Over the years I’ve been in the industry, Adelaide has leaned heavily on its intellectual credentials – embodied physically in spaces like BioMed City, Lot Fourteen and Tonsley. That several of these intellectual, commercial and innovative place are clustered around Adelaide Convention Centre is an added bonus for business events, allowing easy site visits alongside a conference program.
But it was not until the last year, when I’ve been to Adelaide on two very different famils, that I’ve really understood how much else the South Australian capital has to offer business events.
The first famil was Dreamtime – now known as Australia Next – Tourism Australia’s signature incentive showcase in November 2023. Having breakfast on the pitch at Adelaide Oval and being sung to from the rooftop left a great impression. So did the wineries of the Barossa Valley and the fact that you can have an event at one of the world’s best known wineries – Penfolds – surrounded by vineyards, just 20 minutes from the centre of Adelaide. And a lunch at Restaurant Botanic in Adelaide’s Botanic Garden was without a doubt the most inventive meal I’ve ever experienced. Read more about the Dreamtime experience in Adelaide here.
“The interest in Adelaide is really high and growing quickly for international corporate incentives and particularly out of Asia,” says Business Events Adelaide’s CEO, Damien Kitto.
Dreamtime provided a major boost to Adelaide’s profile as an incentive destination amongst international planners, especially as the destination is relatively new to actively pursuing incentive business in a big way.
And then there was Destination South Australia (DSA), Business Events Adelaide’s primarily domestic famil, which presented a completely different set of possibilities for business events. It officially began with South Australian produce front and centre at SOL Rooftop at SkyCity Adelaide and wrapped up with drinks in front of roaring fires in Festival Plaza.
Adelaide Convention Centre pulled off a lunch unlike anything I’ve ever been to, to break up a day of appointments between buyers and sellers during DSA.
Demonstrating the impact of thinking differently about how you can use what you’ve got, the convention centre staged lunch in its kitchen, immersing 120 of us into the inner workings of the venue, where we were treated to a glimpse of how a convention centre kitchen runs, including emphatic cries of “Yes Chef!” as the place worked around us.
The idea for the lunch was sparked by a comment from Adelaide Convention Centre’s new general manager, Sarah Goldfinch, who started just months before DSA. She joked to executive chef Gavin Robertson that the kitchen floor looked clean enough to eat off.
“It came from the start of the conversation, of going, I think he has one of the cleanest kitchens that I’ve ever seen and I’ve worked globally and nationally. You could eat off the floor,” says Goldfinch. “And then that segued into ‘I’d love to do an event in our kitchen one day’.
“We achieved what we wanted to – that surprise and delight.
“It’s always hard to find something new and to create a buzz for your client or your event. So, it was a great opportunity to showcase our flexibility and what we can do in our space and those capabilities of the team,” she says.
ILA – standing for immersive light and art – was another particularly impressive venue featured at DSA, run by a Business Events Adelaide alumni, Nic Mercer, the bureau’s former general manager of sales and marketing.
The space is part event and performance venue, part experimentation lab for artists.
It’s cool and super high tech, offering two spaces surrounded by cutting-edge LED screens, enveloping attendees, bringing events to life on all sides and capable of delivering presentations with a difference.
I’ve never been into permanent spaces quite like these, but they’re reminiscent of being inside a light installation at Vivid Sydney.
ILA also offers a garden, a restaurant, a light-bathed bar and a gallery, with each space able to take between 100 and 160 attendees. Whole venue takeovers are also possible, with the venue licenced to operate until 2am.
The famil also took us a little out of town, to experience what Adelaide’s immediate surrounds have to offer – and we found plenty.
A real surprise was the Star of Greece, which highlighted the rugged beauty of the state and the depth of its hospitality offering. Located in Port Willunga, under 50 minutes from Adelaide’s city centre, the Star of Greece sits right on the edge of the beach, offering incredible views of the majestic coastline. The restaurant is owned by Nikki Govan, who is incredibly credentialled both in and out of the hospitality space – she’s currently chair of Adelaide Economic Development Agency and Green Industries SA and a director of both Wirra Wirra Vineyards and the National Australia Day Council.
The restaurant offers “fine and friendly” dining, using fresh produce that celebrates the region. Groups can take part of the venue or the whole venue can be taken over by groups of 100 to 120, depending on whether it’s a seated or standing event.
Heading slightly inland, we visited Mt Beare Station, which offered something different again – a charming, rustic woolshed of a venue – although it’s never actually seen a sheep shearing in its life – set on 500 acres of greenery, which can also accommodate overnight glamping. Whip cracking was thrown in for good measure, while we were there.
A much-anticipated visit to the d’Arenberg Cube was also on the agenda, with the spectacular and quirky experience adding yet another string to the bow of what Adelaide can offer. The cube goes beyond wine tastings and venue space, featuring two exhibitions to entice the senses – one of them is a Salvador Dali showcase – colourful stairwells and some of the wildest bathrooms I’ve ever seen. As is, there is no theming necessary for events at d’Arenberg Cube, but the attraction is happy to work with clients who have custom projects in mind.
Continuing on the McLaren Vale winery track, we lunched serenely at Beresford Estate, looking down the rolling green landscape. We also had the opportunity to look at the accommodation onsite, which was added in 2022. With 15 beautiful suites and villas available, the winery would suit small corporate overnight retreats.
Back in the city, Adelaide’s hotel inventory is growing at pace. Since the pandemic began, Sofitel Adelaide, Crowne Plaza Adelaide and Adelaide Marriott have opened, the latter within the last few months. Several more hotels are in the pipeline, including a Westin, a Little National and a Crystalbrook.
And by the sounds of it, Business Events Adelaide is doing its best to fill as many of these rooms as possible.
Having “bounced” out of COVID quickly, the bureau’s CEO Kitto says the current financial year will be a record year.
“FY25 will surpass ’23 and FY26, based upon the pipeline and our level of conversion could – could – give FY25 a nudge for being another record year,” he said.
“The team have worked hard.”
While domestic business has surged past pre-pandemic levels for Adelaide, international business is still coming back.
“Domestic business will always be the bread and butter for Business Events Adelaide and our partners and stakeholders,” said Kitto.
“The opportunity though, is to secure more international business events and that’s both association meetings, aligned to our key economic sectors, and also the corporate incentives…and particularly Asia is a wonderful opportunity there.
“At the moment, still coming out of COVID, international increasing and growing…represents around 10 per cent of the business. I’m hoping we can grow that to 20 and if not 30 per cent of business in the next three to five years,” said Kitto.
And he knows exactly what he wants Adelaide to be as a business events destination.
“Our ambition is to really promote Adelaide as a smart city, an innovative city…Tier B, [a] boutique city, because we’ll do it in our own little way – and that’s our great opportunity of growing the attraction of international business events…really using those innovation districts and those key economic sectors behind it to really elevate our profile and sophistication of who we are moving forward as a future city.
“To stand out from the crowd you do need to be unique and different and go that extra mile and provide that tailored experience.
“Competition is extreme so you’ve always got to put your best foot forward,” he says.
Adelaide certainly seems to be doing that.
