," Ms Cousins said.
Ms Cousins said it was just one event out of a whole calendar year of events held in the Logan Country area.
She said there were no purpose-built venues in the Logan Country area available that were big enough to hold 200 people and no suitable venues in the greater Logan area either.
"We spoke to (Mayor) Pam Parker and spoke to other key business leaders and it was just felt that if we have to go outside the area because the venues aren't available at the time or are not suitable then that's the way it is," she said.
Ms Cousins said she hoped the chamber's members and sponsors would appreciate that the chamber supported local businesses as much as they could.
She said she had spoken to and received support from the chamber's corporate partners Harcourts Jimboomba and Bob Gunn Termite Solutions.
"I don't want to go outside the Logan Country region but we are a little rural area still developing and we don't have that type of facility here," Ms Cousins said.