Sydney, Australia
ZAREH NALBANDIAN, FOUNDER AND CEO OF ANIMAL LOGIC
People of good intent p.8
IDEAS
A critical mass of experience p.20
PLAY
Heroes of Sydney p.30
Edition No 6
SMARTS
Coogee Pavilion, Coogee
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Lyn Lewis-Smith Chief Executive Officer, Business Events Sydney
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
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ithout question, our world has seen profound changes politically, socially, and environmentally. Communities internationally have endured uncertainty and tragedy, and have also celebrated ground-breaking discoveries in science, medicine and technology that will improve lives and influence future thinking. Change. It can be fast, or slow. It can challenge us and it can shine a light on humankind’s optimism, excitement and innovation. Welcome to the sixth edition of Sydney Shines. In this issue, we explore some of the positive changes that Sydneysiders have made in recent times. Fearless and resourceful members of our community work tirelessly to create a better future for generations to come. They have drive. They have spunk. They have vision. They are some of the Australians who are curating the future and inspiring positive progress. Leo Tolstoy said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world,
but no one thinks of changing himself.” These are people who have taken the blind turns, pushed themselves to follow what they love and have not only changed themselves, but are also changing the world. Can disruptive medical technology turn the world of pain management on its head? Will advanced robotics offer our future service solutions? Who knows what the future holds. Grab a cup of coffee and join us as we delve in to the most recent medical breakthroughs, the growth of Australia’s relationship with its Indigenous heritage, the most exciting advances in data technology, and even where to find lunch in Sydney when you have just 15 minutes to spare. Sydney is home to a wealth of talent and our global connections stretch far. Welcome to Sydney Shines. @lynbesydney businesseventssydney.com.au 3
Luna Park, Sydney
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1 23 SMARTS
IDEAS
PLAY
8 People of good intent
20 A critical mass of experience
30 Heroes of Sydney
10 How to make pigs fly
22 Nourishing Sydney’s hunger for health
32 Sydney’s artisan bars
14 The quest for breath 24 The magic maker
34 Time and the city
16 Leader of the pack 26 Money honey 17 Meeting in Sydney: Driving global business progress
SYDNEY SHINES TEAM Publisher Business Events Sydney | Editor Angie Ruperto | Art direction and design Emma Johnson Contributors Ash Harder, Fiona Pearce, Claire Stewart, Hannah Jamieson | Photographers James Horan
CONNECT WITH BUSINESS EVENTS SYDNEY linkedin.com/company/BusinessEventsSydney @BESydney Google/BESydney
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IMAGE CREDITS Steve Back; Destination NSW, James Horan, Destination New South Wales, Louie Douvis, Flow Hive, About Life, Daniel Boud, Pablo & Rusty’s and Grandma’s Bar. Disclaimer This publication has been prepared by Business Events Sydney (BESydney) as an information source only. BESydney makes no statements, representations, or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of, and you and all other persons should not rely on, any information contained in this publication. Any reference to a specific organisation, product or service does not constitute or imply its endorsement or recommendation by BESydney. BESydney disclaims all responsibility and all liability (including without limitation, liability in negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages and costs you might incur as a result of the information being inaccurate or incomplete in any way, and for any reason. © Business Events Sydney 2016
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PEOPLE OF GOOD INTENT PROFESSOR SHANE HOUSTON P.8 6 6
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8 People of good intent 10 How to make pigs fly 14 The quest for breath 16 Leader of the pack 17 Meeting in Sydney: Driving global business progress
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PEOPLE INTENT OF GOOD
INSPIRING SPIRIT CHANGEMAKER CARVING THE FUTURE Professor Shane Houston University of Sydney, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services)
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hane Houston is an entertainer — vibrant and quick to laugh; full of stories about the characters he has met from one side of Australia to the other over his 40-year career in Indigenous affairs. Growing up in Ingleburn, south west of Sydney, he recalls the H-Block married quarters at the local barracks where the family lived with his army dad. “In those days you had to catch a steam train from Liverpool to Campbelltown,” he says by way of showing just how different life was then. “There were not a lot of Aboriginal people out there. I remember going to school, I was told the best I could do — even with my HSC — was to go and get a job as a labourer.” So he did, working as a foundry labourer in an engineering shop in Cabramatta. He lasted three weeks. “I hated it to be honest, but it kept ringing in my head, ‘this is the best you can do’.” Speaking from his office in the hallowed halls of the University of Sydney — where he is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy Services) — he must be quietly bemused by the recollection. Although his tenacious, no-nonsense approach learned from his father does not make his latest role particularly surprising. “Dad grew up in Queensland, when the mission managers, the government, controlled everything; wages, where you worked, lived — you had no choice. “But Dad took the time to make some choices, and he chose to join the Air Force underage, and then chose to join the Army. He did it not because of pay, but because he believed there were important issues at stake, and that you have to get up and do things you believe in.” Following his early career stumbling-block, Houston took the same attitude and in 1975 applied for what he laughingly describes as some “overly ambitious jobs”, one being
Section 1 — Smarts
the editor of New Dawn, a magazine published by the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Youth, Ethnic and Community Affairs. He didn’t get the job, but not long after the editor Kaye Mundine called and asked if he wanted to be a project liaison officer, travelling around NSW and talking to Indigenous Australian people about careers and jobs.
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WHEN YOU COME TO THE EDGE OF THE LIGHT, AND YOU CAN SEE ONLY DARKNESS, THROW YOURSELF INTO IT. YOU WILL EITHER LEARN TO FLY, OR LAND ON SOLID GROUND.
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“It really gave me a greater insight into the resilience of Aboriginal people. Despite the hardships and challenges there was this real capacity to laugh and have a joke and get on with life — to bounce back.” From there, he moved to the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs and was awarded a scholarship to work overseas with the World Council of Indigenous Peoples. “It gave me the ability to look at things anew, and to see the cracks of light in what some might think is an incredibly dark environment. I remember Dad used to say something like ‘when you come to the edge of the light, and you can see only darkness, throw yourself into it. You’ll either learn to fly, or land on solid ground’.” It was when he was working as a senior executive in the Northern Territory Department of Health that he got a call about the Deputy ViceChancellor role at the University of Sydney. “I thought, wouldn’t that be cool! I talked to [Vice Chancellor] Michael Spence and it occurred to me that
he was actually committed to doing something, he was not playing, it was not just window dressing. “I was told by someone in Western Australia, ‘Shane, you have always got to work with people of good intent. Good hearts and good minds. They may not always get it right, but you will deliver remarkable results’.” It is what informs the University’s Wingara Mura-Bunga Barrabugu strategy to boost Indigenous participation, and do it without tokenism. “We want to be known for who we are,” Houston says. “Recognition is about being seen, and seeing.” The best part, he says, is watching people from other cultures want what they have created for Indigenous students, through programs like the Cultural Competence initiative launched in July. “It was really interesting, I thought, ‘Hey, they are actually jealous of us’!” For Houston, that is a mark of success, when programs in the Indigenous space lead the way for growth and development of nonIndigenous Australians, and the 136 cultures across the University. “Aboriginal people are no longer the scholarship holders, or the ones who are there as the beneficiaries of others’ largess. We are there because we are making a real contribution to this country and other people see great promise in what we are doing for ourselves and they want to be a part of that for them as well.” But for Houston, there is no time to draw breath. Work has already started to organise the Eighth Global Gathering of the Healing Our Spirit Worldwide, which the University of Sydney will co-host in 2018. “It will bring 2,500 Indigenous Australians together in a unique celebration of knowledge and culture,” Houston says. “It is going to be so cool.”
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MASTER STORYTELLER TALENT SUPPORTER HOLLYWOOD HEAVYWEIGHT Zareh Nalbandian Founder and CEO of Animal Logic
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HOW TO MAKE PIGS Section 1 — Smarts
FLY
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itting in Zareh Nalbandian’s office is a 20-year-old chalkboard animation of the instructions for how to make a pig fly. It’s a perfect example of the type of culture Animal Logic is home to — inspired creativity. The Animal Logic team is working to nuture a deep talent pool and build a globally competitive digital production industry in Australia. Zareh Nalbandian, co-founder and CEO of Animal Logic, has just landed back in Sydney after yet another short stint in Los Angeles, New York and the newly-opened Animal Logic studios in Vancouver. It is one of the many trips he makes to North America each year, and he is pleased to be home. “Home is Sydney. I try to never forget that,” he says. Nalbandian is proud to be a first generation Australian. From Armenian heritage, his parents fled their home country during the genocide in early last century and migrated to Cairo where Nalbandian and his siblings were born. Immigrating to Sydney during the 1960s, Nalbandian grew up in western Sydney and graduated from Canterbury Boys High School, “which I found out later was the same school that former Prime Minister John Howard went to,” he says with a smile. Nalbandian’s creative journey began through photography — a passion that was inspired by his godfather, himself a keen photographer and collector of cameras. It was when his uncle arrived from Armenia, bringing with him the gift of a prized Russian stills camera, Nalbandian’s passion really took off. It was photography that led him into
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cinematography and a new realm of possibilities for the Australian film industry. “I was taking photos of anything and everything — from landscapes to portraits. I would have a camera with me at all times and would develop and print my own pictures, which was part of the fun seeing the process through from beginning to end.”
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[AUSTRALIA HAS] A DISPROPORTIONATELY HIGH LEVEL OF AMAZING TALENT. I THINK WE ARE HIGHLY INNOVATIVE. Seeing the end-to-end process is a recurring theme in Zareh’s story. As a young high school graduate armed with a solid education in art house films, (“I watched everything from Fellini all the way through to quirky films like Harold and Maude”), Nalbandian went straight into the film industry, working as an apprentice for Colour Film — the major Australian production company in the traditional film analogue space at that time. Over two years he trained in every aspect of film post production services — from developing the negative through to editorial and sound and all the way to delivering the release print to the theatre. As a result, Nalbandian discovered and specialised in what was then known as film optical effects — the modern day equivalent of visual effects. His mentor, Colour Film’s Managing
Director, Murray Forrest, is still regarded as an icon in the Australian film industry today. “Murray gave me my first opportunity to move from being an artist into more leadership roles,” says Nalbandian, “and so I went from being a visual effects artist to setting up a company on behalf of Colour Films in Southeast Asia, called Gaya.” This experience provided Nalbandian with a vital grounding in successful start-ups. In 1991, Nalbandian co-founded Animal Logic with his good friend and business partner, Chris Godfrey. The start-up was built on the back of the Video Paint Brush Company — the first Australian company to use high-end digital technology to create graphics, animation and effects for the film industry. Today, Animal Logic is one of the world’s most prolific digital studios and for an independent Australian company, that’s saying something. Based in Fox Studios Sydney, the award-winning Australian visual effects and animation studio, Animal Logic, houses over 500 of the world’s best creative minds, producers and technicians, and is known for smash hits like Happy Feet, Legend of the Guardians and the LEGO movie. Competing against the major US Studios (Disney Animation, PIXAR, Dreamworks Animation, Illumination), they’re winning the big jobs and continuing to push the boundaries of digital storytelling. “Australians punch above their weight when you look at the size of our population. We have a disproportionally high level of amazing talent in this country. I think that
Zareh Nalbandian, Founder and CEO of Animal Logic
we are highly innovative. We are very prepared to take a risk and try something that hasn’t been tried. We do not impose unnecessary limitations on ourselves,” he says. For Nalbandian, Animal Logic’s success has been in finding the sweet spot at the intersection between technology, creativity and commerce, in a high-risk, high-investment and high-depreciation industry. Yet the challenge, he says, is to grow and maintain Australian talent to reverse what he calls the ‘brain drain’ from Australian soil. To that end, Animal Logic invests heavily in internal training programs and internships, nurturing the new generation of artists and technicians. In August 2016, the University of Technology Sydney joined forces with Animal Logic to offer a new, intensive master’s degree in animation and visualisation. The University Of Technology Sydney Animal Logic Academy will create opportunities for Australians to advance their careers at home and provides a much needed incentive for artists and technicians to remain onshore. “We are really excited about the Academy — it is a model that works and we hope to emulate it again here Section 1 — Smarts
and overseas because it is all about growing talent and retaining talent,” says Nalbandian. Animal Logic Vancouver opened its doors in September 2015 and is yet another initiative to tap into and nurture the talent pool. It’s a perfect cultural fit and complement to the Sydney operations says Nalbandian. “We have germinated the company with a few Aussies and embraced the Canadian-ness of it all, but we have also made sure that we build on our strengths here. For me, it’s a great export achievement for the company. And there will be opportunities for Australians to work in Vancouver and for Vancouverites to work here,” he says. Nalbandian is right here, on the ground, helping to shape Australia’s position on the world stage and seeing the creative process through from start to finish. “I still come to work every day and sit alongside the artists and producers who are responsible for our films and take great joy in that. We have a very flat hierarchy, and we’re always [focusing on] the work.” Over the last eight years, the team has been developing several of its own films through Animal Logic Entertainment. Nalbandian and
the team have been working to bring projects Australia’s shores, the first of which was Peter Rabbit, due for release in April 2018. The project is currently in production at Animal Logic Sydney.
ANIMAL LOGIC’S CURRENT PROJECTS PLANNED FOR RELEASE: • • • • • • •
The LEGO Batman Movie (Warner Bros., Feb 2017) The LEGO Ninjago Movie (Warner Bros., Sept 2017) The Great Wall (Legendary Pictures, Universal Pictures, Feb 2017) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (Marvel Studios, Apr 2017) Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant (Fox Studios, Aug 2017) Peter Rabbit (Sony Pictures, Mar 2018) The LEGO Movie Sequel (Warner Bros., 2019)
Zareh Nalbandian is a Business Events Sydney Ambassador
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RELENTLESS FORCE BREATH OF FRESH AIR CLEAN AIR ADVOCATE Professor Christine Jenkins AM Head of Respiratory Trials, The George Institute for Global Health
THE QUEST FOR
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rofessor Christine Jenkins AM has been at the forefront of research and education in respiratory health for several decades. She remains a relentless force in the quest to reduce global lung disease and improve the life and care of those suffering from chronic respiratory disease. Professor Jenkins’ father, an industrial chemist, had long aspired to be a farmer and in 1964 purchased 10 acres of land and moved the family to North Rocks, a semi-rural town 26 kilometres northwest of Sydney. “We raised young Friesian calves for the dairies that were still operating on the fringes of Sydney. So even though I grew up in Sydney, I had a slightly different upbringing to the kind of suburban upbringing that many people in Sydney would have,” she says. During her high school years, Professor Jenkins nearly did not aspire to pursue a career in medicine. With a love of sport and facing a clash of subjects in her timetable, she considered dropping high-level science to focus on physical education. Yet as fate would have it, a number of influencers in her life helped to put her back on track. Her much loved science teacher, Joan Webb was particularly inspirational. Recognising her talent and capability, she persuaded her to stick with science knowing that a career in sports education wouldn’t satisfy her for the rest of her life. In 1965, Professor Jenkins had her first asthma attack, a turning point for her. It was through the professionalism and humanity of a North Rocks General Practitioner (GP) that Professor Jenkins decided — once and for all — to pursue a career in medicine. “He [the GP] was the person who really inspired me to do medicine. I had weekly and then fortnightly injections for about a year to reduce my allergic sensitisation. The experience gave me a lot of exposure to general practice and what a doctor does, and I thought I would really like to do this,” she says.
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Today, Professor Jenkins is the Clinical Professor and Head of Respiratory Discipline at the University of Sydney, Head of Respiratory Trials at The George Institute for Global Health and the Senior Staff Specialist in Thoracic Medicine at Concord Hospital in Sydney. She is also on the Board of the Lung Foundation Australia, and is a member of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, the American Thoracic Society, European Respirator Society and the Asia-Pacific Society of Respirology.
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AUSTRALIA HAS A FANTASTIC TRACK RECORD IN RESPIRATORY RESEARCH AND WE WANT TO BUILD ON THAT. Her main area of research is the clinical management of airways disease and patient response to therapeutic interventions. She has led many expert panels on asthma, obstructive lung disease, drug development and therapeutic guidelines for lung health. She is currently implementing further trials in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In 2003, she was made a Member in the Order of Australia in recognition of her service to respiratory medicine as a physician, administrator and educator, especially in the field of asthma education.“We have had a massive revolution in asthma care. I started my Masters in asthma research in 1981 and at that time we had an almost epidemic in asthma deaths in Australia and New Zealand, and globally in other western countries,” she says. Asthma education has been the cornerstone to this revolution. Both in specialised education for GPs and by helping sufferers better understand and
manage their disease, coupled with breakthroughs in treatment programs. “It is an outcome of fantastic research and development in the pharmaceutical industry to deliver better products, but it’s also a better understanding of the disease and helping patients to self-manage the disease proactively. National advocacy organisations such as the National Asthma Foundation and the Lung Foundation play a huge role in this,” she says. According to the Lung Foundation Australia, lung disease affects more than 2.6 million people in Australia and more than 19,000 people die from a lung disease in Australia each year. For Professor Jenkins, there is an urgent need for continued research to help reduce these alarming statistics. “Lung disease is the leading cause of death in Australia. It kills more people than breast cancer, prostate cancer and ovarian cancer combined. So that is where we have a great opportunity, and I think we can make a difference. Individuals can make a difference,” says Professor Jenkins. “Australia has punched well above its weight in respiratory research. We do have a fantastic track record and we want to build on that. All our health professionals in respiratory disease are working hard towards this ‘Lungs for Life’ concept where we will continue to raise the profile of lung disease and hopefully put research and funding into it because we have the capacity to put the runs on the board, we know we can do it.”
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LEADER
OF THE PACK
Q&A
with Penelope (Pep) Serow They are leading the packs, taking charge, and steering us towards tomorrow. Our Future Leaders are our window into tomorrow: our next generation of global leaders. What drives them, how did they get here, and who are they away from their desks and labs? We spoke with Pep Serow, Associate Professor in Mathematics Education, at the University of New England. — TELL US ABOUT YOUR WORK
I am an Associate Professor in Mathematics Education, University of New England (UNE) in Armidale. My teaching and research interests span primary, secondary, and post-graduate studies in mathematics education. Over the past five years I have concentrated on teacher education in the Pacific Island context. With the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Australia’s support, our UNE Pacific Education and Development Team has had a positive partnership with the Department of Education, Nauru, focused on capacity building local teachers and sustainable strategies for educational development. I believe that education is a catalyst for stability, growth, and development. I work with a team of academics who partner with communities to enhance equity and quality of education through innovative educational 16
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experiences. We strive to build local capacity, to ensure sustainable educational development that is evidenced by effective outcomes and the establishment of an ongoing community of practice.
the University of Technology (UTS). The collegiality of the mathematics education community in Australia has provided a level of support that is hard to find in some fields.
— WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Apart from bringing four children into the world, and having two grandchildren to date, I am especially proud of having a part to play in capacity building through sustainable education in the Pacific Island context. In May this year, when our Nauru Teacher Education Project team witnessed 14 Nauruan UNE graduates celebrate completing their Associate Degree in Teaching — studying online through UNE, while remaining in their community — I couldn’t have been prouder of their achievements. To witness the family support, and to hear their aspirations for education in Nauru, is a highlight.
My greatest inspiration is witnessing people of all ages and places enjoying the world of mathematics. Whether it’s a child feeling a sense of accomplishment or having ownership of a mathematical idea, or an adult in Nauru realising that they are good at mathematics. This keeps me going. Even walking into a classroom, that was once bare walls, and seeing a transformation including investigative mathematics tasks and children’s work on display is inspirational. I am inspired by people who take educational opportunities, and turn them into actions that benefit the wider community, such as the recent graduates in Nauru. — WHAT DRIVES YOU?
Long-term change is slow, but when you experience it, it keeps you tackling the harder projects. The world is an interesting place, where everyone’s talents fit into the puzzle to make a difference globally. I am driven by a desire to enhance educational opportunities for all, and I strive for equity in access to education. The support I have from my family is constant, and they each have a part to play in making things happen. I am lucky to be surrounded by people who find a way to make something happen. — HOW DID YOU GET INTO YOUR FIELD?
I never dreamed I would have a career in mathematics. I began my teaching career as a primary teacher, whose first job happened to be a secondary mathematics/science teaching position, a tale that highlights our national need for mathematics teachers. I loved teaching mathematics, and commenced a Bachelor of Education in secondary mathematics as a distance education student through UNE. My move to Armidale was the most significant turning point. In Armidale I met academics who helped me to see it was possible to complete a PhD while working and raising a family. I chose to investigate students’ understandings of geometry concepts, which I completed in 2002. In 2006, I became an academic at UNE, with the focus of my academic work always changing and evolving. My passion for student-centred mathematics teaching, that uses available technological tools, was the driving force for publishing a book in this area with two academics from
— WHAT ACHIEVEMENTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
— WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR DOWNTIME?
Some people find cooking a chore, but I find it relaxing. Cooking for a dinner party is a pleasure. It can be a double-edged sword, however, as I have found I have had to increase the amount of time I devote to exercise to counteract the dining. I enjoy taking our Border Collie, Flo, for a walk, watching movies, and having time with my family. My husband also has a busy work-life, so it is important to ‘just be’ when we can. To switch off from work I find relaxation in picking up a pair of knitting needles, although my knitting projects take considerably longer than they should. — WHERE IS ONE PLACE IN NSW YOU WOULD ENCOURAGE AN OVERSEAS TRAVELLER TO VISIT?
I am a country girl at heart. I like to visit a city, but I find rural areas the most relaxing. While I love the New England region I live in, I really enjoy a short drive, taking the Waterfall Way to the quieter places on the North NSW Coast like sunny Sawtell, Scott’s Head, and Woolgoolga. You can walk into a hotel as a stranger and leave having made a new friend. — WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG?
I love a good dance, so any song that makes you want to dance is a hit with me. This will give my age away, but you can’t beat INXS’s What you need. It conjures up memories of my favourite concert in Young, where I grew up. If I was singing in the car it would be Hotel California. If I was heading home from a long work trip overseas it would be I still call Australia home or heading to Nauru My Island Home. The beauty of songs is that they can take you anywhere.
MEETING IN SYDNEY:
DRIVING GLOBAL BUSINESS PROGRESS We’ve all heard the saying “meetings mean business”, but research* commissioned by Business Events Sydney (BESydney) conducted by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) shows that meetings mean much more. Face-to-face communication generates ideas and connections. In December 2016, Sydney celebrates the opening of the new International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney). From 2017, high profile events secured by BESydney including SIBOS – the world’s largest financial event, the World Congress of Accountants, Openstack and the AIPPI World Intellectual Property Congress will be held in ICC Sydney. The 2017 ICC WCF World Chambers Congress will see 1,000 delegates gather in Sydney to discuss significant global issues for businesses. Stephen Cartwright, CEO of the NSW Business Chamber, worked on the bid to secure this event for Sydney. We spoke to him about his experience. — WHY WAS IT IMPORTANT FOR AUSTRALIA TO BID FOR
— HOW DO YOU THINK THE CONGRESS WILL BENEFIT
— WHAT DO YOU HOPE WILL BE THE IMPACT OF THE
The first ICC WCF World Chambers
Australia has a relatively small population, and hence a small domestic economy. It relies on exporting its goods and services to other nations and on foreign investment to support economic development. By inviting chamber leaders from around the world to Sydney, we increase the awareness of Australia and our economy to foreign business leaders, many of whom have influence back home. For example, in some European nations it is obligatory for all businesses to join the chamber; therefore the chamber leaders represent some of the most powerful companies domiciled in those countries.
The NSW Business Chamber is viewed as one of the most progressive chambers in the world. I think we’ll host the best ICC WCF Congress ever held and enhance the Chamber’s reputation in the global chamber movement. This will help build our capacity to assist Australian businesses looking to export to other countries. There are 300,000 employing businesses in NSW, and 20,000 of these are now members of the Chamber, up from 4,500 just seven years ago. As the Chamber evolves its membership offering and its effectiveness as an influencer of governments, we hope more businesses will see the benefits of membership, and strengthen the Chamber further when it comes to our policy and advocacy activities.
THE ICC WCF WORLD CHAMBERS CONGRESS 2017?
Congress was held in Marseilles in 1999 to celebrate 400 years since the first chamber of commerce was formed there. Now there are more than 12,000 chambers in almost every country, with 600 in Australia alone. The Congress has been held every two years since, and continues to grow in size and importance, but Australia has never hosted this global event. Sydney has a reputation for hosting the best conferences and events, and this reputation was enhanced when we hosted the Olympics in 2000, so the NSW Business Chamber decided to bid for the 2017 ICC WCF Congress to bring the global Chamber movement to our great city. — CAN YOU TELL OUR READERS ABOUT THE PROCESS OF
SECURING THIS EVENT?
The ICC WCF Congress is held in a different part of the world every two years, with Kuala Lumper the most recent Asia Pacific host city in 2009. Later that year, the NSW Business Chamber lodged an expression of interest with the ICC WCF head office in Paris to host the Congress when it returned to our region in 2017. From that moment on we began planning our bid which was delivered in Tokyo in October 2014. Our competitors included China, India and the Philippines, but we prevailed thanks to our superior offering. Throughout the bid preparation and presentation process — which spanned several years — BESydney was a key partner, helping us at every stage of delivering the winning bid, including [CEO] Lyn LewisSmith being with us when we made our presentation. Section 1 — Smarts
BUSINESSES?
— WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE MOST EXCITING
CONGRESS?
ASPECT OF THE CONTENT/PROGRAM?
The opportunity to hear from experts in areas such as Mega leadership, the 4th Industrial Revolution, and Big Data is exciting. Our aim is to avoid, at all costs, presenting “just another conference”. We’re working to find speakers who can deliver insight into some of these areas of interest and to create opportunities for discussion among the delegates. For Chamber delegates, however, the “Chambers Competition” — chambers from around the world submit their most innovative or successful projects to win an award — is always a favourite at these presentations. They offer other chambers the chance to take these ideas back to their countries. It is worth noting that the NSW Business Chamber won an award at the last two Congresses, so we understand the importance of this part of the Congress.
— DO YOU THINK THE CONGRESS WILL HELP ACHIEVE
THESE GOALS?
There is no doubt that the Congress will raise the profile of the NSW Business Chamber in Australia, and this event will provide a platform to educate the broader business community about the role of the Chamber and the benefits of membership. The Congress will also raise the profile of the chamber movement in Australia with politicians and senior bureaucrats. This will help us to be more effective in the future with our policy and advocacy campaigns. *In September 2016, Business Events Sydney released its latest research conducted with UTS: Conferences: Catalysts for thriving economies
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MAGIC MAKER PROFESSOR MARY-ANNE WILLIAMS P.24
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20 A critical mass of experience 22 Nourishing Sydney’s hunger for health 24 Magic maker 26 Money honey
IDEAS
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Dr John Parker Founder and CEO of Saluda Medical
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hen researcher and businessman John Parker was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineers 10 years ago, he was asked to give a speech. Normally, people thank their friends and families for their love and support and make a few comments about what drives their success. Parker, who has a PhD from the Australian National University and was at the time a senior executive at medical device giant Cochlear, says he went one step further — he highlighted that commercialisation was difficult in Australia. He laughs when we suggest he might have been booed off stage. Much has changed since then. “There is a lot of cool new tech out there,” the Canberra-born Sydneysider says of local innovation in a country that spends more per capita on medical devices that the United States of America. A $250 million Biomedical Translation Fund from the government, he says, is the most exciting thing happening right now, to commercialise “promising discoveries” made in Australia. Of the more than 500 local MedTech companies, industry research suggests nearly 40 per cent started post 2000, indicating a boom led by strong education, good research and development conditions and ongoing government funding. Parker’s company, Saluda Medical, is one of these new start-ups, having only been in business for five years. At that time he began investigating the idea for pain management technology with a team of researchers
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at the prestigious National Institute of Communications Technology Australia (NICTA) centre (now part of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Redfern. Today there are 50 employees working on an idea that is big enough to challenge global behemoths in the industry. “For what we are trying to do, we are not playing at the edge of the problem, but rather trying to do something very big. If we are successful, we will be three or four times as large as Cochlear,” says Parker. Saluda is trialling a different type of spinal cord stimulator to help relieve chronic pain. If successful, it will be an international game changer. But Parker says Saluda would not exist without a $5 million grant it received from the NSW Government’s Medical Device Fund. “But there is a view that asks, how can you do that from Sydney — a little start-up company — and expect to be successful?” he says, adding that the answer is simple: disruptive technology. What is different about Saluda’s pain management device is that it can read back from the dorsal column, where it is implanted, how the nerves and fibres are firing in response to the device. That means the stimulation level can be controlled and kept at a therapeutic range for the patient. “It levels the playing field. It doesn’t matter how big you are, if the technology is truly disruptive [you can] compete effectively with the big companies.” It is that disruption and innovative thinking that Parker, who now calls Sydney home, says the city does
A CRITICAL MASS OF EXPERIENCE
TECHNOLOGICAL DISRUPTOR CHALLENGER OF GIANTS BRINGING RELIEF TO THE SUFFERING
Dr John Parker, Founder and CEO of Saluda Medical (With his device)
so well to foster. He recalls being overwhelmed by the city’s hustle and bustle when he visited relatives there as a child, and says it’s somewhat ironic he settled in Sydney after making “almost a wedding vow” that he would not. “I landed a job in Sydney and found I loved it,” he says. “Sydney is very special — great food, strong culture and theatre, and we live in a free standing house in a leafy suburb 20 minutes from the Opera House. I used to cycle across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to work every day and take in the view of the Harbour and the atmosphere of the city.” It is a good city too for MedTech, he says because of the “critical mass” of experienced individuals who live there, while its strong education programs also help feed through new talent. And, finally, he says, MedTech has a rich history in Sydney in particular, largely because of Paul Trainor and his Nucleus Group, referring to the conglomerate founded in the 1960s which spawned companies such as Cochlear, and Telectronics. “If you look at the heritage of people in ResMed, Cochlear, the start-ups, it’s rare to find someone who hasn’t passed through one of those Nucleus companies, so there’s certainly that critical mass of people who know the sector and have built careers in Sydney.” As for new talent, the University of New South Wales (NSW) and University of Sydney have strong degrees in biomedical engineering to keep a flow of graduate students in the system. For now, international attention is increasingly focused on Sydney, as the benefits of running first-in-man, or Phase 0 clinical trials in the local jurisdiction become apparent. “This is a great place to do clinical [trials] because our healthcare system is extremely good, but the hurdles for getting trials approved are stringent, and reasonable, compared to other countries.” saludamedical.com
2 — Ideas Section
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FOOD LOVERS CLEAN EATERS HEALTHY FROM THE INSIDE OUT Jodie Stewart & Tammie Phillips Co-owners of About Life
NOURISHING SYDNEY’S HUNGER FOR
HEALTH 22
Sydney Shines — Edition 6
Jodie Stewart & Tammie Phillips, Co-owners of About Life
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asagne — not usually found at the top of a healthy eating menu. But at About Life, it’s raw, packed full of wholefood ‘supercharged’ goodness, and is devoured in great quantities by Sydney’s most discerning and health conscious eaters. It is but one slice of the enticing experience to be found in About Life’s wellness wonderland. Starting out as a small juice bar in Rozelle, in Sydney’s inner west in 1996, About Life is now Australia’s largest and fastest growing wholefoods store. In fact, around one thousand Aussies step into one of the seven About Life stores each day savouring the healthy organic food and drinks on offer and filling their shopping baskets from an extensive array of natural, sustainable and ethical groceries and locally-sourced fresh produce. About Life is the brain child of sisters Jodie Stewart and Tammie Phillips. They started the business because they believe everyone deserves great tasting food in its natural state — something to satisfy and nourish the body, while being both accessible and affordable. Their fresh produce is sourced weekly from carefully selected,
Section 2 — Ideas
chemical-free, (mostly) organic farms around the Sydney basin and rural New South Wales (NSW) whose farmers’ share About Life’s food ethos. Each About Life store has a ‘Nature’s Servery’ self-service food bar with meals created by their in-house nutritionist (fabulous banana and sweet potato hotcakes, chia’zy avocado, scrambled tofu, and their signature kale and carrot salad with salmon), and a wide range of groceries selected on a criteria of organic, fair-trade, artisan produced, free from allergies and animal cruelty, and food miles. Wellness experts are on hand to advise on natural remedies and supplements, while regular cooking classes take place to educate and inspire in the art of cooking with the view that food is therapeutic. “Australians understand more and more that food is medicine and that there are large parts of their health they can improve, if not control, if they eat food that is clean and nutritious. They want to feel better,
live longer and look better and not rely on medication,” says Stewart According to a recent Nielsen HomeScan report, Australia’s consumption of packaged health foods is growing at 8.2 per cent and more than two thirds (69 per cent) of households have bought health food products in the past year. Our appetite for wellness has also seen a 15 per cent growth in the natural and organic food market since 2009, putting the total value of the Australian certified organic industry at around $1.72 billion (Australian Organic Market Report 2014). So what is it about Sydney and the city’s obsession with health? The sisters think it’s home-grown. “Sydney as a city has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to wellness and understanding and appreciating a healthy lifestyle. Perhaps it’s our harbour side setting, and our love of our beautiful beaches and the outdoors. Sydneysiders get the most out of their city and the amazing array of things to do. Perhaps there is a correlation between making the most of where you live, and getting the most out of what you put into your body,” they say. aboutlife.com.au www.aboutlife.com.au 23
M A GIC
MAKER APPLE ATTRACTOR UNIVERSE CHANGER FRIEND TO ROBOTS Professor Mary-Anne Williams
Director of the Innovation and Enterprise Research Laboratory (The Magic Lab)
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ot long ago, Professor MaryAnne Williams posted a photo on her Twitter account of a robot changing a baby’s nappy. There is another amusing video on YouTube, she says with a twinkle in her voice, of a robot fetching itself a cold beer from the fridge. How marvellous. They have a similar robot (a PR2 called GUTSY) — the only robot of its kind in Australia — in The Magic Lab which she founded at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) 15 years ago. If they wanted a robot to do the morning coffee run and be proactive enough to pick up a few of the staff ’s favourite muffins as well, her team could certainly program it. Williams specialises in social robotics — the art of making a machine not just functionally intelligent, but emotionally and socially intelligent as well. Her Innovation and Enterprise Research Laboratory is so cutting edge, and so well regarded internationally, that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Peter Gardenfors — Sweden’s top cognitive scientist and a member of the Nobel Prize Committee for Economics — both visit Sydney to engage with her team. “We’re not looking to commercialise some little idea,” Williams — one of an incredibly small number of women working in robotics globally — says of what attracted such international names to her UTS lab. “We’re looking to put a dent in the Universe. We want to have a massive impact, so we’re only interested in fundamental research questions working to find insights that will enable us to pursue high-orbit innovation.” It must feel a long way from the rural lifestyle she grew up in, as the daughter of a third generation publican in the New South Wales (NSW) town of Glen Innes. Certainly, her parents likely never imagined where her early academic ambition would lead. “My great-grandfather owned and built 16 hotels across the country, the hotel I grew up in was built in 1906 and held for 100 years. I got into science at the University of Sydney but my parents wanted me to stay in the hotel
Section 2 — Ideas
business. My father insisted I work at the hotel and consider the life of a publican. An avid horse rider, she decided instead to join the NSW Mounted Police. Much to her surprise, and horror, women were not allowed to apply. “That was 1979, can you believe it? In my lifetime! But I discovered I could go to Canada and join the Mounties, so I was making all these plans until one of my cousins, who was training to be a priest, heard my father had put the kybosh on me going to university and convinced him to let me go to University of New England, as long as I came back to the hotel on Friday nights to work. “I learned to program in Chemistry while having to compute the location of electrons around a Hydrogen atom.” But Williams went on to do a PhD in Computer Science, worked for MLC computerising the way they manage superannuation funds, and became increasingly interested in artificial intelligence.
“ “
IF YOUR ROBOT IS HELPING YOU IN YOUR HOME, SHOULD IT TURN AWAY WHEN YOU DROP YOUR TOWEL TO STEP INTO THE SHOWER? “At the time people were thinking that chess was the benchmark artificial intelligence problem. Making a robot play chess was thought to be the pinnacle,” she says with a hint of irony. Talking to Williams, it soon becomes clear the pinnacle is far more breathtaking than that. In August this year, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Stockland Group announced they would begin exploring the disruptive potential of social robots. It’s a game-changer in Australia. ‘Chip’, as it is known, has been programmed by Williams and her team of social robotics innovators. Their job is to give Chip social intelligence, so that (unlike what she calls “factory robots” that are used in mechanised
production processes) Chip can interact with and help people be more productive. “You watch a robot get beer from the fridge and it is simply following instructions. It has no representation of what a fridge is, what people are, what beer is for — just like a Coke dispensing machine works without knowing what Coke is. Transposing that to a home or office environment will not work, she says. They need to be able to interact, communicate, cooperate and collaborate. That is what makes Williams work so special. “Knowing what people know is critical to communication working in any social setting,” she says. “So if robots can have some model of what people know, and their intentions, then the robot will be a lot more enjoyable to work with. “From a research perspective it’s absolutely fascinating because we had to study people. People are proof of concept for artificial intelligence.” Modern day robotics, she says, is the future. “When we can build a capability in a robot, we have understood and mastered it.” Williams, who is also attached to the CODEX centre at Stanford University in the United States doing work on the ethics and issues of privacy with robotics, says it’s good to have a healthy scepticism about the potential. “Robots collect a lot of data, so what if someone hacks your robot, can they download images of you? And if your robot is helping you in your home, should it turn away when you drop your towel to go in to the shower?” They are unanswered questions, but it shouldn’t stop people like Williams exploring the science behind giving robots common sense reasoning, as children learn it, or to predict how people behave using programmable algorithms. After all, wouldn’t it be nice if your robot knew that you needed a cold beer from the fridge even before you did?
uts.edu.au
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MONEY HONEY Cedar Anderson, Inventor and Co-Founder of the Flow Hive 26
Sydney Shines — Edition 6
BACKYARD INNOVATORS THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES HONEY THIEVES Stuart and Cedar Anderson BeeInventive
Stuart and Cedar Anderson, Inventors and Co-Founders of the Flow Hive
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hen father-and-son team Stuart and Cedar Anderson put their backyard invention on Indiegogo in 2015, they had no idea what to expect. With fingers crossed, they hoped they would raise the US$70,000 needed to put their revolutionary beehive into production. It took three minutes. After two days they had US$2 million, and by the end of the campaign they had sold 26,000 hives, and raised US$12.2 million, setting an Indiegogo fundraising record. Six months later, production was underway, and the BeeInventive, was receiving US$30,000 worth of orders a day. “It’s extraordinary,” says 61-year-old Stuart from his home on a community farm in the hills of northern New South Wales. “I never imagined it would be as big as this.” The Flow Hive makes harvesting honey so easy that the Andersons say it is the biggest thing to happen to beekeeping for 150 years. Rather than having to dismantle the hive, disturb the bees and use equipment such as suits, smokers, centrifugal honey extractors, decapping knives and sieves, the beekeeper simply turns a tap at the back of the hive and collects the honey as it pours out. Stuart hopes the invention will encourage more people to stick with a hobby that is all too often given up because it can be so time-consuming. “Weekend after weekend, beekeepers don’t get round to robbing their bees,” he says. “There’s plenty of honey sitting in urban hives that doesn’t get
Section 2 — Ideas Section 2 — Ideas
harvested because it’s going to take a day or a day and half to do it all, and you’re going to end up with a sticky kitchen. It’s a shame.” Not only does the Flow Hive make beekeeping easier, but it is kinder to the bees whose hives need to be dismantled less often. This also results in fewer stings for the beekeeper. With bee populations worldwide under pressure due to pesticide use, the parasitic varroa mite and the mysterious colony collapse disorder, another advantage of the Flow Hive is an observation window that allows the beekeeper to keep an eye on the bees’ health. Cedar, 35, says the window brings keeper and bees in closer contact. “You can actually see the bees’ tongues filling the honeycomb cells with honey,” Cedar says. “You can tell when the honey is full and tell how the bees are going. Backyard beekeepers are more in tune with the hive and able to see whether the hive is in trouble or not. “It’s my hope that we can build a community of beekeepers around the globe keeping bees this way. I think that dream is really quite possible.” Cedar, who lives about an hour’s drive from his father near Byron Bay, was the driving force at the birth of the Flow Hive project in 2005, inspired by the idea of making honey collection easier. “We had bees when we were kids,” Cedar says. “Pulling the whole hive apart, disturbing the bees, and having to do the labour intensive process of harvesting honey… I thought, ‘there has to be a better way’. So we set out to
achieve the beekeeper’s dream.” Cedar’s persistence was crucial, says Stuart. “We’d bounce ideas around and Cedar would go off and make the ideas, constructing what we’d dreamed up. He put in most of the work in the early days.” After experimenting with lots of prototypes, the Andersons overcame their biggest challenge — getting the honeycomb cells to release the viscous honey — by inventing a system in which the bees are given a partly formed plastic honeycomb structure that they complete with their wax. When the beekeeper turns the tap, the honeycomb cells split and form zigzagging channels that send the honey out of the hive. “We didn’t know whether it was going to work,” Stuart says. “We were really pleased to find that the bees crawled around on the surface of the comb as if nothing was going on while the honey was coming out beneath their feet.” The Andersons are now in the process of giving their company a real structure as well as trying to the meet their orders. Commercial beekeepers as well as backyard hobbyists have shown an interest in the Flow Hive, but they’re going to have to wait. “There’s too much going on.” honeyflow.com.au
Source: First published on australiaunlimited.com Author: Simon Webster. Licensed from the Commonwealth of Australia under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence. The Commonwealth of Australia does not necessarily endorse the content of this publication
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A CONVERSATION ABOUT CONSERVATION HEROES OF SYDNEY P.30 James Stanton-Cooke, Heroes of Sydney 28
Sydney Shines — Edition 6
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30 Heroes of Sydney 32 Sydney’s artisan bars 34 Time and the city
PLAY
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HEROES OF SYDNEY Sonder - n. the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.
Each day, the City of Sydney lives a vibrant life. On any given Tuesday, one Sydneysider might stay in bed with the flu, while another decides to start a society that changes the lives of thousands of mothers. Parallel to us making our dinners or catching our trains, there is someone devoting his entire face to conserving green spaces. In Heroes of Sydney, we hear their stories.
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JAMES
“I started growing my beard while I was travelling overseas and doing some conservation work in the Amazon Basin of Bolivia. The more I saw the world, the more I understood the urgent need to start a ‘conversation about conservation’ and really do something to save our blue planet. This became my mantra. People comment on my beard, and that gives me the opportunity to explain the reason I grow it. My beard represents accepting your natural environment — working with it, not against it. I see this as part of the solution to addressing the climate crisis. We should provide habitats for animals and more green spaces to enjoy — espially for future generations. We need to leave them a safe and sustainable planet. I put my beard ‘up for the chop’ in 2014 and shaved it off bit by bit to illustrate deforestation and the destruction of clear felling in the 21st Century. I reached my target of over $10,000. But I had grown (no pun intended) quite accustomed to my beard and after eight years, I was sorry to see it go. It was all for the cause of conservation and regeneration. I can grow a beard back, but many forests, once cleared, are lost forever. What grew from this was ‘BeardsOn for Conservation’ — a not-for-profit organisation that encourages men to grow beards in the annual ‘BeardsOn 90-Day Challenge’
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that runs from the beginning of June to the end of August. Any scruffy, beardie ‘eco-system’ is welcomed and encouraged. They start a conversation about conservation and help raise donations for their beard growing challenge. Every $2 donated plants a native, endemic tree. I think every man should grow a beard once in his life; and why not give back to the planet while they do it? We want men to grow for themselves, for future generations and for the environment. In 2015, we supported Landcare Australia by helping to raise funds to plant 10,000 native trees at the Bundanon Trust Property, South NSW. This year, we are offering grants to schools, bush regeneration groups and other not-for-profit environmental organisations interested in regenerating or remediating their local green public spaces. Throughout 2016, we are planting over 1,000 trees in the Daintree as part of World Cassowary Day (24 September). All are welcome to come along to the tree planting party.”
KYLIE
“I was looking forward to returning to work. I had started dry-cleaning my clothes, secured the impossible childcare placement for my daughter (with my mum juggling the additional days), and I was mentally ready for new challenges and the next phase of my career. Two weeks before Christmas, and approximately four weeks before I was due to return to work from maternity leave, I received an email detailing my redundancy. It came as a shock, leaving me feeling uncertain about my career, our finances, and worst of all, lost. My redundancy sparked conversations with other mums. It seemed that I wasn’t alone — there were other women in the same or similar positions. Other mothers had their jobs turned upside down while they were on maternity leave. Like me, these women had felt uncertain about having a job to return to, or when they returned to work, were uncertain about where they’d fit in. The feelings of uncertainty that we all shared sparked the creation of the Mum Society; I never want other mums to feel the way that I felt. We can’t predict the future, we can’t be certain of what the business requirements will be when we are ready to return to work, but what we can be certain about is that if we prepare ourselves for the transition back to the workplace while we are on maternity leave, we will be prepared for whatever comes our way. We might even be excited about it.” 31
ARTISAN
BARS Cocktail from the top, Eau-De-Vie
KITTYHAWK SOMETIMES, A SMALL BAR WITH THE RIGHT ATMOSPHERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO FINISH A SUCCESSFUL WEEK, SO WE’VE NARROWED DOWN YOUR SEARCH TO FOUR ARTISAN BARS WITH A SURPLUS OF PERSONALITY. DO YOU NEED A COLD BEER AND A GOOD BURGER IN BONDI, OR AN ARTIST INSPIRED COCKTAIL IN THE CITY CENTRE? WE HAVE YOU COVERED, SO DRINK UP, EAT UP AND ENJOY.
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16 Phillip Lane, Sydney Open Mon—Thu, 3 pm—Midnight; Fri, Sat, 3 pm—2 am The city centre has been long awaiting a local watering hole like Kittyhawk, a cocktail bar that doubles as a place to channel Don Draper and leave your work woes at the door. It has a glamorous, Parisienne vibe, so you feel right at home in your business attire. By 6 pm the room will feel bustling with colleagues passing cocktails. Kittyhawk is the sort of bar you will want to go to free yourself from the stress of your inbox on a Friday afternoon. The décor will make you relax immediately, the cocktail menu is perfectly succinct and the barkeeps are attentive. People flock there day and night, so be prepared to bump elbows with other city professionals.
Smoking Cocktail, Eau-De-Vie
GRANDMA’S BAR Basement Level, 275 Clarence Street, Sydney Open Mon—Fri, 3 pm—Late; Sat, 5 pm—Late Grandma’s gets gold stars for taking what was likely once the storage room of an office building and turning it into a hidden hotspot with exposed brick and kitschy parrot wallpaper. There is live music on Thursday nights, which brings people in droves. The bar brings people in equally for food and drink, so when you get hungry, a baked bean and cheese jaffle will fill you up enough to keep you sipping your perfectly made cocktail. Do not underestimate how fun this city centre hidden gem can get, the vibe is strong and the bitters are aplenty. Everyone goes to their Grandma’s after a hard day, but this grandma will soothe your pain with sour mixes and sour mash rather than cookies and knitted mittens.
Grandma’s Bar
THE STUFFED BEAVER EAU-DE-VIE 229 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst Open Mon—Sat, 6 pm—1 am; Sun, 6 pm—Midnight The entrance to Eau-De-Vie is through a hotel lobby, and as you walk through it seems impossible that you’ll wind up in a cocktail bar. The dark atmosphere is welcoming, as you reach the front entranceway you’ll immediately want to see the cocktail list, praised on almost every review forum. There is always an uplifting atmosphere inside Eau-De-Vie. Couples and first daters get close on the leather benches, while friends and colleagues mingle around the centre table. The vintage feel sends you into a hedonistic daydream of living in Film Noir and you are likely to get into conversations with other parties around you. The menu is whisky focused so the most natural cocktail to try is the Smoky Rob Roy. It’s a bold drink that lets the whisky tell you a story and the perfect way to finish an evening. 3 — Play Section
271 Bondi Road, Bondi Open noon—late, every day The Stuffed Beaver itself is enough to offer never-ending innuendos at this Canadian-inspired bar. Throw in booze, food and music and you have a chilled night filled with double-entendres. Names aside, this fun, diner-style bar has a lot to say for itself including that neighbourhood-wateringhole atmosphere you need when you just want to relax and a killer menu for when you’re in the mood for a good burger. The cocktails are easy to knock back; the Stormy Jerrys — Sailor Jerry with Bundaberg ginger beer and lime — are particularly Canadian. But nothing can stand against the prairie-inspired Bloody Caesar that Canada is famous for — complete with chilli-infused vodka, a dill pickle and homemade Worcestershire sauce. Bring a mate, grab a booth and try the Donald Trump burger. It is positively not what it sounds like. 33
HOW MANY MINUTES DOES IT TAKE TO TASTE A CITY?
TIME AND THE CITY
T
ime — the great dictator. We humans savour, spend and kill time; sometimes all in one day. But when you are travelling, time seems to slide by like sand through your fingertips. Whole cities are seen and gone in what feels like the blink of an eye, with hardly enough time to smell the air or taste the food. The doorway to a culture is almost certainly through the food. Take a moment to think about New York. You will start to taste the pizza and hot dogs almost immediately. Now try Paris. Can you smell flaky pastries and exquisite wine? And Thailand — the smell of fresh coconut and green curry awakens your senses. But what if you are in and out of a city before anyone gets a chance to say ‘Bon appétit’? Tell us how many minutes you have, and we will tell you how best to explore Sydney’s culinary prowess. We had to choose a starting point to give you a base to work from — Martin Place. It is in the middle of the central business district and arguably perfectly equidistant from everything good to see and do in Sydney. So, starting at Martin Place, how much time do you have? Do you need to savour a brief moment, spend time with colleagues, or perhaps kill time before your flight departs?
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Chiswick Restaurant, Art Gallery of New South Wales
SAVOUR
KILL
15 MINUTES TO EAT AND RUN
3 HOURS BEFORE YOUR FLIGHT
Hands down, the best place to focus your efforts is Burger Project. You can whip in to the MLC Centre and back up again with enough time to say “Can I have a chocolate shake with that?” It might not necessarily be the healthiest meal option, but renowned Australian Chef, Neil Perry, has ensured the project’s food is sourced responsibly and sustainably. Do you need more incentive? The same burgers have won ‘Best Burger in Sydney’ when it was dished out at the exclusive Rockpool Bar & Grill. It was so adored that the owners devised a plan to keep its dream alive. Could you spend 15 minutes savouring anything better than that?
30 MINUTES TO STRETCH YOUR LEGS
Walk just six minutes down Castlereagh Street and you will hit Pablo & Rusty’s. The queue gets long, so try to visit outside the standard lunchtime hours. The coffee is good enough to make you come back again the next morning, but the lunch menu steals the show. The pork and beans fabada will light your fire and if you are a vegetarian, the haloumi bowl has everything you will need to keep you going for the rest of the day. If you have time to come in for breakfast, there is only one option — the marinated mushrooms and poached eggs on toast. Whatever you order, try to call ahead and book a table — food is best served hot!
Pablo & Rusty’s
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SPEND 60 MINUTES TO TASTE AND SIP
Being just 10 minutes from Martin Place, we would be hard-pressed not to feature Pei Modern on this list, and an hour is the perfect amount of time to wander over and enjoy their set menu, offering three courses for $49 which includes coffee or tea. If you would like to order from the menu, the veal and pork meatball with orecchiette will leave nothing to be desired. The reviews for Pei have been fabulous so you can rest assured that whatever you order, your food will be tasty. The décor is warm, welcoming and elegant and it is an interesting establishment to bring a colleague for a quiet lunch. Taste, sip, enjoy!
90 MINUTES TO SMELL THE ROSES
Do you have extra time and a growling tummy? Walk just 12 minutes east of Martin Place and you are at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. What a perfect opportunity to both fill your belly and absorb some culture. Chiswick Restaurant serves some of the finest food that Sydney has to offer. Much of the produce is grown in the garden adjacent to the kitchen, fulfilling Chef Matt Moran’s “Garden to Plate” philosophy. While enjoying magnificent views of Sydney Harbour and Woolloomooloo, why not bring a friend or colleague and share what will almost certainly be the best roast lamb you will ever taste? It comes straight from Matt’s family farm. Afterwards, you will have just enough time to browse the high culture within the walls of the Gallery.
Needing to kill time in Sydney is a good problem to have. With approximately 236 sunny days a year, it is likely that you will have beautiful weather to wander the streets, eat some quality fare, and see a few landmarks before taking the train to the airport. Catch a ferry over to Luna Park and have lunch at The Deck. You will enjoy stunning views of the harbour while throwing back half a dozen oysters or savouring the paella. Tasting the fresh seafood that Sydney is famous for will be the perfect way to end your trip. After lunch, why not jump on the Ferris Wheel for an even more spectacular view of the harbour?
Longrain Restaurant
HALF A DAY TO LIVE LIKE A LOCAL
If you have half a day to kill, you should probably start by eating lunch — it will keep your spirits up — and while you’re living like a local, the suburb with the best food vibe is Surry Hills. No need for transportation, this hip neighbourhood is only a few minutes’ walk from the city centre. There is a surplus of fabulous food throughout this trendy area, so wander into a cosy café or a hotspot like Longrain Restaurant on Commonwealth Street. After lunch, hop on the 380 bus to Bondi Beach, grab a coffee, and take in the coastal walk. It is a must-see for newcomers, but the locals fill the path as well. Everyone takes time to admire the stunning views and snap a few photos. Once you get to Coogee you will almost certainly be ravenous and ready to taste the stunning fare that this trendy area has to offer.
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Mary-Anne Williams
Christine Jenkins AM
James Stanton-Cooke
Eau-De-Vie, Darlinghurst
CURATING THE FUTURE
Zareh Nalbandian
Shane Houston