There’s something special about South Australia. The home of frog cakes, Haigh’s Chocolates and Farmers Union Iced Coffee also has some great innovative businesses.

It’s also my home town.

I returned to Adelaide on Friday to attend the Awards – and also hunt down a frog cake or two.

The best thing about the Telstra Business Awards is listening to the acceptance speeches from the winners. There are some great stories and some great advice too.

The winner of the 2012 HTC Start-Up Award, Sitemed, is a business establish by Nicole Nott who shared a special saying she says to her daughters each day which she applies to business: “use your brains, use your manners and use your imagination”.

For the winner of the 2012 News Ltd Micro Business Award, Tour Barossa, Steve Brown says the secret of success in business is adaptability and flexibility. This is something the Browns learned when they began to look after foster children. They realised their business could be expanded to include tours especially for families.

For me, one of the great stories of the night was from E-Cycle Recovery, the 2012 MYOB Small Business Award winner. This business recycles electronic equipment and in particular, is able to recycle old cathode ray tube televisions and computer monitors. To do this they established the only glass-to-glass recycling process in Australia and New Zealand – something that didn’t exist in the region before. Accepting the Award, Martin from E-Cycle Recovery said the recognition not only validates what they do, but also shows they’ve been successful.

The 2012 Telstra SA Business of the Year, also winner of the Commonwealth Bank Medium Business Award and Telstra Regional Award is John Nitschke Drilling Pty Ltd. This is a business that has been running for 50 years and is entirely focused on service. As John himself said at the Award ceremony: “we deliver the best service – and charge a good price for it.” This business is passionate about their people and passionate about safety. This focus on safety led them to develop new safe products for drilling. At 50 years young, this business is probably best summed up by the words of John himself: “Our name is on our product. We have pride and take care.”

Congratulations to all the entrants, finalists and winners.

You can see the excitement of the 2012 Telstra SA Business Awards online at the Telstra Awards YouTube™ site.