Co-founder and convenor Coralie Wood had been the driving force behind them.

But the future was uncertain.

Would local theatre awards continue? And in what form?

Musician Ian McLean - who has conducted many musical productions in the ACT - facilitated, with fellow former CAT Awards judge Ted Briggs, a meeting of Canberra and Queanbeyan theatre groups to discuss this.

McLean said 19 out of the 22 companies now active either sent representatives or apologies. Queanbeyan City Council, Budding Theatre and Tempo Theatre did not reply.

Limbo Theatre and the ANU Medical Revue appeared not to be active.

The 21 attendees discussed changes they would like to see if some sort of awards continued. The CAT Awards intellectual property rights would revert to Wood so another name would need to decided upon if a new awards system was implemented.

McLean said the main change sought was to scale the awards down, with only Canberra and Queanbeyan productions and no NSW regional companies, though it was suggested the regional companies might have their own zone and judges.

"They also wanted a change in the presentation: they decided not to have a big gala night but more of a dinner like the Helpmann Awards."

The Hellenic Club was named as one possible venue for such a dinner, which would not include acts from represented shows.

Other options considered were a less formal, drinks-only social event or an online event.

As far as judging was concerned, the company representatives' preference was for three judges - possibly nominated from each of the companies - to attend each show who were experts in their fields.

For example, dance practitioners would judge dance shows and musical theatre practitioners would judge musicals.

McLean said representatives from the companies also welcomed the opportunity to get together and talk to each other in an organised way, rather than catching up occasionally and briefly in a theatre foyer.

"The end result is they formed a working group that will now go away for the next few months to work out if it's feasible to implement a new awards system."

Other issues included how the awards would be funded and the possibility of having a separate awards event for school and youth groups and whether pro-am companies and productions should have their own categories.

These will be among the matters considered by the working group. It will have representatives from 10 local theatre and dance companies and will be chaired by Mockingbird Theatre artistic director Chris Baldock.

McLean - who will not be involved with the working group - said, "A lot of work's got to be done but this is an opportunity to keep an awards system going."