As Alec Gilbert steps down as CEO of the Adelaide Convention Centre he looks back at the changes that he
has seen that reflect both the Centre and the city’s coming of age as an international conference destination.
What was the motivation behind the
redevelopment?
My background initially was as an
urban planner and when I started to set
about motivating for a much needed
extension one of my primary focuses
was how the convention centre could
contribute to the precinct, rather than
working in isolation. A lot of the things
we documented are now happening.
The Adelaide Oval started it off. Now the
recompletion of the Festival Centre and
Casino redevelopment. Of course there
is the bio-medical hub which is reputedly
going to be the largest in the Southern
Hemisphere right on our doorstep. Then
you have the Tonsley development park
opening up just at the right time to put
Adelaide in a different place as a city of
thinking and innovation. Adelaide is in a
very exciting place and I think in the next
10 years you will see a huge difference in
the city.
How has the Centre’s role changed?
The whole Riverbank precinct has to
a large extent given Adelaide a heart
and something to show off about. The
convention centre has been at the heart
of that precinct for the last 30 years but
the trouble is it used to turn its back
on it. It was almost a pillbox looking
out over the waterfront and that was
its sole interaction with the river. It sort
of epitomised the general role of the
convention centre, which was traditionally
a ‘keep out’. Hold your conference, get
your delegates in and lock the doors
and everyone else keep out. That has
completely changed now. Convention
centres are community facilities where
you need to encourage people to move
through them and take ownership
of them. The whole centre is now
focused on the Riverbank and has been
completely opened up.
The International Aeronautical
Conference was a great way to finish
The International Aeronautical
Conference has been extraordinary
for a number of reasons. Firstly it
was probably the biggest stand-alone
conference the city has ever held.
The legacies it is leaving are massive
20 Convention & Incentive Marketing, Issue 6, 2017 www.cimmagazine.com
from the announcement of a national
space agency to all sorts of signed
MOUs between the state government
and various parties, as well as local
businesses and international businesses.
It was amazing to see just how the
government was leveraging out of the
opportunities this conference presented.
The other very gratifying part is to see
how well this building worked, which is
incredibly flexible and has been designed
according to a very strict brief. We used
it in virtually every configuration. If we
hadn’t had that flexibility we wouldn’t
have been in a position to host this
conference.
How hard is it to hand over the reins to
Simon Burgess?
Any good team has to have a transition
plan, and Simon stood out as being one of
the obvious candidates. We have worked
together for over five years so, attending
trade shows. It gives you a lot of time to
talk and discuss ideas, and I think there
is great element of continuity there now.
We have a very sound operations team so
I think it will be a good team when I leave.