In cities where rents are astronomical, parking is impossible, staff are coming and going every hour and all you realistically need to run your business is a stable Internet connection, co-working makes so much sense. It’s not just about collaboration; it’s about practicality for small businesses who are looking to keep their overheads down and be based centrally.
Which is why in a city like Adelaide, amongst all of our growing cosmopolitan features, co-working is also beginning to emerge as a preferred option for small businesses of all kinds. And at the ready are some incredible spaces co-working spaces based in the city and suburbs. Glam Adelaide has been based at DEW: Drink Eat Work on Hindley Street now for the past 4 months. Aside from the central location allowing us to be within walking distance of Adelaide’s cultural, food and retail hubs, by simply being based there we’ve shared conversations with a number of small businesses, creative and freelancers who we wouldn’t ordinarily have the opportunity to meet.
DEW’s co-working space sits at the back of their café/wine bar space with floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the street. They also have photography and art studio downstairs which they manage while an architectural firm reside upstairs. It’s a melting pot of personalities all bound by our love of our work and coffee (or wine come 5pm).
Owners Juan Londono and Elise Mercurio initially founded the space with the assistance of Renew Adelaide just over 6 months ago, but the business has since become completely independent. Basing their business upon their own past co-working experiences from Sydney, both in commercial and boutique spaces, they’ve found that Adelaide’s engagement with co-working is distinct to the East coast with a very unique personality.
“Sometimes it’s not an easy thing to explain co-working to people,” says Elise. “Interstate it’s being sought out by contractors, employees want desks so they can work away from a head office people and even large companies work out of them. It’s higher rent there so it’s more of a necessity. But here people are still getting used to the idea that you can be productive while you have food, wine or coffee next to you.”
Despite establishing the space with creative business at the fore of their thinking, there’s no typical person using the space currently. From photographers, film makers and fashion designers to NGO’s, engineers and then us, alongside the countless who drop into the cafe space to work as well. The versatility of the space, as well as the energetic and respectful atmosphere set by Juan and Elise are both huge strengths that have helped Glam settle in quickly. Conference and meeting spaces that straddle the casual/professional work balance are a real bonus, but of course the requirements of a space are always shifting, just as Adelaide business continues to innovate and create new opportunities.
“The café has allowed us to experiment with the co-working space right now, because we’re not only relying on that area and it brings people in,” Elise explains. The pair have learned a lot from their first six months and are starting to think about how they can cater more effectively for creative industries. “We want to expand the café space and provide something more available here on an hourly basis. WIFI and a power point is all a lot of creatives need. A lot of people are already coming to us for that reason so we want to cater for them.”
DEW also offers another opportunities for creatives that are rare to find. It works perfectly as an event space which has already seen live music, wine tastings, plant sales and is currently housing an exhibition from internationally renown local miniature artist Joshua Smith. It’s practical use of space that in fact wouldn’t have been found anywhere in Adelaide just a couple of years ago without some of the recent changes in building code and legislation. The evolution is set to continue as well says Elise. “We move very quickly and we watch what people do. The ideas that we have are adapting to what people are using the space for. We’re not going to sit and watch, we’re going to change.”
“We didn’t want to change the building too much when we moved in because we weren’t sure what was going to happen, but now we’ve got some permanency, we’re looking to make things even more comfortable for people to work here.”
Juan and Elise are aware of the place technology holds in modern creative industries, so we suspect we’ll see some developments in that area. This like-minded space is already the front for a number of dynamic businesses, testing the sorts of ideas that are continuing to push our city forward. With such a rapidly changing local economy and an every growing list of self-employment options, locations like DEW are prepared for the next generation of Adelaide workers.
DEW: Drink Eat Work is located at 101 Hindley St. To keep an eye on how the space is changing, follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
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