Where is Adelaide?
Adelaide is nestled between rolling hills and beautiful white sandy beaches, making it the perfect location for your next business event. A well-laid-out city, Adelaide's CBD is surrounded by a green belt of parklands, and most major attractions and hotels are within a five-minute walk of the GPO, making it easy to navigate by foot.
Just 20 minutes for the city are the picturesque Adelaide Hills, home to market gardens, rolling vineyards and rural farmland. The Hills are also home to an array of native wildlife, best seen at one of the national parks or wildlife sanctuaries in the area. In the west, Adelaide's stunning coastline stretches for 32 kilometres, and is home to great beaches and popular seaside suburbs such as Semaphore and Glenelg. An hour from the city you can visit the world-famous Barossa or McLaren Vale wine regions.
Our City, Our State
Adelaide’s world-class conference facilities, cosmopolitan lifestyle and central Australian location have made the city a popular choice with conference organisers from all over the world. We’ve hosted hundreds of major international and national events over the past 30 years, recently including the World Congress on Information Technology, The World Council of Gifted and Talented Children, The International Federation of Social Workers and The International Pediatric Nephrology Association World Congress.
Adelaide offers all of the benefits of a large international metropolis without the problems of a huge city. 2500 international standard hotel rooms are within a five-minute stroll of the award winning Adelaide Convention Centre, enabling delegates to walk from venue to venue and eliminating transport costs. Adelaide is cleverly planned, with a square mile Central Business District ensuring restaurants, shopping areas, cultural attractions and conveniences are never further than a few minutes walk. Adelaideans proudly promote our reputation as ‘the twenty minute city’ claiming Adelaide’s place as Australias’ most accessible mainland city and a conference organisers dream destination.
Adelaide is ideally placed with easy access to South East Asia, Oceania and beyond.
Adelaide is also home to Australia’s first purpose-built convention centre, magnificently refurbished and expanded recently and capable of accepting large-scale events for more than 6,000 people. Located overlooking picturesque River Torrens, the Adelaide Convention Centre is a world-class facility.
Adelaide is home to a range of professional businesses that can expertly handle all aspects of organising your event, from logistical arrangements and transporting your guests, to pre and post touring and cutting edge technological requirements. We have a reputation for developing innovative conference social programs that create a memorable and unique experience.
Adelaide Airport
Several major airlines fly direct international routes into Adelaide. Delegates may also fly to other Australian gateways and take a short connecting flight.
The Adelaide International Airport, Australias’ most accessible, is located just 9 kilometres, or a 12 minute transfer, from the Central Business District. Conference delegates visiting Adelaide are assured a quick, easy and cheap journey into the centre. Adelaide boasts a new terminal completed in 2005 providing Australia’s best arrival and departure facilities, capable of handling the worlds newest generation aircraft, and state of the art immigration, customs and security services.
- Approximate flying times:
Sydney to Adelaide - 1 hour 40 minutes
London to Adelaide - 22 hours
Singapore to Adelaide - 7 hours
Los Angeles to Adelaide -16 hours
Auckland to Adelaide - 5 hours
- Luxury coach services provide a convenient connection from Adelaide to regional centres.
Cuisine
Boasting more restaurants per capita than any other Australian city, Adelaideans love to dine out and alfresco dining is their most popular pastime. Eclectic dining precincts include Rundle Street East, Gouger Street and Hutt Street. It is a fact that many of Australia’s most innovative chefs are based in Adelaide. Options range from casual cafes to sophisticated dining, and there’s cuisine from all corners of the globe including Italian, Greek, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, French, Chinese, Modern Australian and fusion mixtures that blend the best together. And, ask any visitor, Adelaide restaurant food and wine is the best value for money in Australia.
Adelaide is famous for its markets! The Adelaide Central Market is a jewel conveniently located right in the centre of the city. Here, amongst the orderly rows of stalls, merchants fuss over mountainous supplies of fresh produce and dotted here and there, salamis, wursts, cheeses, olives, and wood oven fired bread in continental stalls fill the air with mouth watering aromas. You'll find mysterious dried herbs and condiments from the Orient, you can pick a fresh lobster from the fishmonger's tank and select a baguette fresh from the baker's oven. Adelaide has its share of great markets including the Fisherman's Wharf at Port Adelaide, the Rundle Street Markets in the City's East End, the Adelaide Festival Centre Arts and Craft Market and the Junction Markets, just to mention a few.
Public Transport
Adelaide is an easy city to get around in. Buses travel along an inner city route, making it convenient for delegates to move around the central business district, accessing major venues and shopping facilities. An efficient Public Transport system also links the City with Suburb and Coastal areas. If you would like to visit one of Adelaide's metro beaches, enjoy a 20 minute tram ride from the city centre. Adelaide's famous Guided Busway, the O-Bahn, is the fastest suburban bus service in the world. Travelling at up to 100 kilometres an hour along dedicated tracks, the busway services the north eastern suburbs of Adelaide. For a round trip of Adelaide, delegates can also take a trip on the City Loop Bus Service. This cross suburban route circles Adelaide in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions and crosses every main road leading to the city.
Value for Money
Staging a conference in Adelaide means you will get more value for your dollar without compromising on quality. Australia is renowned as a value-for-money destination and Adelaide consistently ranks as one of the world's most affordable cities. The 2003 Cost of Living Survey conducted by global economics consultants The Mercer Consulting Group ranked Adelaide 125 out of 146 cities with Tokyo being the most expensive city at number 1.
Importantly, Mercer ranks Adelaide ahead of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with cheaper food, accommodation and transport.
Adelaide is made for meetings
Adelaide qualifies as one of the best-planned cities in the world, laid out on a square mile grid pattern, with wide streets and a green belt of parklands encircling the entire city. For conventions and meetings, this means that delegates are never too far away. In fact there are over 4000 hotel rooms within a 10-minute walk from the Adelaide Convention Centre. Transport costs suddenly disappear and delegates bask in the joy of a city made for walking and exploring.
Adelaide is accessible
Australia may be a dream destination, but it is also a very accessible one. More than 54 international airlines regularly fly into Australia's major cities each week from 43 countries, and direct connections exist with major South East Asian cities. Adelaide is also easily accessible from other Australian cities, making the city the perfect gateway to discover the rest of our country.
Adelaide is Australia's wine capital
South Australia is responsible for 70% of Australia's wine output. From the Barossa (only one hour's drive from Adelaide), to the rich, red soil of the Coonawarra (the furthest wine region from Adelaide at 3 hours drive), there are wines to suit every palate.
The city is the home of the National Wine Centre, showcasing Australia's achievements in wine production. This exceptional centre was opened in 2001, and is one of the premier wine tasting and educational centres in the world, conveniently located in the spectacular setting of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, right in the centre of the city.
Adelaide is Australia's festival city
World-class arts festivals, celebrations of Australia food and wine and international sporting events - Adelaide has it all. The Adelaide Festival of Arts is held bi-annually, while other arts events include The Adelaide Fringe, Womadelaide, the Adelaide International Film Festival and The Adelaide Caberet Festival. On the sports front, there's the international cycling event, the Tour Down Under, the roar of the V8 Supercars at the Clipsal500 - not to mention regular world-class cricket and tennis. Australian Rules football matches are also a spectacle not to be missed. Food and wine lovers are spoilt for choice, with all South Australian wine regions hosting festivals during the year. The biggest of all is the bi-annual Tasting Australia - a showcase of Australian food, wine and beer of international importance. Adelaide was chosen as the home of this event due to its renown for high quality produce, innovative restaurants and its position as Australia's wine capital, producing 70% of all exports.
Shopping
From quirky boutiques to mainstream department stores, Adelaide is a shopper’s paradise. Rundle Mall is an open-air shopping precinct that’s home to leading Australian and international department stores, while Rundle Street East has a great collection of alternative fashion boutiques, bookstores and gift shops. The Adelaide Central Market is internationally renowned and is a must for food lovers where colour, variety and freshness in all things edible is the hallmark.
Just five minutes drive from the city, King William Road, Unley Road and the Norwood Parade are all great for fashion and homewares, while Magill Road is the best place for antiques
Adelaide has winning qualities
Adelaide can successfully blend business with pleasure - thanks to the ease in which conference or exhibition delegates can move between their meetings, accommodation and amenities. Most meetings revolve around a business and social program - and the city allows Meeting Planners the most efficient use of time and resources.
The city has a network of meeting industry professionals and government agencies able to supply support services and facilities catering to any theme or size. Adelaide shares its enviable lifestyle with visitors every year, who remark on its elegant buildings, galleries, excellent value shopping and dining - and the simple pleasures of exploring the gardens and grand boulevards on foot.
The other great advantage is the city's proximity to a host of special tour destinations - from the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula to Kangaroo Island.
New Yorker magazine once described Adelaide as "possibly the last well-planned and contented metropolis on earth." It is truly a Great Provincial City.
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