SA’s smarts drive move from Sydney to Adelaide

South Australia’s annual _SOUTHSTART Festival is nurturing entrepreneurial talent

As one of the founding team of innovation incubator Stone & Chalk, Chris Kirk has been immersed in the world of entrepreneurship for almost a decade. But until a few years ago, Kirk’s focus was on establishing start-ups on the eastern seaboard from his office in Sydney.

That all changed in 2018 when he attended his first _SOUTHSTART festival in Adelaide – a three-day annual impact and innovation festival created to unlock potential, support growth and build for the future. “The interesting bit for me was not appreciating or having any understanding or knowledge of the smart, ambitious people in the South Australian community,” he says. “It was really inspiring.”

Kirk used that inspiration to migrate from Sydney to Adelaide where he established a Stone & Chalk innovation hub at Lot Fourteen. “It’s incredibly rewarding – you are a part of the journey of some of the most ambitious and inspirational people in Australia – and, frankly, the world,” he says. “I’m now in a precinct that has almost 1600 people and will eventually climb to 6000, so it’s a really exciting new chapter. You see young people who never really thought about entrepreneur career paths completely pivoting their direction based on working for some incredible companies. You see companies going from one or two people to 30, 40, 50, 100 in a short space of time, and you see problems being solved. It’s been incredible.”

In 2021, Stone & Chalk partnered with

_SOUTHSTART, hosting a series of activities at its Adelaide hub to foster more innovation and disruption through conversations and connections. This year that partnership continues, with a new program called Adelaide Curious.

Chris Kirk, general manager, Stone & Chalk. Picture: Russell Millard

“As a state and start-up ecosystem, we want to do a better job of promoting and attracting interstate talent curious about jobs in Adelaide to come to South Australia,” Kirk says. “We are running a program with the leading scale-ups and larger tech start-ups which are hiring, particularly in technology-based roles around product development and work development.

“We’re telling stories about real opportunities in South Australia, and people will have an opportunity to apply if they’re interested in or curious about South Australia.”

Held throughout the state, _SOUTHSTART features an immersive agenda of masterclasses, conversations, investment connections, hospitality activations, wellbeing activities and regional escapades. The event runs concurrent to Adelaide’s summer calendar of festivals. “ _SOUTHSTART is happening during Adelaide Fringe and WOMADelaide – it’s an incredible time to be around,” Kirk says. “We’ll have 1000 people across the entrepreneurial sector from all around Australia, including leading venture capitalists; and we’ve got speakers participating from around the world. It’s really become the hallmark of the flagship moments of the Australia start-ups calendar, which is really special – and it’s heaps of fun, too.”

Outside of the office, there is also fun to be had in life in South Australia. “The reality has blown my expectations out of the water in every respect,” Kirk says. “The decision to move to South Australia was probably one of the things you look back on and go, ‘Yes, I definitely got that one right’. I bought a house here and I met my future wife here.

“When I moved here, I set myself the goal that the four-wheel drive got mud on it every weekend and I’ve just about achieved that, too.”