Things are moving fast here at Sine HQ.
We’re signing up hundreds of new companies every month and welcoming new people to the team weekly!
One of the newest is me! My name is Jesse Kerema and I’m the new digital marketing manager.
I’m originally from Sydney and people have been constantly asking me why I made the move. Telling me that the move is always the other way around.
Don’t get me wrong, these people love Adelaide but they aren’t used to people actually moving to Adelaide.
I have no idea why.
It’s Australia’s hidden gem!
But before I go into why I made the move, I’ll tell you a bit about me.
I’ve been in digital marketing for 5 years and have loved every second of it. Not only is it my full-time job, but it’s also what I do in my spare time, with a couple of personal blogs I run.
I fell in love with it when I got into writing which, for the record, is the last thing I thought I would have ever gotten into.
To say I was horrible at it is an understatement.
So horrible, in fact, that my school created a separate class for me and four others. Which we nicknamed ‘Gum Nut Cottage’. To give you a better idea, I frequently got below 10% on tests…
But against all odds, I developed a passion for writing which eventually grew into a love for digital marketing.\
A business trip that fuelled the move
I visited Adelaide on a business trip in 2018.
I’d never visited before and didn’t really have any expectations.
The first thing I remember noticing was how friendly the people were.
Upon arriving at my Airbnb, I was met by the owners.
After showing me the place they offered to walk me around the local area to give me an idea of where all the best bars and cafes were. This offer caught me by surprise! You wouldn’t get people willing to do that back in Sydney. Or at least, not many.
Being admittedly shy, I didn’t take them up on the offer but I did spend the next hour walking around the city.
What I discovered helped fuel the decision to move:
- Bar and cafe-lined streets
- Beautiful parks surrounding the city
- People smiling, relaxed and laughing
It was something I hadn’t seen around Sydney and after that hour, I knew I had to move here.
Making the move to Adelaide
The idea to move stuck.
The only hurdle?
Getting a job.
I began applying and it just so happens that the first one I applied for was Sine’s digital marketing position.
Things moved quickly from there:
- The phone interview happened the next day
- I was flown in for a face-to-face the following week
- I was offered the position
So 2 weeks later, I packed my life into a car and made the 14-hour drive to my new home.
Seriously, why Adelaide?
I’ve been asked by almost everyone:
Why would you make the unpopular move from Sydney to Adelaide?
It’s normally the other way around!
Here are the 3 main reasons for my decision:
1. The rise of Adelaide’s startup ecosystem
When I was in Sydney, I worked for a company called StartCon – which is Australia’s largest startup & growth conference. As a result, being involved with the startup world became a part of my life. Building connections, visiting co-working spaces, events, partnerships and, of course, the parties were the norm.
We all know Sydney has a strong startup community but Adelaide has an undervalued one.
The startup ecosystem in Adelaide is booming!
One example of why is the renewal of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital site into Lot Fourteen – South Australia’s largest creation and innovation neighborhood. Which is essentially a behemoth co-working space that’s going to attract thousands of hungry entrepreneurs.
This is actually where I was on my business trip. Hosting a startup event which allowed local entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. For a chance to win $1,000,000! The Adelaide event had one of the highest number of participants out of the 14 different cities we held the event.
To go alongside this, there was a recent announcement of a new $28 million startup fund to support Adelaide innovations. The fund will target new and existing companies with a focus on Lot Fourteen and it’s development.
“South Australians aren’t short on creativity, what we require is networking and mentoring opportunities and financial support to turn ideas into viable businesses,” – Jim Whalley
Plus the growth of Adelaide’s space startup scene with space incubator, Venture Catalyst Space, which was started by the University of South Australia to support the 60 odd companies working on space-related products.
There’s a constant flow of examples as to why Adelaide’s startup ecosystem is booming and myself and the rest of the Sine team want to be a part of it.
2. Amazing hills and beautiful beaches
There’s no other city in Australia that you can be so close to everything.
Even though I haven’t been here long, I’m starting to understand why people say ‘nothing is more than 20 minutes away and hours don’t exist”.
This largely contributed to the decision.
At home, I was two minutes from both the beach and the hills but more than an hour and a half away from the city.
Here, I’m close to everything.
So far, I’ve managed to walk up Mount Lofty which was challenging but worth the hard work for the lookout!
I was surprised by how well kept the trail was as well. A nice steady concrete path went from the bottom to the top, making it much easier for me to not get lost. Which happened a lot back home…
This is just one of the hundreds of stunning walking trails around Adelaide and I plan to walk them all.
The beaches also caught my eye.
Glenelg and Henley in particular.
They’re stunning! Long stretches of clean, calm beach with perfect sunsets.
It was clear when I first visited that the South Australian Government genuinely cares about the ecosystems surrounding the city and it’s nice to see that’s only been further proven the more I explore.
3. A sense of community
The people in Adelaide are the nicest I’ve met in Australia.
They’re happy, friendly and willing to help. Which is a complete culture shift from the busy hustle of Sydney’s streets.
In Sydney, everyone has somewhere to be and they needed to be there half an hour ago. In Adelaide, the atmosphere is relaxed.
Maybe it’s because of the constant stream of events that the whole city gets involved in?
The Fringe is the obvious one but for anyone who lives here, it seems normal. But for someone who’s from a big city, it’s a complete eye-opener.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Street performers, pop-up bars, streets closing down, comics, dancers, musicians, and the general community all coming together for a one-month long event.
This is just one example, I know there’s more and I’m keen to be apart of them.
All in all, Adelaide is an amazing place to call home.
Honestly, it really doesn’t get much better than Adelaide.
We have everything here and being a part of a growing team only makes it that much better.