To understand what Dantia does, look no further than the gigantic Costco store at the Boolaroo industrial estate.
Dantia is funded by Lake Macquarie City Council and is the city's economic development company. Chief executive Tim Browne said what his organisation does can be boiled down to one word; jobs.
"Our aim is to create new jobs and maintain existing jobs," Mr Browne said.
"Dantia has been successful in helping bring a number of national and international businesses to Lake Macquarie including Southern Star Windows and Costco."
As the state's third-largest regional city - behind the Central Coast and Wollongong - Lake Macquarie is home to 216,000 people, with more than 73,000 jobs and an annual economic output of $29-billion.
The local government area has almost 14,300 businesses and that figure has grown by more than 1000 in the past two years.
It begs the question, why are businesses choosing Lake Macquarie?
"As a general rule, it's not as expensive as Western Sydney for land and labour," Mr Browne said.
"We are well endowed with our geography. There's the lake, beaches, forests. On the west side of the lake, if you turn left you're into Sydney in an hour, you turn right and you're connected to the entire east coast."
"We have great access to the national highway, there's an international airport close by, along with a port."
Businesses have recognised its geographically strategic location. International postage service DHL recently opened a $14-million distribution centre in Morisset because of its location, while a craft beer has popped up in the suburb for the same reasons.
"There are three micro-brewers in Morisset, and I thought why Morisset of all places?" Mr Browne said.
"They set up there so they can get all the overflow tourism - all the people from Sydney going up to the vineyards go straight past them."
Aside from preaching the wonderful location and lifestyle of Lake Macquarie, Dantia provides practical and on-the-ground support to businesses.
It created Dashworks, a co-working space located in Charlestown that gives businesses office or desk space at discounted rates. Many of the businesses that started at Dashworks have gone on to bigger and better things, expanding into their own offices within the LGA.
"We want Lake Macquarie businesses and those wanting to become part of the Lake Mac business community to focus on doing what they do best - running their business, expanding and creating their own environments and being part of the community in our city," Mr Browne said.
Dantia also provides access to a "grants guru" to help businesses apply for government grants.
"We are not just about helping grow profits for businesses; we are about cultivating prosperity, fostering innovation, and creating a future that positively impacts the Lake Macquarie community, businesses and the generations that follow," Mr Browne said.
- Innovation Ready is an Out of the Square initative produced in collaboration with Hunter Innovation Festival and the Newcastle Herald to highlight the region as an innovation powerhouse. The videos can be viewed at newcastleherald.com.au and innovationready.com.au
