The Influencers: Alison Adams

Learn from others

I recently returned from an amazing trip to Adelaide, Ōtautahi’s Australian sister city, to mark the 50th anniversary of our partnership.

I can honestly say that of all my delegation visits, this was the most relevant, inspirational and practical one. Adelaide has abundant parallels to Christchurch and we can learn a lot from working collaboratively with them.

Like Christchurch, Adelaide is also a city where everything’s right on your doorstep. It wants to become one of the world’s most liveable cities and has implemented some inspiring strategies to build this.

One strong parallel is the innovation eco-system, particularly in the Aerospace sector, an area where Christchurch is growing quickly.

Former South Australia Premier Steven Marshall had a vision that Adelaide was going to be famous for aerospace, and his tenacity led to the creation of Lot Fourteen, an inspirational innovation precinct right in the heart of the city.

Lot Fourteen houses small to medium enterprises, big players such as Amazon and the Australian Space Agency. A Capability Centre, designed to ensure there are people to service the growth sectors, is also being built. It’s all very connected and is great inspiration as Christchurch has many similar foundations already.

Strategic placemaking has also brought Adelaide to life. Their Riverside Precinct seamlessly links the sport and entertainment facilities with the CBD.

With Te Kaha recently approved, I am excited to see how Christchurch can ensure our new stadium is connected to our own city centre, and what we can learn from Adelaide as this work progresses.