How do we lose the 'boring & dull' stereotype?

[Norman]

I think:
Sydney is the Business Capital
Melbourne is the Sporting Capital
Brisbane/Gold Coast is the Entertainment Capital
Perth is the Modern Capital
Adelaide is the Relaxed Capital
Darwin is the Wildlife Capital
Hobart is the Hidden Capital
Canberra is the True Capital

My opinion anyway.

[Pat28]

I think:
Sydney is the Business Capital
Melbourne is the Sporting Capital
Brisbane/Gold Coast is the Entertainment Capital
Perth is the Modern Capital
Adelaide is the Relaxed Capital
Darwin is the Wildlife Capital
Hobart is the Hidden Capital
Canberra is the True Capital

My opinion anyway.

Or:
Sydney is the Business and International Capital
Melbourne is the Sporting Capital
Brisbane is the Entertaining Capital
Perth is the Progressive Capital
Adelaide is the Bypassed Capital
Darwin is the Tropical Capital
Hobart is the Hidden Capital
Canberra is the True and "Centre" Capital

[Hindley Street Alley]

The biggest problem is the stereotype itself and the attitude that alot of people seem to have about this city. And the biggest problem is not people from interstate thinking that Adelaide is 'boring & dull'.. it's people who live here thinking that it's boring and dull.

Young people especially... i know cos im a young person and i know what some people i know say. Consequently, these people have very little sense of adventure or ambition to make something of their time here - and in that way it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy (ie "I think its boring, therefore why bother doing something, because I will only be bored... so now I'm doing nothing, and I'm bored, and nothing ever happens").

WAKE UP! there's stuff happening everywhere, there's beautiful things to see and do - you just gotta go find it. If you can't find it, then do what you can to make it happen and you'll meet new people and make new friends who are enthusiastic and not bored and boring!!

that said, lets keep improving stuff and some new exciting developments certainly wouldn't hurt.

[jk1237]

The biggest problem is the stereotype itself and the attitude that alot of people seem to have about this city. And the biggest problem is not people from interstate thinking that Adelaide is 'boring & dull'.. the biggest problem is people who live here thinking that it's boring and dull.

Young people especially... i know cos im a young person and i know what some people i know say. Consequently, these people have very little sense of adventure or ambition to make something of their time here - and in that way it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy (ie "I think its boring, therefore why bother doing something, because I will only be bored... so now I'm doing nothing, and I'm bored, and nothing ever happens").

WAKE UP! there's stuff happening everywhere, there's beautiful things to see and do - you just gotta go find it. If you can't find it, then do what you can to make it happen and you'll meet new people and make new friends who are enthusiastic and not bored and boring!!

that said, lets keep improving stuff and some new exciting developments certainly wouldn't hurt.

yes that is true, but I think its more important to change our image to the rest of Australia, to change our thinking. Whenever you are with someone from Perth, Sydney, Melb or Brisbane that continuously puts down Adelaide, I find that its easier to agree with them rather than defend Adelaide for the next hour. This then filtrates through to us unconsciously. Despite the fact we are a great city, if you are told constantly, all the time, by everyone, that we are a dull-boring city, we find ourselves thinking the same thing. Its phsyco babble but I think its true.
Make Adelaide look confident, so we can all feel confident.

[Will]

If people form opinions by themselves, if you are to challenge such opinions, people are able to argue with you and defend their opinion. This is because, if the opinion has been formed by an individual, they have the experience and knowledge to be able to argue back.
In my experience I have noticed that my friends make statements such as "Adelaide is so boring, nothing ever changes". Yet despite this, when you challenge their comments, the majority of people cannot explain why Adelaide is boring or dull with a coherent argument. This strongly suggests that these people are only repeating what they have heard (the stereotypes). By constantly hearing, reading and watching people say such things about Adelaide, they have gradually but surely been indoctrinated to believe that such comments are true.
However, from my experiences, the majority of opinions that the young people I know form independently about Adelaide are positive. It is as though young people ‘hate’ living in Adelaide yet they love individual aspects about it. Think about it; how many people you know have made sweeping comments about how ‘boring or dull’ Adelaide is, yet in the next breath they may be saying how much they love the Central market, relaxing at Henley Square, a particular restaurant, going to our many festivals….

The best method to change people's perceptions is to do so slowly and based on a positive focussed approach. By this I mean, instead of challenging people when they make negative sweeping comments about Adelaide, instead focus on what they love about Adelaide and capitalise on that. By this I mean, when people say something positive about an aspect of Adelaide, ‘reward’ these comments by replying and agreeing with them. For example if someone says, “I’ve noticed that town is busier these days” you should acknowledge and agree with such statements!

Furthermore you too should always be positive about Adelaide, talk up what a great time you had last weekend, talk up particular restaurants, bars, clubs; introduce your friends to new places to show them that there are many places where they can go out…

I have been doing this for years now, and my crowning achievement has been waking up some of my friends and family to the realisation that Adelaide is not dull or boring!

[Düsseldorfer]

A short vid about the sensational things this city has to offer

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[rhino]

Excellent vid Dusseldorfer! Where is that shown? I haven't seen it before.

[Splashmo]

I think I've seen it on the inflight entertainment system onboard Qantas.

[Cruise]

Excellent vid Dusseldorfer! Where is that shown? I haven't seen it before.

I have seen it on the Sealink Ferry to Kangaroo Island, They also showed many fly over videos. (Flinder's ranges, The Riverland, Fleurieu peninsula and Port Lincoln are just some of the videos i remember, They were fantastic)

[Shuz]

You know how the answer often lies right in front of your eyes?

A good starting stone would be to close the thread, and not make a mention of it.

Once you have allowed yourself to believe what others pick you on for, then the others have won their game. If we continue to believe that we are a boring and dull city because John Brumby said so, or because Morris Iemma said so, or if the Gold Coast mayor said so they will only use that to their advantage (along with their associates, that being the state's populace) to continue picking on us.

And where does that leave us? To create an image for ourselves. So many of us have highlighted many of Adelaide's positive attributes by appreciating them and using them to our advantage, whether that be a love for the beach, a respect for our city's character, a pride in our lifestyle, etc. The more we showcase our appreciation, the others will more likely respond postively.

[Pat28]

You know how the answer often lies right in front of your eyes?

A good starting stone would be to close the thread, and not make a mention of it.

Once you have allowed yourself to believe what others pick you on for, then the others have won their game. If we continue to believe that we are a boring and dull city because John Brumby said so, or because Morris Iemma said so, or if the Gold Coast mayor said so they will only use that to their advantage (along with their associates, that being the state's populace) to continue picking on us.

And where does that leave us? To create an image for ourselves. So many of us have highlighted many of Adelaide's positive attributes by appreciating them and using them to our advantage, whether that be a love for the beach, a respect for our city's character, a pride in our lifestyle, etc. The more we showcase our appreciation, the others will more likely respond postively.

And all in all, it has shown that we all here in Adelaide, do have something unique and thus, it can be (albiet I am a hypocrit) Adelaide maybe Sensational. (oh the lack of wit )

[Will]

You know how the answer often lies right in front of your eyes?

A good starting stone would be to close the thread, and not make a mention of it.

Once you have allowed yourself to believe what others pick you on for, then the others have won their game. If we continue to believe that we are a boring and dull city because John Brumby said so, or because Morris Iemma said so, or if the Gold Coast mayor said so they will only use that to their advantage (along with their associates, that being the state's populace) to continue picking on us.

And where does that leave us? To create an image for ourselves. So many of us have highlighted many of Adelaide's positive attributes by appreciating them and using them to our advantage, whether that be a love for the beach, a respect for our city's character, a pride in our lifestyle, etc. The more we showcase our appreciation, the others will more likely respond postively.

I do not think anyone posting on here actually believes Adelaide is boring or dull. The purpose of this thread is to discuss possible strategies our city could employ to lose what I believe are largely incorrect stereotypes. Pretending these stereotypes do not exist are not going to make them go away.

[frank1]

Adelaide can't be that bad, i mean over 1million people live here. That's a decent population and even after the state bank collapse through the 90's we were still above 1mill. Now it's picking up again.

[YokohamaBoy]

I reckon we should get some better photos on Adelaide's Wikipedia article . I don't know about you guys but, for better or worse, I pretty much get all my information from Wikipedia these days (I think half the english speaking world does now). So if anyone in the world decides they want a little bit of information about our fine city, I guarantee you the first place they'll be looking is Wikipedia.

Therefore I think someone who knows some shit about photography and computers (not me I'm afraid) should get some really nice photos of the city on Wiki, cos the one's on there now are a bit dull in my opinion. Or if someone has some nice skyline shots without copyright on em, then they should put them on there.

Maybe a silly thought, but I thought I'd just throw that out there .

PS I actually have no idea how one gets a photo onto Wiki but I'll leave that to someone else

[Norman]

Give me a good location for a skyline shot that's close enough to the city and I will take it on Monday night.