Adam Vonthethoff is the current Chief Operating Officer at Adelaide Oval and works to implement the company strategies, supporting management and staffing teams, external stakeholder engagement, and looking for new business development opportunities and has been working at Oval for the past 10 or so years.
Adam has spent all of his 25-year career in hospitality, having worked in hotels and casinos before moving to the Stadium.
His career kicked off when he was 17 years working at the Lakes Resort in various departments, then as Food and Beverage Manager for roughly three years each at some of the big names, being Hotel Adelaide, Stamford Grand, SKYCITY Casino, Outrigger – Fiji and the CROWN Perth.
Adam is a born and bred Adelaide man, a father, a huge port Adelaide power fan, lover of golf and is proud of his MBA and AICD qualifications.
In this episode, we deep dive into Adam's career journey to his current position as COO, the perks and challenges of his work, how the oval managed the ongoing covid situation, specifically focusing on communication, on the staff and customer experience and all the plans and challenges for the future.
Where to find Adam Vonthethoff
Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast.
Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us.
Say hello to our host Daniel on LinkedIn.
Books and Podcast mentioned on this episode:
Adam Vonthethoff is the current Chief Operating Officer at Adelaide Oval and works to implement the company strategies, supporting management and staffing teams, external stakeholder engagement, and looking for new business development opportunities and has been working at Oval for the past 10 or so years.
Adam has spent all of his 25-year career in hospitality, having worked in hotels and casinos before moving to the Stadium.
His career kicked off when he was 17 years working at the Lakes Resort in various departments, then as Food and Beverage Manager for roughly three years each at some of the big names, being Hotel Adelaide, Stamford Grand, SKYCITY Casino, Outrigger – Fiji and the CROWN Perth.
Adam is a born and bred Adelaide man, a father, a huge port Adelaide power fan, lover of golf and is proud of his MBA and AICD qualifications.
In this episode, we deep dive into Adam's career journey to his current position as COO, the perks and challenges of his work, how the oval managed the ongoing covid situation, specifically focusing on communication, on the staff and customer experience and all the plans and challenges for the future.
Where to find Adam Vonthethoff
Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast.
Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us.
Say hello to our host Daniel on LinkedIn.
Books and Podcast mentioned on this episode:
Welcome to Creating synergy where we explore what it takes to transform. We are powered by Synergy IQ. Our mission is to help leaders create world class businesses where people are safe, valued, inspired and fulfilled. We can only do this with our amazing community. So thank you for listening.
Daniel Franco:Hi there synergizes and welcome back to another episode of The creating synergy podcast. My name is Daniel Franco and today we have an exceptional human being on the show. A very good friend of mine. Adam Vonthethoff. Adam is the current CEO at Adelaide Oval and works to implement new company strategies supporting the management and staffing teams external stakeholder engagement and always looking for new business opportunities. He's been working in the oval for the past 10 years now and has spent all of his 25 year career in hospitality, having worked in hotels and casinos before moving to the stadium. His career kicked off when he was just 17 years old working down at Westlake so the likes resort in various departments. And then he became the food and beverage manager for roughly three years each. It's some of the big name hotels being hotel Adelaide, Stanford grand Sky City casino, the outrigger in Fiji and the Crown casino in Perth. Adam is a born and bred Adelaide man a flubbing father, a huge port power fan, a lover of golf and he's very proud of his MBA and AICD qualifications. In this episode, we deep dive into Adams career journey to his current position as the CEO, the perks and challenges of his work, how the oval manage this ongoing COVID situation specifically focusing on communication and staff and customer experience. And he shares all the plans and challenges for the future. If you love the episode, which I'm sure you will be sure to hit subscribe button and check us out at Synergy iq.com delay you and synergy IQ on all the social media outlets. So welcome back to the creating synergy podcast. My name is Daniel Franco, your host and today we have the great man Adam Vonthethoff. This is a rare occasion for us as a first time we're drinking having a chat over waters as opposed to someone's OBS
Adam Vonthethoff:we should highlight it's about 10 in the morning.
Daniel Franco:It is 1030 we are sitting here at the beautiful Adelaide Oval you are the COO at the great oval that is a showcase piece in Adelaide. How did your How did your journey get to where you are today?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, I've been pretty lucky through my career. I'm born and bred in Adelaide down in Port Adelaide. And when I left school went to work in hotels down to lakes resort the with the with great fame GDK down here, fantastic people.
Daniel Franco:I love this smorgasbord, off this a great place.
Adam Vonthethoff:I've always I've always been blessed with views where our website that was no exception the river working there. And I was pretty lucky there because I was sort of 718 and starting out in hotels and lakes is a great venue to learn your craft in you know it's got accommodation, it's got fine dining, bistros gaming sports bars, bottle shops, so from a from a venue and hospitality, you get a taste of pretty much everything there is and and being young as well you sort of get thrown into those areas as a spare pair of hands to start with until you sort of work your way through. So for me, that was a good sort of introduction to hospitality there.
Daniel Franco:Is there a reason why you chose hospitality is something you were interested in younger or younger years of.
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah. Well, my when I was born, me and mom spent a lot on my grandparents. So my grandfather's a pretty big influence in my life growing up and thing about granddad is you never went anywhere without stopping to the pub for a beer. Yeah, that could include getting the morning paper and a liter of milk. You pop into the pub for a beer sigh I guess from a very early age, you know, sort of raised in pubs and not one pub, but you know, anyway, you're when we'd pop in for a beer and granddad was quite a while those guys, you know, I'm quite a lot of amateur league footy and had been a rower and water polo player and things like that. So, you know, he just had that sort of network didn't matter what pub called into, he'd know somebody, you know, in that venue. So for me growing up, it always seemed like a pub was pretty happy place. You know, you could walk into a pub, and he knew somebody there. So I think it still is. Yeah, I think so. I think there's the difference there. Those are, you know, talking about, you know, the 80s and probably early 90s just probably still had more publicans in venues as well, as opposed to sort of more management, you know, now running venues for corporations. So for me, yeah, pubs are pretty happy place and I love school. I enjoyed it, but always wanted to work in hotels, you know, there was always just something about that, that I enjoyed. I enjoy the experience as a kid. And yeah, I was pretty lucky so
Daniel Franco:So you moved weigh up the ranks down at the likes. Yeah. I,
Adam Vonthethoff:when I was 19, I think there was, there's a position in hotels accommodation hotels called Night audit. And as basically the guy that gets to work 11 o'clock at night, deals with all the drunks and, you know, three o'clock club sandwiches, you know, checks people out at seven o'clock. But part of that job is rolling the hotel accounts and things like that. So there's a bit of a bit of nervous about it. Yep, sort of know what you're doing. But I enjoyed that. And I got to do that by doing a lot of work experience to start with. There was a couple guys that did that as a full time guy and a guy that did to the weekend. And I did a bit of work experience in it just to learn it. So probably six months. And eventually somebody called in sick, and I got a call up to do it. For real. So I got paid for it. That was great. And, and, you know, for me, that was that was a pretty big step in my career in a lot of ways. Because one is, you know, as a 1920 year old Saturdays and Sundays, all that work, you know, rather than being out drinking and things like that, it's
Daniel Franco:a good way to save,
Adam Vonthethoff:you give things away, that, that bat bat learning that part of the hotel for me to lead me into my next job, because when I was, you know, 21 I was ready to leave the likes. I guess I'd been there for three or four years, I wanted to try something new. I've got an opportunity to go to the what's not there anymore, but the old hotel ad laid up here in North headline and doing night audit and then making that move up to the hotel. They're doing night audit in front office. So I was doing three afternoon shifts on the front desk checking people and then two night audit shifts. Was was was good. But while I was there, the food and beverage manager left inexplicably left so back in those days the hotel Adelaide was known for chunky custard Christmas shows and not much else really to be honest with you. He still a lot of weddings and things at the venue. But
Daniel Franco:she's remember chunky custard. Right? Yeah. Good fun.
Adam Vonthethoff:There were I mean, back in the day, that was that was your most companies that lay to rest after the child custody, especially. Good guys there. And I still see all those guys around here. And and yeah, so the f&b manager lifestyles a bit bright eyed and bushy tailed. And I marched myself up to the general manager's office, and I said, Look, I think I could do that job, at least while you're trying to find somebody to do food and beverage. And he said, Well, okay, I'll, I'll give you a bit of a guy, which was, you know, really grateful to Sam for that. So that's how I moved into food and beverage. And that was my first food and beverage manager job. So
Daniel Franco:what was the difference between the night audit? But was it a smack in the face? Pretty, it was changed.
Adam Vonthethoff:It was, look, I knew about food and beverage having worked with the likes and what it's about. And there was a few things about it. One is the first time I'd actually been in management position. Yeah, well, I had staff and rosters and sales teams and gaming, we have a gaming room as well. So I knew nothing about that. So it's a pretty steep learning curve, in that. But I enjoy the time, it was small enough that you couldn't really get too much wrong. Yeah, it was an old building. So I learned a lot about hotel engineering. Remember, once the, the the electrical converter or whatever in the hotel breaks, where no electricity for 72 hours and a hotel because there's only one of these things in the country. And there's one guy in the country knew how to fix it. So we had to shut down. But yeah, I like that. I like that job a lot. You know, one interesting thing that happened last aerosols leaving the gaming attendant for a break, so I used to work through about 839 o'clock and my last job of the day was to give the gaming attendant a break for dinner. And while I was in there, I got held up by guy came in there held me up with the with a syringe and gave him all the money and stuff like that. And that was an experience that was true. And coincidentally a gun. I pulled the star three and pulled up training with St. Paul about two or three months earlier. So it's still quite fresh my mind you know, I was running down details and push the panic alarm rang, you know, triple O and all that sort of stuff locked the gaming room. Funnily enough, the gaming patrons were still paying the machines. They had no idea this just happened. But it was interesting experience. What
Daniel Franco:goes through your mind in that stage? Is it as the leader of a team Yeah, you? Does your mind turn to the safety of your people, your own personal safety, the safety of the precinct of what it like what is where does your mind going when put under such pressure? Like I
Adam Vonthethoff:think at that moment, it's about compliance with the thing that's immediately in front of you. Getting that dealt with as quickly as possible getting that person out of the out of the venue, and then does go to you know, two things. One is the safety of the team but then also is about the preservation of any evidence or You know, what's the detail? I write things down? Yeah, he was this tall he was that they are five years later, I've got a phone call from St. Paul, and it caught the guy. And we end up going through court and trial. And he escalated through a bit of a spray up into fire around with the savings and loans bank, I think and went to court to testify and all that sort of stuff. And he got I think about 12 years. Yeah, well, as well. So, but it was an interesting experience to go through from from that time, right through justice. credits at the CEPA. Guys. I mean, our
Daniel Franco:tooling guy was obviously repeating repeat offense. Yeah. Was there any talk about the dangers of the syringe at the time? Did he actually have, like, anything that's,
Adam Vonthethoff:like, all sorts of syringe? Yeah. What, like blood to make them into water source for line? Yeah, yeah. That's not something you want to not mess with anyway. So. But yeah, it's a scary, I guess it says all these sorts of experiences that, you know, no one had to go through anybody, I actually felt it was actually probably worse for the person who I'd been given the break to, because that was his full time job, as well. So for him to come back into an environment probably had more. More an effect on him. That did me, I guess, in a lot of ways. But it looked good. So good experience, I learned a lot there. And then I had the opportunity to go to the Stanford grand as the assistant food and beverage manager down there. So there was about 24. At that point down at the Grand it's like giving a case candy store. Yeah, to be honest with you.
Daniel Franco:So at that point, you're thinking this is where I want my career to be understand.
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, yeah. 100%. And that I didn't think I'd get the job at all. I mean, I saw the job I'd applied for it. I thought I was too young, which probably was I wanted the job a lot. So I did as much research as I could I stack the decks as much as I could for myself as well, in the sense of, you know, I opened up a Pio box and Glenelg so that my dress was in Yale. And, you know, I'd researched who the people were in the company, I went on that day down to Peter shear and bought a new suit. And the guy was brilliant, like he had, you know, all showed on the day, he was like, So,
Daniel Franco:as you look now, me, I think,
Adam Vonthethoff:I was probably about 20 kilos, lighter as well, right? A
Daniel Franco:few years younger.
Adam Vonthethoff:That, but I, but I really wanted the job. And then there's some dumb luck in life, you know. So when
Daniel Franco:nothing is you've prepared more than probably what the next person to which is evident, especially when people go through this recruitment process. At your later you hot people every day. We hire people every day, it's you go through that process of has this person done their research when you rock up to a meeting that they haven't even gone on your website? Yeah, you know that that's a problem.
Adam Vonthethoff:Totally. Absolutely. I think that dumb luck, as well as Andrew Holmes, who is a great guy now has the hand off in a bit hand off. He had worked out of Brisbane for the same owners of the hotel Adelaide. So he knew that I'd worked for Singapore owned business. Stanford was Singaporean at that time. He knew the environment I'd come out of. And I guess we just spoke the same language. So he took me on, which was great.
Daniel Franco:Is there a difference between an Australian owned or an American owned in Singapore? And
Adam Vonthethoff:I think that, generally speaking, each, each country has a has its own cultural things about it. I think with if you're Australian company, and this is quite broad, right, but you might be a bit closer to your business as opposed to maybe you're investing in a business for long term capital gains, you know, so I think each business will have its own drivers. Yeah, then is probably a cultural awareness that goes with whether you're working for American company went away for outrigger that was American owned, and now very different. Yeah, as well. So yeah, we'll talk a bit more about that later, I guess. But yeah, wait for Andrew down here. And yeah, started down there at the ground, which was fantastic. I think my first six months, I was pretty lucky to pass probation. Because I didn't do a very good job of building rapport with all the people down here. There was some internal candidates that had been wanting to go for that job. I was pretty young, I was feeling pretty good about myself. And I had a both Andrew and at that time, the general manager, Adam, Laker he, they pulled me aside and said, we kind of like what you're doing. We like you. But if you can't find a way of working with the team, we can't continue this relationship. And that was a big blow to me, to my ego how I felt I was going and I was really grateful to them for that.
Daniel Franco:Would you? You say it's a turning point. You're probably one of the more personal people I know, right? In the sense that you're welcome. Everyone with open arms. Would was that a turning point in your behavior, then is that kind of where you think you've turned to the person that you are today?
Adam Vonthethoff:I think it was the first time that I'd been pulled up on what it's what it means to be a manager in a workplace. Okay. And I think that, to that point, I hadn't really learned a lot. I taught a little the technical side of what I was doing. I hadn't learned anything about management to that point. I was in late. April. Yeah. So I think that was probably where a beginning or an awareness of of management and what that meant came into into my psyche, and sort of thinking more actively about, what am I trying to achieve? And how am I trying to achieve that? So that was, that was, you know, and back then as well. I mean, there wasn't training courses, or as much stuff, as I think is available today certainly wasn't an awareness. I mean, at that point, it was still very much do, as I say, quite hierarchal. Yeah, no, we still had a general manager who would expect to polish shoes, and you know, the blind you up. And, you know, it was very different environment. So where we are probably 1617 years later,
Daniel Franco:I remember, it's funny, because you just triggered something in my head, I remember I went to a similar process where a leader of mine turned around and says, said to me, Dan, if you're ever going to make it in this world, in a leadership role, it's not about the eye, it's about the way, right. So remove the word, I did this, I did that and bring in the words, we did this, you know, we have the idea and be inclusive with the language more is probably what he was saying be very inclusive with the language as opposed to I'm the person that is the best, so to speak, which is was a big learning curve for me.
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, I think I, I probably at some point. Maybe overcompensated after that. Yeah. When sort of complete otherwise, yeah. Everybody's best mate. Yeah. And, you know, I was having beers with the guys afterwards. Yeah. And, you know, then becomes a problem doesn't end in like the other side of that as well. So I think from a hospitality career point of view, it is a very social environment, you do have a wide range of people you're working with all the time, from, you know, the back of house guys, the front of house guys, uni students, professionals, you know, mom on the weekend. So we've alcohol readily available at any drop of the hat, and boys and girls in that environment? I mean, it's, it's, there's a lot of pitfalls, or, you know, red flags that can go up in that sort of environment. But, you know, I guess over time, you find your way through that. And that's what I think where I really started also building that strong relationship with my direct managers. No, I think every job I've had, from that point on, it's always been about having that strong rapport with my direct manager, and getting that feedback. And then, in turn, trying to be, you know, that person, you know, for the people I'm working with, as well. So that's the evidence samples. Great. I learned a lot there. I grew up a little bit there. You know, I got got got engaged for the first time there as well. So things happen in my personal life bought my first house there, you know, yeah, things were were coming along pretty well,
Daniel Franco:obviously, this tipping point, a stepping stone for you.
Adam Vonthethoff:Sort of 25 I went overseas for the first time, but 25 You know, which, you know, sort of sounds silly now. It's all good. My daughter's and they've been overseas countless times. You knows again, it's probably just one of those are
Daniel Franco:the same age. Yeah, in fact, I reckon I was married. And the third was the honeymoon was the first time I'd ever been overseas
Adam Vonthethoff:was unreal. Well, my, my first wife, she, she's from Scotland. Okay, so that was the reason to go overseas. And I didn't get a passport at that point. Is this woman I've met who's come you know, from other side of the world? Yes. Is working for Santos. She's accomplished. She's fabulous. You know? And again, I think from a personal point of view, it also strike me out of it. Yeah. Cuz I was I wasn't out every night with the guys. And either, you know, for the first time, probably a work life balance. Yeah. As opposed to pray that it was always social and fantastic. Yeah. But you know, you're going to do that so long as
Daniel Franco:Yeah, absolutely. Wouldn't you all of a sudden have someone else to care about and think about right, in your decisions?
Adam Vonthethoff:Absolutely. So yeah, so I have to graduate to scar city, which is, which was great learning about casinos.
Daniel Franco:So definitely moving up in the world. Like from a branding point of view, you can see the trajectory there, Kenya,
Adam Vonthethoff:and I think that was important to me, as well that every every time I moved, it was for an opportunity and up in my career. And to that point I'd spent at the lakes the hotel had laid and the grant has been more or less three years at each venue. Yeah. So then going to Casa de casino was was outstanding and the my direct boss there in food and beverage and memberships, food and beverage manager at sky city. My direct boss said spent before I even started actually had engaged me an organized organizational psychologist. I had about six sessions with him a great about how to come into the casino. Yeah. And I think he was aware. You know, by that time, I, you know, I knew people around town, you start getting a reputation for you know, being you know, either good at your job, partying too much, you know, that letdown, right? So there's always a reputation that that's there. So, Jason was great because he wanted me to start in the company the right way, and invested that time in me to learn about and we spoke a lot about how to ask how to build rapport, how to, you know, I got taught that sort of tactical playful curiosity, ask somebody a question without being condescending or things like that. So, for me, so
Daniel Franco:can you give us an example of that? If you saw?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, it was just little things. Like if I walked into a bar, and I saw something asking somebody, like, why do we do it that way? Or, you know, can you tell me why we do it that way? So I know, you know? Yeah. How do we do things around here? Yeah, you know, I'm the outsider coming into this environment. How do we do things around here? Can you help me come up to speed with with that? Yeah.
Daniel Franco:So you can come at it from a point of curiosity. Yeah, yeah,
Adam Vonthethoff:it was pretty useful. You know, yeah, probably not consciously so much anymore. But what makes us questions and
Daniel Franco:people are more willing to help. Yeah. As opposed to, I actually learn something from it. Same sort of, you know, oxide. If you go in with the, even from a leadership position, if you say, Can you please do this for me? People are kind of going to be put off a little bit with that comment, as opposed to, hey, I need some help with this can Yeah, the word help triggers something in everyone. And everything suffers from an influence point of view and a leadership point of view. It's just a softer approach.
Adam Vonthethoff:Absolutely. Oh, I couldn't agree more. It was a big place to go. What you had to get your head around it get my head around the casino environment and what that business is completely different titles.
Daniel Franco:Yeah. You would have seen some, some strange and amazing stuff all in in one place.
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, absolutely. You know, that's, you know, when you're seeing players play, you know, and it's guy city, compared to when I wait for Crown was smaller. I think it's more of a boutique casino operation. But as first time you're seeing people playing for $10,000 a hand, you know, it's like us a lot of money guys place. Yeah. But really a lot of ways. There's no different to the grand as well, I love the team, love learning the business, got a lot of support from senior management, the CEO there as well, as do have a lot of friends out of out of scar city. And it was a grant, when you
Daniel Franco:transitioned from the grants to Scott city, did you take on those learnings that you had previously about and trying to find that right level of social aspect with the people that who work under you compared to actually becoming their friend and all that sort of stuff? How did you manage that?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, it was it was quite different from from the grants Grant was a lot more of a social party environment, just by nature of the business. Yeah, big functions environment, you know, everyone who's listening has been to the front bar of the grant, you absolutely know that that was very different Wisconsin, it was a lot more professional, you know, we 24 hour surveillance, you know, I'm inspectors their time, and earn a did help, I guess, Separate me out a little bit from being one of the one of the team to, you know, you start filling that role, while built having that report. But that was probably the first time there was some sort of separation between my home life and my work life. Yeah. And that was probably healthy for me to becoming
Daniel Franco:more experienced in your own nature, as well, as a little bit more confident.
Adam Vonthethoff:But confident within yourself, you're not overly confident, or you know, and you always try to manage, you know, the ego, or the perception of arrogance. And sometimes that's hard, as well, people save you how they see you that moment. If they don't have much contact with you, what they say becomes a reality. Yeah. And I think that, as I've gone through my career, that becomes the harder thing to try to manage, because you get less time with people. So the, the snapshots that they get of you, or they hear of you around the lunch room becomes their reality. Whereas when you're, you know, you're more involved and closer to the business. People see you a lot more. Yeah. So they can sort of aggregate, you know, yeah, their views of you over a period of time.
Daniel Franco:So because of actions speak louder than words? Is that what you're saying here? Or is it just the whole package?
Adam Vonthethoff:I think you hear at The Oval,
Daniel Franco:I think, well, in general,
Adam Vonthethoff:I don't know the behavior or I think it's both. But I think you get less time to explain your rationale. And you indicate it, you know, when when the business gets, as you know, keeps getting bigger and bigger around you. So going from Sky City to outrigger overseas was great when we're to Fiji for a couple of years, which was awesome. Had first child at that time as well, which overseas right? Born here became straight out there. So Fiji health system isn't isn't probably, or what is what you would imagine.
Daniel Franco:Not up to the standard of good.
Adam Vonthethoff:So yeah, yeah, Rosie came out there and that was great. A couple years and Fiji that was a complete inversion from what I'd learned in Australia, because, you know, we're learning here to as management to communicate and to give the why and to bring everyone on the journey. When I went to Fiji, this team were just telling you what to do, but for some of you, I don't care why, you know, it's you've just told me what to do and we'll do it and we'll get to end of the day. It could be mentality. Yeah. And that was interesting. I had to learn like there Because good advice in Fiji is about, you know, not living in the hotel, so lived in the community and engaged in the community, which was which was good. A very great time, my life, you know, and you do. When you came when I came back to Australia, you sort of feel a little bit. You quite humble, because you've been in that environment with very humble, beautiful people and has a calming effect. It does, you do get a better sense of what's important in life. And you come back to Australia swear, you're never going to get back to where you were. And then you join the rat race again. Yeah. And over time, you sort of come back up to, you know, I suppose the corporate Australian mindset, as opposed to why
Daniel Franco:why do you think it is such a different mentality?
Adam Vonthethoff:Ah, it's, I think that, you know, it's just, it's a cultural thing. No Fiji's, you know, quite interesting country, a lot of ways. You've got a very strong endo population that were bought out there by the British. And when the British left a lot of the leases went to the endo population, got the native V jeans, who's still very Billy orientated, you know, very, everything goes into the communal pot, so to speak. So there's been a friction there between the those, those two cultures. But it's just the fee genes are all their family. Yeah. You know, and, you know, they they feel very rich for the things they've got in their life. They're very grateful, very religious people, you know. So they've, they're a good influence.
Daniel Franco:I think you now the rat race that goes on here and in corporate Australia that is hard to break out of sometimes.
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, absolutely. Well, when I went from, you know, I went from Fiji to a for crack Cena. Yeah. You know, that's, you know, that. There's chocolate chases, you get really a lot of ways. There. And crown is a fabulous organization. I really enjoyed working for them. But it's it is a dog eat dog. Yeah. High performing base in Perth input. Yeah. So you know, and that was, you know, that was my first experience to capital development. You don't be weighing your organization. So James Packard bought verse wood, he was in the process of converting it to Crown Perth. So it's a big capital project program going through.
Daniel Franco:So you're in food and beverage again, beverage again?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah. If food beverage manager, they're both big operations, yet four and a half 1000. Staff there can't imagine the amount of moving parts. Yeah, so we had three, three general managers, sorry, three food and beverage managers there underneath the general manager of food and beverage. There. So we'll read portfolios were thorough. So yeah, that was a good time learned a lot again. And probably, you know, three careers Well, same people keep popping up. So by the time I'd got to Perth, as governor Richard calendar, who was the gaming general manager at sky city, he then gone to Perth as the CEO of gaming. So I want to go to Perth. You know, I spoke to Richard Hey, I mean, Perth, any opportunities, he made some introductions, you win the job on your own merits, and then you'd have to be to do the job. Yeah. But those relationships, get your foot in the door gets your name to the top of the list.
Daniel Franco:Use the power of networking, yeah, is unbelievable. And that
Adam Vonthethoff:pay it forward. And I've always tried to do that for as many people as I can, I'm always happy to help or make introductions, you will have to get their own. You know, find your own relationships and our own merits. But it can be the simplest thing you can do for somebody can change your life. You know, so many people have done that for me over the journey, as well. So why is literally just an introduction, you know, it's 10 seconds, and you have a big impact. So what
Daniel Franco:works, like you said it pay from a pet forward point of view, it works so much more in your favor than treating someone like sheep, like it just doesn't make it why would you ever go down that path of treating people? Yeah,
Adam Vonthethoff:well, that's the thing. I mean, you don't have to seek out conflict, you know, there will be people that you just don't get along with, or you greet each other the wrong way. And you know, so, you know, the people that you like, you know, that, you know, you can help? Why would you not want to do that? It seems crazy to me. Yeah. So, yeah, I enjoyed that. But then, you know, that's where so many smell, and I separated my first wife, and no one has come back to add light and do that. And that's what brought me back to add light. So, again, you know, just how things serendipitously work out sometimes i I'd put my name down for a second membership. And in 2010, when the Western grandstand was built, they had a big influx of members. My name was amongst that, and I had one game to come to Adelaide, had to be in Adelaide. Just to see family, see my daughter, start thinking about how to come back to Adelaide. And at that time, Craig Brooks was the HR manager at soccer. And he'd been my HR manager at Stanford grant. Okay, so I ran into Brooksie at the back of West and grants Dan chatting, and I'm looking come back to Adelaide. He said often he should say that we're looking for somebody to come in Hospitality for the newest and grandstand who functions business. So again, applied went through the process brani CLI who's a network right 100% And just dumb luck. Yeah. And I run into right person right time. Yeah. brani CLI who's now CEO of nipple. As I applied, she was the hiring GM and she hired me and brought me to La global. So 10 years ago,
Daniel Franco:10 years ago. Yeah. So you were running a different department in? Yeah. And so yes, it was interesting time. So for everyone to understand Sacher South Korean Association. Yes. Sorry. Yeah.
Adam Vonthethoff:So it was an interesting time. I had John Hanson, who I never heard of truth be told, was the CEO of the Quicken Association in and really there at that time in was that early 2011. It was all about getting the second members to vote in favor of the letter of redevelopment. So you know, I think a lot of listeners would have been around that time, you know, required a there was a 75% Yes, vote for members to do that. And McLaughlin was the was the president of Sacher. Those guys worked so hard to get that vote across the line and they did the swing, thankfully, thankfully, right.
Daniel Franco:Sitting here now crows are out there training the stadium looks amazing. It although they there is that hill though now so I'm gonna ask you about that. Sure. You can go.
Adam Vonthethoff:It was usually for the boat when I put wayville Showgrounds the night to cast the votes and and it was bittersweet because as part of the deal, Sacher and sample, so the free association would come together create a new entity to run the oval. Yeah. Which meant as the head of hospitality I was out of a job, because that would be handed over to the to the stadium management authority. So it was a bit bittersweet. Yeah. Also, it was an opportunity. And really that time as well, the development, the plans, the design, work, all that sort of stuff was happening in the background as well. And I got a unique opportunity to spend some time with the architects and the project management team and give my 10 cents on you know, what I thought might work or why not work? I worked very closely with a guy by the name of Justin cabinet. who at that time effectively is my counterpart within sample. Yeah. Fantastic guy. He's gone on to be the head of Delaware sports Australia. Great operator. Good point. I'd like man. Country to walk. looking from the outside. Fantastic
Daniel Franco:contradiction. Good put allied man doesn't work that way.
Adam Vonthethoff:So yeah, so as long as everything's I really started sort of falling in love with what was hopefully going to get built, as well. And long story short, the vote went through the SMA came together, they started construction. I threw my hat in the ring to come to work for the new stadium. Andrew Daniels had been appointed as chief executive officer who I didn't know at all previous to that. And I met Andrew once or twice. Really through the process. Yeah.
Daniel Franco:Where was he before?
Adam Vonthethoff:So Andrew? Is that a great career in events he previous to coming to Adelaide Oval has with Moto X and commission CEO their previous that he was the first CEO of the Clipsal 500. Okay, so and spent time at events experience. Yeah, events. Spent some time still CEO.
Daniel Franco:Yep. Just clarification for people listening. Yes,
Adam Vonthethoff:it's still my boss. I think eight years later now actually been working with Andrew it's been great
Daniel Franco:getting sicker. Yeah. So it'd be getting a bit sicker you know,
Adam Vonthethoff:I think it's fair to say on on on on a few things not not deliberately but again, it comes back to having a you know, having a manager that believes in you Yeah, as well as willing to help guide you and mentor you and be patient with you as well. And you know, let you make mistakes. I think that's the that's one of the things I've really appreciated about working with Andrew is he lets you have a guy who will make sure and test your your thought process your planning your you know what you're trying to achieve but once once there's alignment there then Yep, let's let's do it. Let's give it a go. Yeah, very entrepreneurial. Which I think it's much needed ah, it's just the way that you know, I think describes Andrew you know, he's just he wants to build is probably the most passionate South Australian I think I've ever come across and you know, there's a lot of passionate sales rounds we all are but they Andrews desire to make sure Adelaide ovals you know, best in the world and continuous development has been unreal.
Daniel Franco:He's done a pretty good job. Absolutely. Yeah, as are you, Mr. Discount? Well,
Adam Vonthethoff:he's Andrew. Andrew. So when I came here the Andrew put a team of three together and he's executive so there was Darrin Chandler who's now going on to si NFL, Tommy pabich. In, in finance, and and me so really is as a group or any day We've been together through the pre opening the opening many projects since then, as well. And I was only last year when Darren went across the sample still part of the family. Yeah. But, you know, we've, I think having that stability has been beneficial for the ello.
Daniel Franco:What does? What is your role here look like, you know, COO Li, the number one entertainment, one of the most glorious entertainment precincts in South Australia. There's so much happening from the sample to the cricket to just concert entertainment to Boardroom people hire out, they come in to hire out for conferences, and so much moving so many moving parts. What does your day look like?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yes, good question. And it's evolved recently. So I've only been in this role now for seven or eight months. So it's fair to say I'm still learning, learning, learning what this role is, and what why, how to best execute the role and get the most out of it. Having come through, I guess, the hospitality and development side of the organization prior to that, I know that building intrinsically I know business intrinsically, which I guess is just a benefit of being here since day.in, that now my role really is about supporting our general management group. So we've just coming out of COVID, we've and Darren going across the sample, we've had an opportunity to look at our organizational structure, to get a structure that's going to meet our future needs. And it's gonna be a very different world moving forward. So most of my role is what a lot of my roles internal facing, working with the general management group, as they build their new teams, and, you know, try to understand what is our local post COVID, like, as well. So a lot of my time with Andrew supporting him, as well and make sure that he's got the information that he needs to make decisions. Obviously, at this level, there's high level board engagement as well, there. Externally, I've got a lot of stakeholders where I guess on the primary contact, so whether it's I say, or AFL, SA Health, I've got to say health very well over the last few years. As you as you may imagine. So I really, it's it's really quite a kanji role, in a lot of ways. Still working it out, if being honest, as well. For me, we all obviously, I've had a career of sort of 25 years and hospitality, which I knew very, very well, yeah. What is moving into a CEO role in an organization look like? It's a completely different mindset. Yeah, to take to that as well. We've got a very talented, General Manager of hospitality now who, you know, it's his, it's his own his, his part of the organization to run and try to support him without stepping on his toes. You know, it's just fortunate, he's very talented. So it's not too hard. I think for me, it's on forward facing, you know, now and you know, the skills and the the career and experience overhead within hospitality will always be there. But now it's how can I be a better more effective leader in organization? Yeah.
Daniel Franco:And you've, you'd be the number one most sought after man from a tickets perspective, when
Adam Vonthethoff:I think you always know if it's gonna be a good game or a bad game. How many times times you get requests for tickets? Yeah, now look, it's, you know, they, they're the Fortunately, we've got such a great membership base here, as well. So I think most people are pretty supportive.
Daniel Franco:What are the perks of working here at Adelaide Oval?
Adam Vonthethoff:Well, the views one, yeah. I mean, it's a fabulous place to come to work. You know, I'm lucky enough to live in North Atlanta as well. So, for me, it's it's kind of all in the 5006 postcode. Yeah, I'm one of those non me North la people, you know, more for development?
Daniel Franco:Was that part of your thing? You know, put out the PIO box, then we're going to do the same thing here. Move into North metal.
Adam Vonthethoff:Yes. I've always liked to live close to work. Yeah, I think you spent a lot of time you know, otherwise you're wasting all the time commuting. Yeah. So for me, you know, it's been it's been good. I like the area. Yeah, as far as the perks go, look where every event here definitely, I think I get to meet a lot of people. You know, you offer ever networking and learning or you're out in the environment a lot. A part of that's nice, because that's where the opportunities are, you know, opportunities don't come to your doorstep, you have to go out and get some I've been fortunate enough to travel a little bit domestically, attend a couple of international conferences as well and learn and lucky enough to go through a lot of the stadiums in the states and get to know some of the guys over there as well. So there's a lot of I guess, their, their perks, you know, that's how I look at them all very grateful for those opportunities. You know, you learn a lot, but in saying that, it's what you bring back to the business, you know, and what have you learned and how you apply it and I think the roof climb here is great. Example. You know, Andrew attended a conference in Europe, and I saw that there was a requirement Island, I think it was, yeah, came back to LA and said, Right guys, this is this is what we're doing, you know, and a couple years later that business is flying, you know, as well. So I've been
Daniel Franco:in a couple or an hour booked in at some point, my wife bought it for my birthday.
Adam Vonthethoff:So you're okay with heights? No, I can
Daniel Franco:trouble with? I think I am. When as I opened the voucher, I almost I think there was a couple of expletives that came
Adam Vonthethoff:up, I was getting sweaty.
Daniel Franco:So that moving from the perks to the challenges last year, obviously, he Adelaide Oval was was decimated. We all know why obviously the crowds and the like, and entertainment industry in itself, decimated How did you and the team manage? And decipher your way through that whole process of the COVID? 2020?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, it was interesting time for sort of take my mind back to sort of late February, early March last year, you know, you've started hearing the rumblings of this pandemic, and what would it be and Andrew was, you know, very stoic throughout period, let's we can only deal with the facts, you know, let's not get ahead of ourselves. But as the facts started leading towards, you know, the seriousness of the situation. And then we started getting some early rumblings around potential closures and things like that. That's really just where you go into crisis mode, you know, to be honest with you, Andrew, remember was a Sunday, got the three of us down and talking myself on the phone. And he said, like, this is, you know, this is happening now. And this is what it's gonna look like. So, we'll straight into work and start work on on the plans. And whenever you make a decision that's going to affect people's lives, I think the decisions you take most seriously, it's, you've got two hats to wear, you know, one is you've got to do the right thing by the company, because the company has to the company itself has to be to survive that period. But then the reality is there's there's human carnage on the other side of the of those decisions sometimes. And the thing was that we didn't know how long this is going to last, as well. And I think that's one of the things that I took out of COVID was, it wasn't like, we've got a crisis for two weeks or a month, or this could have been, you know, days to weeks, two years. So not knowing that how long you are having to hunker down for was was was a big thing. Andrew led the organization extremely well through that as a lot of stakeholder engagement, a lot of communication with the board, a lot of communication with the staff. So there's a lot of zoom, cameras and staff, the decision ultimately had to be made to send the organization down, like a lot of organizations that was very challenging. So really, you've just got so many stakeholder groups again, and you've got to just keep, you know, you can't just sort of deal with one and then set and forget. Yeah, because you have to keep coming back through them. So, you know, they'll certainly the staff consideration, there was the security of the venue, we had to close the venue down. So we just stopped all the shelves. I think people might remember those CRO Sydney game, I think, which was held with nobody in the stadium. And then I think that all went shut down, shut down after that. You know, so we've had probably half a million dollars, where the stock out on the shelves and your equipments all fired up and things like that. So in shutting it all down, you have to decommission the venue, you know, you can't just turn the fridges off, you know, so we then had to, you know, have a working party to which I think was about 1215 people at that time to stay with the stadium. So we could shut down the stadium.
Daniel Franco:How, how many employees are there, go at that we're at that time that you had to stand down? Yeah, so
Adam Vonthethoff:we probably had in the range of 220 to 240 full time, people and then 1200 Casual members of which that 1200 There might be another 200 Which casual full time or part time equivalents as well. So we were there we are their main source of employment. So you've
Daniel Franco:gone from, you know, 1000 to 2000 people down to 12.
Adam Vonthethoff:Pretty much. Yeah, we had to. So we had that small team to help out the venue down, we should probably talk to two or three weeks, we had a team of security for to maintain 24 hour security of the asset. There was the four executives, couple of people out of finance, and that was about it. They were one of them. Yeah, I went through.
Daniel Franco:Yeah, I remember having a couple of conversations with you during last year. And yeah, I think I distinctly remember getting off the phone with you and thinking to myself, or I would hate to be in your position right now. The amount of I don't know just kind of the way you were where you were at in your head. At that time.
Adam Vonthethoff:I think we were we benefited from having a tight knit executive. Yeah, so I don't think it was it was all on Andrew shoulders as a CEO. He He takes absolute responsibility for the organization. But I think having that small tight executive did help. No doubt about that. I mean, at that time as well remember, we were building a hotel?
Daniel Franco:Yeah. Yeah. That was gonna be one of my statement. Next questions in amongst all this. Yeah, this is beautiful brand spanking hotel coming up some money still going out, because the construction industry didn't shut down today. So
Adam Vonthethoff:even that was, you know, touch and go. We didn't know what would happen in what materials were coming from overseas. You know, it was it was pretty nerve racking. This was March and will Jude open September. There. But, you know, we had to Fortunately, the builders were able to continue building. Yeah. So that was that was a blessing.
Daniel Franco:What did it look like in the executive room? When you guys were chatting at that point? Where was everyone's heads at? What was the main focus?
Adam Vonthethoff:I think it's Jose had one focus. And I think that the two key focuses were one was the staff group. And what we do there, there was no job keeper at that point, you know, so nobody knew, you know, that was coming over the horizon. So that was really nerve wracking time. And then the other one was the solvency of the company, you know, how long can we stay solvent for that point, again, the shutdown was here. But you know, the credit to the government, at all levels in every jurisdiction, and every health department. And I know that it's easy to be critical, in hindsight, but I think they all did a fabulous job, you know, job came became relatively quickly. Certain, you know, packages came to help businesses and so forth. So I think they moved the move, right?
Daniel Franco:What was the conversation with your team? Like, at that time? How was it taken? How was it received?
Adam Vonthethoff:Well, that time, it wasn't probably too bad. There's a lot of fear, of course. But I guess that fear was shared by everybody. Because when the whole state gets shut down, and everybody's in the same boat, or less, you know, it's a little bit easier, in that in that situation, it doesn't feel like it's happening just to me. I think that later it got harder, because as we were having to then look at, right, who could we stand back up? Did we need to take pay cuts? Do we could we afford everybody that had been stood down to come back into the organization? What the organization look like? Could we get games of football back up and running? You know, that's where a lot more challenges, I think face in the immediacy of the crisis beginning, it's just communication, you know, everything we know, you'll know, we'll make sure that we've got some lines of credit, open tours, will get from one day to the next, you know, keep engaged with the government. Is those months between probably April, May, June, probably early July, that there, once we start thinking about right, once this is over, how are we going to look,
Daniel Franco:you know,
Adam Vonthethoff:what our revenue streams gonna be, you know, we'll be able to get football back up here. You know, you remember our one of our core products is, you know, 50,000 people in the venue, shoulder to shoulder, screaming and shouting, and that's not really the environment that health departments love at the minute, you know, as well. So that's where the work really began with all our stakeholders, SA Health to make say, right, how do we start finding a way out of this and having that first showdown match of 2000 people here, first stadium event in the country coming over COVID was was so powerful, and and again, Andrew, and Dan Chandler did so much work on that that was the absolute focus, how do we get revenue back into the business? What what do we have to do to start rebuilding confidence in our product, as well, so
Daniel Franco:because the stadiums don't get any revenue from the TV rights and stuff like that, do they
Adam Vonthethoff:it's Yeah, another I think the best way of looking at Allied oval is that we're, we're, we're whole for hire. Yeah. So when the crows play, the crows come and hire allied oval and they, you know, they put stuff on the ribbon boards, advertising, all that sort of stuff. And then when cricket come they bring their So typically the clubs or the venue hire works a concert promoter or the sports they'll pay for things like security, the ashes, meaning they'll give the whole back towards the way they found it, so to speak. What the stadium does is the food and beverage, car parking, some ancillary cost recoveries, and things like that. So from a business point of view is quite interesting because you've got 35 days a year we've got a product so I football cricket or concert in about 320 days a year, where, how else do you feel the how do you create revenue streams, and that's really been I guess, our eight year journey now is to fill in those other 320 daisies, you know, to deliver a stadium for 50,000 people, you need a good base level of, you know, employment IP, you need to have to do that. But then that's one day a week. So we've been very lucky to build a range of businesses out of out of the LA West.
Daniel Franco:was being you're being very innovative. And that thinking outside of the box idea with the roof climb, being one of those things, the new hotel, all these other ways of bringing revenue in? Is I've always been interested, is there a ceiling to how much the oval can revenue that it can turn over? You know, you talk about football, cricket, they're always gonna get first preference, aren't they?
Adam Vonthethoff:Absolutely. That's our core. why we exist? Yeah. So that gets 100% of our attention there. You know, we get 22 football matches, plus, you know, finals, which is great, you get 10 days of cricket, so test match and a BB L plus finals as well. We try to get two or three concerts a year. Here. Again, that's the guns coming in we we do heal if another question, you know, because ultimately, they still have to find a way of coming into the country and stealing those dates. So, you know, that's one of those examples of things that are in the air. I think that's probably been one of the things for us. Coming back out of COVID is the LA Times a lot shorter. You know, the AFL is a good example, you know, we're basically going week to week and what schedule is going to be there as well, which is a necessity for the now not probably sustainable long term. But yeah, it's sparkling business posts COVID.
Daniel Franco:What are moving from the COVID world what I now Well, I think, the COVID world, we're still going to get embroiled in everything. And in this next question, what are the main challenges moving forward?
Adam Vonthethoff:There's a lot of challenges. I think that I think that within society and business community, generally there's there is still a bit of a view of there'll be recovered back to normal. And I'm not necessarily confident that there will be a normal, which looks like 2019, I think that we have to go, here's our line in the sand, we had a shutdown, and we're going to be looking to build growth back into the business over a number of years now. So we want to see growth, you want to see double digit growth, you know, coming back out of that over a period of time, some of our businesses, business units have been hit harder than others. So football is back is going pretty well, nearly about 200% of what it was. But our functional events business is is still very soft. Okay. So give you an idea, like overall pre code will do about 1500 functions a year, give or take, we're probably at half that at the moment. And, again, that businesses still is that
Daniel Franco:is that because many of those businesses went out of business during that time or the entertainment industry, for example? Yeah,
Adam Vonthethoff:look, from a functional point of view. I think it's just there's still a bit of nerve nerves around, you know, will it be shut down? Can we bring can we get people travel around the country, you know, things like that. We've seen a couple of shutdowns in Sydney and Melbourne. We've had conferences here, and people literally get up at the seat and go to the airport to get home, you know, so it's still, it's still a bit nervy in that space. I hope that recovers over time, vaccines a big part of our future moving forward. We need to get people vaccinated. We need to get that confidence back into the business sector. No doubt businesses, some businesses have done well through COVID. But, you know, for our business, you know, we because of the nature of it, we're we're meeting place. Yeah, you know, we're sort of we're a social entity as well. So we probably feel a little bit more than most,
Daniel Franco:you would. So that being the biggest challenge getting those other smaller business units on track. What about from a staffing perspective is they're obviously trying to sell people to come and work here at Adelaide Oval when it could be shut down at any point again, is it how are you attracting talent and staff into the world?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, it's a bit of an evolving thing. At the moment. I think since maybe November, ish. Last year, we sort of started saying what were our doors are open, probably after that last shutdown in November. We've been very fortunate in South Australia. From that point of view, we've seen a pretty high staff turnover. People have left for all sorts of reasons. Some have seen other opportunities come up some have been a bit nervy about the environment and not wanting to be in such a risky area. Yes, there. It's been pretty traumatizing for a lot of people. You know, he's a bit of a take out there. Yeah, I think a lot of people as a, as a community and as a business as well. So I think that that that staff turnover for us is probably one of the first things we want to arrest, you know, and get that confidence back into our team that hey, we're here and, you know, whereas COVID resilient as possible to guard against shutdowns. But then when people have left and we've had to go to market to find new people, it's pretty challenging there at the moment. You know, it does feel you know, that there's not the depth of candidates out there that you'd like to see or are used to. For us not having the international students in Adelaide as a big as a big thing. We usually have three or 400 students on our on our on our team, and they're just not there at the moment. So then a lot of jobs have been, you know, it sort of flies through the whole organization, right. So it's challenging the employment space, we're no different to that. We've been running games or football here with probably between 60 and 70 shifts that we can feel. And that has an impact on the customer experience. Of course, you know, you might be waiting those few extra minutes for your beer team are working very, very hard that that we have here, but reality is that just don't have enough hands on on the deck.
Daniel Franco:Is it? So you know, you talked about Fiji, going over there, and just getting the worker bees. You know, if I was to go on the Adelaide Oval website now, which I have done, and I've looked up careers and a little bit a bit background research, there is no vision or purpose, why, why why come and work for Atlanta, I mean, you look outside now, and it's pretty evident, be great place to work, but what is the what is the offering that is going to is going to appeal
Adam Vonthethoff:with such a broad employer, as well. And I think that, you know, we've got so many businesses under one umbrella as well. So we're very broad in that sense, you know, that the same type of person that you might want for tourism business on Route climb is different to a fine dining restaurant person to an ASHA to, you know, a hotel attendant as well. So, as a, as an organization, it's, it's interesting, putting all those different skills together. Because how broad we are, I think, though, for the oval is we are we are a big entity. So there's definite career opportunity here. You know, if you if you want to come to the oval, learn different parts of the business. Work hard, it's not for the faint hearted, you know, it's a it's a busy dynamic, you know, big place, it takes you probably 10 minutes to walk around the oval, you know, but if you if you want to come here, and knuckle down is a it's a full of opportunity, as well. And we're pretty young organization as well. You know, when you look through the through the whole organization, I don't know what our average age is. But it's we're pretty young in a lot of ways as well, a lot of a lot of apprentices, a lot of trainees come through the organization. Yeah, that's been a big focus for us.
Daniel Franco:How do you manage with the staff is probably particularly the forward facing staff, the the ones that see the end client, the people who come into the stadium to watch the games, there's a you know, when alcohol flows, and the teams are losing, or they're winning, and the ego kicks in, and you start off with safe, probably deal with a fair bit of abuse. From that, and from that, and from support, you know, the bargains and the like, but how do you how do you manage that?
Adam Vonthethoff:That wasn't a deal. That was
Daniel Franco:right, because you only need to come to a game. Yeah, I look, I'm a pretty passionate, I'm a long supporter. So I'm a pretty passionate supporter of football. Yeah. However, I do sit in the grandstands. Sometimes when I'm watching a game I go, my my goodness, there's many people can't actually control their emotions.
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's it, there's a few there's a few things about that. One is, you know, aloe was nice to be a safe place for everybody, you know, for families, for our team, for the players. So there are there are a lot of there's a lot of work that goes into trying to create that safe environment. We have a fantastic security team, we have a fantastic front of house staff who are very proactive in trying to manage or identifying problems there. We have the one 800 Tell us number as well, so that parents can use it there as well. There's no doubt that sometimes people's behavior and it's always their whole ad, granted, there are those times as well, but they can't, you know, that gets out of control. And we'll take effective steps around that we certainly don't tolerate any social behavior at all. No, you know, and pizza invasions are just not on and we're required, we'll deal with those people and give them long bans. They only had a few this year, unfortunately. So they're just not welcome back. That behavior is not not appropriate. We're fantastically supported by South Australia, police. They are outstanding. They're here every day. They work very collaboratively with us as well. That you know, think about as percentage 50,000 People come you might have a handful of tickets. Yeah, you know, at the end of day, so the idea is to identify them, you beat them. They go peacefully, then we'll see you next time champ just can't be farm. Yeah, if there's any kind of resistance then they might spend the night in locker, they might get a night's sleep over and think about the behavior.
Daniel Franco:Do you deal with you, from a customer experience point of view from your staff? How do you manage that, you know, from an onboarding process? So they come in and you say, look, you're probably going to see some adverse reactions from people and behaviors from people and do you manage that as a resilience piece for them? For example?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, there's an addiction for everybody that comes on board. And we touch on a range of topics, of course cut where our customer facing organization. And I think anybody who's dealt with the public understands that it's a lucky day. And it's not because people are good, bad or indifferent, some people just having a bad day or things get away from them as well. So we're possible, you know, we it's important that our staff feel safe. I mean, as absolute priority, there's no doubt about that. But it's interesting that you say about whether the team's losing or winning, we get our get, we get our surveys, sorry, our feedback every week, and the home team had a win. It's amazing how everything's fabulous. Yeah, if the home team got smashed by 10 goals, then every pie was called whatever it be, it was warm. And there was a little bit of reaction to that. I think, though, for feedback, it's important for us to get back to everybody. So when we get feedback, we do take on board, we do get back to every customer, where we need to will recover that customer, we might, you know, compensate them or, you know, we don't want anyone to have a bad experience of a label. Yeah, and things do occasionally go wrong. We're a big organization with a lot of moving parts. So we accept that, in looking at the feedback, though, we always try to categorize it into is a subjective piece of feedback, or is it a systemic problem in our business, and sometimes, you'll get a lot of subjective behavior, which then brings that issue to being systemic, or sometimes there's a one off incident, which is immediately systemic. And I think that's the balance of management as well, particularly in our sort of industry or hospitality, is that people's opinions are valuable? Because they're your customers? Yeah, don't dismiss them. Deal with them, acknowledge them, fix them, recover that customer and fit in your organization. By then don't try to fix something if it's a one off answer. Yeah, you know, except that I was cold. And occasionally it will happen. Yeah, I'd be lying to you if I said, you know, every everything we say all the time is perfect. Yeah, of course, it's not, you know, business will. We absolutely love the amount of volume that you guys. And I think that our teams are an amazing job. You know, we walk around, there's a lot of quality assurance that goes onto that product, our Director of Design is out here is here every match day, inspecting, you know, the chips to you know, the function meals to find any restaurant. There.
Daniel Franco:It is a it is a very important point to you. I mean, no disrespect to Adelaide over you would get a fair bit of feedback, right? So you would receive be a constructive bit negative. Yeah,
Adam Vonthethoff:a lot of good feedback. Yeah,
Daniel Franco:absolutely.
Adam Vonthethoff:Always, I'm always I shouldn't say surprise. But the amount of positive feedback we get is
Daniel Franco:the best. The functions you have it, they're phenomenal. But what where I'm going with this is, where do you draw the line into what's like, not considered as actual feedback. And that's just someone complaining compared to, actually, we need to do something here with this.
Adam Vonthethoff:I think you take each each piece of feedback on merit. And if you're not in the frame of mind to read feedback, just don't do it. At that moment, I think you have to be in a place that you're willing to receive it. So if you have any bad day, don't pick up the feedback sheet and look at it. Yeah, you know, because you just gonna sit there, and you're just gonna get defensive. Yeah. And that's not and that's not helpful for anybody there as well. So we have a, we have a weekly meeting with all the senior team and we go through it piece by piece, a lot of feedback we get is really valuable for us as well, you know, my site was broken, or this was dirty or something, because it's a big place. Yeah. But just getting that knowledge into how to fix it. Go back to that person and say thank you. And next time they come. It's fixed. Yeah, that's, that's what I think people are looking for that. That V back there. The food. Things be interesting, though, just touching on that, because you can imagine the amount of meals that we serve here as well. And we keep a retention sample of every piece of food that gets served here. we phrase it, we catalog it to Bureau function here, we've got that meal somewhere in our freezer. So when we get allegations of food poisoning, which, you know, again, that's part of the feedback that comes through, you know, I've got food poisoning there. We take those samples, we send them to the lab, we cultivate it, we get a lab report, we go back to the customer. Now, it's just good business practice anyway to be able to do that. But I think and you know, and Touchwood, because it's not, it's not perfect, and it could happen one day. Yeah. But I think having those structures in the organization helped protect us. Yeah, well give us
Daniel Franco:thought of that. You write the food poisoning alone. What are they actually trying to gain from you? If they say
Adam Vonthethoff:I think that a lot of customers, it's genuine, I can't date they're not they're not feeling well. Yeah. And they're doing the right thing. So it's not an
Daniel Franco:I knew as a business would want to find out about that. Absolutely. You know, there there's no one a seminar, salmonella outbreak. And a
Adam Vonthethoff:lot of these things are reportable as well. So they're mandatory reporting through counsel, so forth there. But you know, we want to know if there's an issue that we can get on top of it straightaway. And there's no that's no different to the COVID plans. At the moment. You know, we asking people to QR code, we're asking people to download a secret ticket seat. So if something goes wrong, we can best deal with it as well and think that, you know, that's an important thing for business. You know, you got to better plan for when things go wrong. You know about to put your hand on your heart and say we've done everything we can, but if that event happened, we can deal with it quickly, properly, and then investigate what happen and sort of in
Daniel Franco:any manage third year, you know, we're not we back to full capacity
Adam Vonthethoff:50,700 on the hill. So we're, yeah, more or less,
Daniel Franco:how do you manage the, you know, when they'd say QR codes aren't mandatory? And then they come out and say, now they are, how do you manage the 50,000 people
Adam Vonthethoff:use a QR code mandatory for the customer to come into the venue, and we've got QR codes everywhere. Yeah, we just want a QR code while they're here. So do it at the front door, do it at the kiosk, while you're waiting, whatever, just make sure you do it here helps SA Health tremendously. And we've had a number of, you know, test run through that, how quickly can we get Ticket data through to state control so that they can start a process if required, there, and I'm gonna say that AFL has been fabulous in this space. I think people should have a high level of confidence that, heaven forbid something happened here that we would get that shut down very quickly. Yeah. There. So again, you don't want to say that,
Daniel Franco:no, but you have to, you have to put these mitigations in place.
Adam Vonthethoff:Oh, it's the same as doing the old fashioned fire drill. You know, we've all done those, you know, in school, you know, since then, it's just thinking about probably 50 things that we do fire drills on, you know, cybersecurity is massive in our world at the moment. Yes. Well, and you know, we're a high profile, you know, business in Adelaide, so the amount of time energy money that we spend on cybersecurity is inordinate Yeah, but if you don't, it's
Daniel Franco:here in a green light you're in more trouble. Yeah. I'm interested in the governance perspective of having to is two owners from this SFL to the Sacher Yep. Yeah. How do you manage your your daily chats with with those two who typically in the in history and also structure about now but in history haven't really seeing eye to eye in many aspects
Adam Vonthethoff:was a fantastic that that foot in Korea came together, you know, without the end with the state government of the day as well. As well, there's a lot of vision involved in that and a lot of compromise, to get the deal done. We're pretty unique governance model from around the world. So the global SMA is a private company. We are owned 5050 by football and cricket. Those two sports effectively share the grass. So football from March to October has the right to put content onto the oval soccer from October through them, it's very much there. So from that point of view, day to day, it works for every well, periodically, they'll have you know, views of you know, what, how they would do things or or what needs to happen, but it's important remember, the Allied over itself has a independent board. Yeah. Okay. So that that board is there to support management, give us clarity and direction around that we've been very blessed over those eight, nine years to have three on our third Chairman now. So we've had a McLaughlin John Olsen and Kevin scarce chairs of Adelaide Oval, fantastic leaders, as well and great supporters of the business. So you know, like all families and boards and businesses, you know, you'll you'll have things that you need to talk through work through. But, as, I guess, executive with the Allied oval, you know, I feel very supported by the ILO board first and foremost, and have good working relationships with sacristan for day in day out to not just deliver their sports but talk about what's in the best interest of Adelaide Oval. And I think that's, you know, it can't be understated how valuable their asset is and how much everybody appreciates it that's involved with it one way or another. Yeah,
Daniel Franco:I cast my mind like you talk about you work the West likes I used to live down at Grange like West likes was a stone throws away from me, and I can't believe we actually were never, we were down there at any point. Like, you look at how, how fabulous. The stadium is then and how it looks now, what it's actually doing from the Adelaide City, you know, pre COVID It was just revitalizing the precinct all around. Yeah, what is the next? What's the next five years look like? Is it is it hard to plan for now in a COVID world?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, I think that for our organization. For the next little while, at least, it's really about internal consolidation. Make sure that our people are supported and have confidence and career paths reestablished through here. It's about bringing all their business units back to their full capacity and creating that demand for all of those products and and also taking a look at those products as well make sure they're the right products for the world moving forward. So where's the hotel or functions or, you know, roof climb, the tap house Cross River, we've just reinvested with the zoo, upper Manado as well. So they're doing their new visitor center up there Elaine's busy building a whole new experience and we've had
Daniel Franco:they've had a line on the show. Yes, spoken about that. And she
Adam Vonthethoff:great. It's just a absolute visionary
Daniel Franco:superstar The amount of positive feedback we've received from that podcast. So if you are listening, go and check that one out. She's just yeah, in a different world
Adam Vonthethoff:is absolutely great. And that's one of the things as well about having those other relationships. You know, we've got contracts, I put them in auto so we get to know the zoo.
Daniel Franco:What's what when you say contract? What satellite over what to do with?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, so we deliver all the hospitality service. So functions up their weddings, the cafe, for tourists, which is great. Through the tap house across the river, we have a relationship with the arts in Douglas and Carlo and the guys over there as well. So, you know, a lot of ways those businesses are not just great for us, but they're great for the community and and for our organizations to get to know each other and work collaboratively for betterment South Australia.
Daniel Franco:So is that part of the Adelaide Oval strategy? Is it you looking to businesses outside of Adelaide Oval and precincts and you know, would you look at something like I'm not looking for a stadium or that would bring soccer or the the NBA or the NBL? Or you know, is that something that you're looking at
Adam Vonthethoff:it we did the we had the contract that titanium, the 60s, or did that for a few years down there, before they moved up to the entertainment center. Again, it comes back to you know, la oval working 35 days a year. We've got great human resources here, we have great assets that we have here. As far as our kitchen production capabilities and and our systems. We have all the finance and HR and it supports that you require. So for us to be able to partner with businesses whose core business isn't hospitality, for us is great for our people, we get to partner with those organizations, provide career paths for those organizations, sorry for our people, for those organizations, as well. So and it diversifies our revenue, yeah, as well. So every dollar that comes into that label gets reinvested onto Adelaide Oval, as well. So in a way we're, you know, it's great, we wait for analyzation, we can see where the profit organization guy goes to the upkeep of Adelaide Oval. It goes for the betterment of football, cricket in South Australia. We pay an annual fee to the state government that then put that money into other sports and the sport and rec fund as well. So you it does help you, you know, keeps you very focused unless you work hard.
Daniel Franco:You mentioned earlier, maybe I'm looking for a scoop he, you mentioned earlier that you and Andrew have traveled overseas and looking at other stadiums. Is there anything that's caught your eye looking at other stadiums, you think, yeah, we could bring that back, or we could really find a way to introduce that entire level.
Adam Vonthethoff:You know, it's interesting that you go to the states and look at the NFL stadiums and the baseball stadiums. And they just say they just got so much money. You know, you're talking about billionaires in teams and stadiums. And you know, Dallas Cowboys is a great example of that, you know, it's money's not an object. Yeah. So. But I think that what we have here is we have genuine, authentic product. You know, it's something romantic about Adelaide Oval, and I'm always pleased when we go overseas, just how much people want to talk about LA Oh, yeah. Not just in England, or India or, you know, even in America, you know, they lie, they will stand up there globally. Yeah, in those with those stadiums. So look, there's there's always things that we'd love to do. But, you know, probably Now's not the time to do that. We have invested a lot in the overall over the period of time since we've been here, the ribbon board upgrade itself, the hotel investment, the reapply investment, you know, continue RNM you know, the stadiums won't be far away from being 10 years old. Yeah. So what do we need to replace, as well? So, you know, it's
Daniel Franco:it's a good strike,
Adam Vonthethoff:I wouldn't say, as a priority. But, but, yeah, I think we've got a great product here that, you know, for now, we want to make sure that we've got a great team to run it and we maintain the standard of the product. We don't want to say that our labels to enter deteriorate. Okay, that's That's it is
Daniel Franco:a beautiful place and you say, I do agree with you when you come in here is there's something there is this feel about it compared to other stadiums? Like, is that hill and when that scoreboard, does that contribute to that fuel? Or do you believe that continuing that stand all the way around would add more value?
Adam Vonthethoff:Well, firstly, the lll redevelopment ad takes that decision out of our hands. So right the heritage piece Yeah, and it's not just the heritage piece. I mean, within that there are things that shall remain and I'm fully supportive. You know, Adelaide, I will be called Adelaide Oval. It won't become insert telco stadium, you know here. So you know, the, the grass is part of that. So we will maintain the hill, as is we've made some safety improvements. You see the paths through there and some things like that, but the grass will remain. The Moreton Bay is the scoreboard. Why would you want to change that? No,
Daniel Franco:it is it is fantastic. I think from a standing capacity point of view, you could add in Extra? What? 10 15,000?
Adam Vonthethoff:I don't think there's a need for it to be honest. I mean, having the occasional sellout is good for your business. And mostly you can get a ticket to an event that I like. Yeah. I mean, there wouldn't be too many people left on the other side of the gate. We had 70,000 here for a deal, to give an example. So yeah, I said, having yourself oftentimes good. But now, I think that that, you know, that really does add to the character of the venue. We're also geographically lucky as well, you know, we're 600 meters from the train station, you know, so, which is why it was always the best decision. Oh, absolutely. I mean, Adelaide as itself is just, we're blessed. You know, in the stadium, basically, in the city, we've got an airport, that's 15 minutes away. You know, we've got so much here. And I think that's part of what we strive to as well it's continually attract people to sell Australian not just to come here and conference, but come to Adelaide and do business here. And a new partner and empty X at the MTS club. There's great examples that you know, American owned it company, setting up in Australia for the first time has come to Adelaide to invest, you know, his common invested in the stadium as well. So, new Mt. X club. That's right in UMTS cloud I think that speaks volumes for what we're doing here you know, to have a Texas based it firm want to come to Adelaide one and then walk on Adelaide Oval invest and partner with La Lobo I think is pretty good validation what the team is doing.
Daniel Franco:Great. Now we passed that will pass the ALMA right. Okay. We knew that we could just, we haven't had, we haven't had any b. So this is brilliant. Um, we generally really like to finish off the podcast with a whole host of what I call quickfire questions. Yeah, never quickfire. Yeah. We'll run through them. We're big readers at creating synergy. Synergy IQ. Ellison is a big readers and learners as as you can imagine. What are you reading right now?
Adam Vonthethoff:I'm reading 12 rules of life. Jordan Peterson.
Daniel Franco:I love Jordan Peterson.
Adam Vonthethoff:It took quite polarizing character. Yeah. But yeah. Take his politics out of there. Maybe I just like I'm quite enjoying the book actually, is black and white. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. Forgetting what people may or may not say about it. He's one of you. And
Daniel Franco:I agree. Is there a book that you're reading or have read? That stands out? So for those who are looking to progress the career, whether it be in hospitality, whether it be as later just looking to grow their career? Is there a book that that helped you along the way?
Adam Vonthethoff:I think, honestly, to that, probably no, I get more from people interaction. So I told him come to an academic group, my career. So I probably learned more on the job and talking leading through my mistakes or mistakes of others. So
Daniel Franco:is there a course that you did along the way that well, you know, you're we did the ICD course we did it? Yeah. Is there a? Is there something that you could recommend for for someone that just looking to take the next step?
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, for me, I'm gonna I'm certainly I've circled back to do my MBA. So I've got about four months left of that. So I think doing aitd was really valuable. And and I'm enjoying the MBA experience as well. I'm learning a lot through that. I think, for me, that just helps me relate better to some of the other business disciplines. Yes, I have a bit more of an understanding of the theory that drives some of the thought processes. So you're enjoying that.
Daniel Franco:Brilliant, do you listen to any podcasts or any or anything?
Adam Vonthethoff:I do listen to one actually, in Whitworth is, is a friend who's just got a new book coming out, his name escapes me, but that's where I'm not here to plug his book
Daniel Franco:that's working, I will contact you later and get it in the show notes.
Adam Vonthethoff:But this probably the only one and again, it's just about doing business, non academically, your business in the real world, you know, and you know, what are those things that annoy people? Or, you know, yeah, yeah, yes, with it.
Daniel Franco:Is there anyone that you admire or look up to?
Adam Vonthethoff:This will sound so cliche, but I've really enjoyed working with Andrew Daniels, for me going meeting him at sort of 32 So where I am now is a lot of learning goes through in those years. So that has been tremendously influential in my career. In that regard. I've got a lot of time for just so many people who are professionals, experts for what they do, you know, our culinary team here and what they do, it's just inspirational. You know, to be a leader in a business, it's so high performing it creates such a great product is a real privilege. So, yeah, we're, you know, I've come from a hospitality background. You know, those guys are often unsung heroes. They're not all crazy. Some of them are but, you know, they just they work so hard, you know, and they deliver such great products.
Daniel Franco:What's the best advice that you've received over your career?
Adam Vonthethoff:couple pieces are probably mom was very much about the same people your personal app will be the same when she passed away down, which I think is is pretty sage advice mom works. You're at The Oval now the cafe's I get to see her most days, which is great. And the other one is, work out what you want in life and tell as many people as possible, because somewhere on the line, somebody will remember or their needs will intersect with your needs. And if you're not telling people all the time about what your aspirations dreams, where you want to go, Pete White Night, out of mind. Exactly. So, you know, you have to, you have to bang around around a little bit is a balance to that, you know, just, but for me, that's been very useful, you know, in my life, this is what I like to achieve, because either people give you the feedback of what you need to do together. And that itself is quite valuable.
Daniel Franco:Yeah, absolutely. So what do you want to achieve? We'll get everyone listening in on this.
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, no. Look, I'd love to. I'm enjoying my role. Now, as I said, early in the pace, I'm feeling like, you know, there's a few years of development, yeah, within this road, I'm here to really understand it and be effectual in it. I'd love to put my hand up at the right time to lay down a local business. I'm very passionate about what we're doing here. I know the business well, but at the same token, you know, you never, you know, you never know where life's gonna take you. Yeah, you know, but I think with
Daniel Franco:the network that you have we people thrown themselves at some point or positions out. Yeah, I should say.
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, well, I'm happy. My daughter's, you know, just out of high school this year. And as I said, we've still got a we've still got a long way to go here.
Daniel Franco:It's, I'm talking to career, right. Yeah, we're not, there's no, we're under no illusion that we're all going to sound the same spot for the rest of our lives. You've got a long way in your career to go. It's interesting to know where you said it yourself. You always tell people where you want to go. Yeah, interesting,
Adam Vonthethoff:I think, to be in a place for 10 years, but to have seen the change. And and it's every year is a renewal as well, as is been very fortunate.
Daniel Franco:Yeah. When you've seen a lot of growth in their space, it's feeding you what you need, right? Yeah, absolutely. A bit of a different question if you had a time machine, and you could go anywhere in that time machine. So two way trip? Yeah. Where would you go?
Adam Vonthethoff:Ah, I think I'd, I'd go forward in time
Daniel Franco:forward in time. You're one of the rare people, a lover, everyone says back now I'll go forward
Adam Vonthethoff:in time, for a number of reasons. One is imagine what you could do if you knew, excuse me, if you knew where the world was going to go,
Daniel Franco:Oh, right.
Adam Vonthethoff:Why would you not want to go forward in time? Because
Daniel Franco:it's all it's in the book is in the movie, the future, I just,
Adam Vonthethoff:I think I'd go forward in time in history is well recorded and, and understood. And I just think we live in an amazing time. You know, it's, I don't lament the old days or anything like that. I think there's good, bad, indifferent, but we live in a time of just unprecedented health and, you know, material, you know, we have things Yeah, you know, we have problems. It's not all rainbows and Skittles, absolutely, you know, environment worries me the, you know, the, you know, geopolitics worries me, you know, there's plenty out there to worry about, but, you know, I think we will we're very privileged to live in this time.
Daniel Franco:It'd be good to see where we end up.
Adam Vonthethoff:Yeah, absolutely. It's very fast. I think that, you know, you you're taught to get to the A lot of people here are quite elderly and been around a long time, or 50 year old members and things like that and talk to them through their stories. For me, I'm really, you know, I can't wait. I can't wait to get there. Don't get me wrong. You know, the stories that we've got to tell that next generation or the great grandkids as well, it's gonna be pretty interesting.
Daniel Franco:We touched on Marvel, but if you if you had a choice to have a superhero power, what would it be?
Adam Vonthethoff:Oh, that's a good question. I think. The other eight mind? Yeah.
Daniel Franco:I think that's yeah, that would be great. No, with people thinking,
Adam Vonthethoff:yeah. You always want to No, no, no,
Daniel Franco:I have trouble reading my own.
Adam Vonthethoff:Now, I think I think that the Yeah, I think that'd be that'd be pretty fascinating. Again, a little bit like going forward in time. Yeah, what people were thinking it'd be it'd be pretty, pretty strong. Super. Super powderham.
Daniel Franco:Yeah, you'd have to be able to switch it on and off flow.
Adam Vonthethoff:Ie when I hear people say all the time. Some things you could not unhear right. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Daniel Franco:100% and you are you are a father. So no doubt you have a dad joke. What's your best dad joke? And keep it clean? Yeah.
Adam Vonthethoff:My children
Daniel Franco:put you on the spot. If anyone you'd have 20 that you could run. I have a joke. Yeah. And they're all shit. So
Adam Vonthethoff:I'll rephrase it. They're all you put me on the spot. Yeah. I think I'm blushing here. I know, I'm gonna pass. I know I'm gonna kick myself later, right out of here and go. There's that joke. I've got a range of jokes, but honestly, it'd be editing half of it
Daniel Franco:maybe we had a few Beezy we wouldn't go on any, you
Adam Vonthethoff:know, several things. One the moment I walk out of here. Yeah. So I'm naturally a funny guy. Right? Yeah. Well done. He jokes. Well,
Daniel Franco:yeah, exactly. You have that charm about you. Thank you very much for joining us on the podcast, man. It's been an absolute pleasure getting to learn a little bit more about you and your career. And kudos to you and the guys about what you know. And the team, I should say what you did last year, and all the ups and downs of last year and we were you've taken this stadium over the past eight years. It's it's an a brilliant, brilliant place to be. Every time we're walking. I think we did some workshops here for about six months. We were here once a week or twice a week for workshops for six months. And not one point that I ever get sick of coming in coming in here and doing some work. So it's always a pleasure. And like I said, kudos to you in the team. If people want to get in contact with you. Where can they find you? Yeah,
Adam Vonthethoff:at Adelaide Oval. AdamVonthethoff.adelaideoval.com.au or mobile is always good 0447772595. Always happy to get texts, phone calls. You know, it's one of the great things about being here is we had to share it with everybody. So everybody's always welcome.
Daniel Franco:Brilliant. And link, you're on LinkedIn. Because we actually we had this conversation you've got someone party in your account.
Adam Vonthethoff:Why? Why would you want to? I don't know, I think I could. I'm heavily proven wrong on this. But as far as I know, there's only one atom font off on the planet. Yeah, it's such a rare name. So yeah. So two on LinkedIn with the same photo doesn't make Yeah, it doesn't make sense at all. I'm not sure. Sure. So for those who want to check
Daniel Franco:you out on LinkedIn, it's your The title is COO. That title, correct. That's the correct one. Yeah. Good. Man. Thank you very much for your time. Pleasure.
Adam Vonthethoff:Thanks for having me. Take care of you.
Synergy IQ:Thank you once again for joining us here at creating synergy. It's been great spending this time with you. Please jump on to the synergy IQ Facebook and LinkedIn page where the discussion continues after the show. Join our mailing list so you'll know what's happening next at Synergy iq.com.au. And of course, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. And if you really enjoyed it, please share it with your friends.