City report
Adelaide on it for innovation
SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S CAPITAL IS USING ITS LEVERAGING ITS SPACE INDUSTRY EXPERTISE
TO BLAST OFF TO A NEW EVENTS STRATOSPHERE
delaide’s business events
landscape and destination
appeal continues to grow,
with a newly developed
convention centre and rejuvenation of its
Riverbank Precinct, including BioMed
City and the lot Fourteen entrepreneurial
zone, all helping to reinforce the city’s
reputation as a leading and innovative
business events desetination.
In 2010, the team at the Adelaide
Convention Centre (ACC) participated in
the Conventions 2020 study, which
focused on forecasting trends and the
needs of delegates in the future. Major
themes arising from the study
highlighted client demand for innovation;
the importance of flexibility and
functionality in terms of meeting spaces;
and the growing role of technology.
The ACC addressed these themes in
the planning and subsequent
construction of its two-phase
AUD$397m (US$285.5m)
redevelopment, which was completed in
2017.
The ACC’s new East Building is the
pinnacle of innovation and can be
arranged into more than 15 different
configurations. The ACC’s
redevelopment also saw the venue make
significant investment in technology.
“Technology will always be a major
consideration for business events
Some key upcoming
events in Adelaide:
ACC has secured some 94
major conference events
through until the end of
planners,” says Simon Burgess, ACC
General Manager. “We’re just at the
beginning of an exponential curve which
sees how technology will be used in the
future in terms of AI, face recognition
and wayfinding systems. What we need
to do as a convention centre is to make
sure we have the infrastructure in
place for those systems to successfully
play out within our space.”
The theme of ‘Innovation’ extends
beyond the Centre’s walls to the
city at large.
“Our efforts at the ACC have been
complemented by ongoing and
significant investment within the broader
city centre,” adds Burgess. “The next
wave of new developments are slated for
completion in 2020 and the years
immediately following - an exciting new
era for Adelaide.”
Sitting on the Adelaide Riverbank,
ACC claims to be located in Australia’s
best connected business events precinct.
To the west of the Centre lies the $3.6bn
BioMed City, one of the largest health
and life science precincts in the Southern
Hemisphere. Comprising the new Royal
Adelaide Hospital and the South
Australian Health & Medical Research
Institute (SAHMRI), along with the
University of Adelaide’s Health and
Medical Sciences facility and the
University of South Australia’s
2021. Collectively, they will
bring an estimated 80,000
delegates to Adelaide,
generating 300,000 bed
nights and delivering more
than $245m in economic
benefit to the state.
Thirty of the conferences
on the books are for 1,000+
delegates.
The ACC, in conjunction
with Adelaide Convention
Above: 1. Adelaide
Convention Centre
East Building; 2.
Aerial view of the
ACC complex.
3. SAHMRI, photo by
Peter Clarke
Health & Innovation building, BioMed
City places more than 1,000 researchers
and students on the Centre’s doorstep,
providing a ready-made pool of
speakers and delegates.
The precinct is set to further expand
with the addition of SAHMRI II, which
will be home the Australian Bragg
Centre for Proton Therapy and Research
– the Southern Hemisphere’s first proton
therapy unit. Construction of SAHMRI
II is expected to commence this year
with completion in 2021.
A short stroll east of the Centre, Lot
Fourteen is Australia’s first “creation and
innovation neighbourhood” and sits on
the site of the former Royal Adelaide
Hospital. Lot Fourteen is dedicated to
showcasing some of the world’s fastest
growing industries, from AI to cyber
security, robotics, defence and space
technologies, among others.
Spearheading the precinct is the
Australian Space Agency, which was
announced in December 2018 as a lasting
legacy from the International
Astronautical Congress held at the
Adelaide Convention Centre in
September 2017. The Agency is set to be
up and running in Adelaide by mid-2019.
Other major city developments in the
works and slated for completion in the
early 2020s include the $330m Casino
expansion (2020), complete with a new
Bureau, has won bids
including for the 38th
Australian Dental
Congress: 2–4 May, 2019
(3,000 delegates); the World
Fisheries Congress: 12–15
ISSUE 100
/
October, 2020, (1,500
delegates); and the World
Indigenous People’s
Conference on Education:
2–6 November, 2020
(3,000 delegates).
CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
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