The Crane Event

02/08/2024

What a finish!

We had a last-minute request to help Trinity College, Cambridge celebrate alumni, Imogen Grant’s historic gold medal win tonight at The Great Gate.

03/06/2024

Happy Pride Month!

We were delighted to be asked by Trinity College, Cambridge to help kick off the month by illuminating The Wren Library facade in the traditional rainbow colours.

Thanks to Pink Lamp - Event Lighting Specialists with this one!

🏳️‍🌈

07/03/2024

The Brief (from ourselves): Write a blog post about the symbiotic relationship between event marketing & production, tie it to whatever’s been trending in the event world recently and throw in as many W***y Wonka references as possible!

Challenge accepted…

When offering a tour of his wondrous chocolate factory, broken promises and dissatisfied attendees probably weren’t what W***y Wonka had planned. So join us in keeping all your Oompah Loompahs in order as we explore the crucial alignment between event marketing promises and production delivery to ...

01/01/2024

Happy hangover! As we wake up to the New Year, may we cast some light on all your wishes and resolutions (and don’t worry if you haven’t made any) with our last day of The Crane Event Christmas Countdown.

Our grand finale illuminates the projects that raised awareness for good causes or added an extra-themed element to an event through the power of light and colour.

For those who don’t know, we kicked this off during lockdown with various other event suppliers to brighten up the skies around Cambridge to say thank you, and, well… it just kept going!

Our final illumination of 2023 was at King’s College, captured beautifully by our good friend, photographer Martin Bond. His A Cambridge Diary project offered a different view of daily life in Cambridge seen through Martin’s lens, and ran for a staggering 5,000 days. It's an understatement to say how proud we were to be involved in the very last image of the series.

If you’re interested in Martin’s work he has a brilliant book out showcasing his amazing images - https://www.acambridgediary.co.uk/shop-2/

And with that, our countdown is complete. We hope you enjoyed it, and we look forward to delivering more amazing events in 2024!

31/12/2023

On the eve of the New Year, we’re coming close to winding up our countdown, but before we jump feet first into 2024, it’s good to reflect on the circus that was 2023…

Speaking of which, for our penultimate day of The Crane Event Christmas Countdown, we think about when we brought the fun of the fair to an International Educational Business to welcome their VIPs.

We’re talking mindreading tour guides, personalised cotton candy as the guests arrived, mirrors crazier than a clown car, showstopping jugglers, and fairground games scattered around the school like confetti.

We’re all about taking a venue that people are used to seeing day in/ day out and turning it upside down to create a new world of wonder and fun and this certainly delivered.

We look forward to doing so much more in the new year!

And with that, we leave you some circus-themed advice from PT Barnum as perhaps a mantra to lead into 2024…

“No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.”

Happy New Year!

Justin and Jemma
The Crane Event

24/12/2023

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.” - A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

On the eve of the big day we want to thank our clients who trusted us, our team who supported us, and our suppliers who helped bring our visions to life.

Whatever we did, we certainly had fun doing it!

We hope the big man brings you life's contentment and we’ll see you on the other side.

📸 - hand-cut card by the excellent Silhouettist

22/12/2023

With the last Friday before the big day, let’s talk festiveness!

On the ninth day of The Crane Event Christmas Countdown, we cast our mind back to mere weeks ago to the Eddington Festive Market, a pop-up artisan market with a focus on local craft makers, food and drink.

We’re talking about traditional alpine huts, pipping hot mulled drinks, choirs, a Santasaurus, numerous workshops, curling lanes… wait… go back a minute… a Santasaurus?

Well, why not, we love bringing big doses of creative fun to our client’s events, and a T-Rex in a Santa hat certainly ticked that box… and guess what? The kids loved it!

Pulling this one together and bringing it to life was a fantastic experience to wrap the year up with, but now, it’s time to sit back, relax and glug down on a steaming mug of glühwein!

Here’s to you and yours!

Jemma and Justin, The Crane Event

21/12/2023

A fateful phone call way back in early 2022 brings us to the eighth day of The Crane Event Christmas Countdown.

‘Can you help us with our fireworks event..?’ This question opened up our world to delivering a community fireworks display that had all the trimmings, bonfire, music, locally sourced food & drink and of course, the explosions in the sky themselves…

This is our second year providing support and event management skills for the Fireworks in Hemingford event and we’re delighted to bring fresh ideas to the launchpad and help develop the event so it sparkles and bangs!

How do we know that it won’t be long before this is ‘the’ fireworks show to go to in the area?

Well, just look to the skies, it’s not rocket science…

Drone Footage: Alan Bennett at Media Imaging Solutions

20/12/2023

You’ve got the brief, you’ve got your creative cogs-a-whirring, you’ve pulled all the elements together, and the event is over. So how do you know it was a success?

Well, through the miles of smiles from everyone throughout the evening and the feedback after, of course!

On the seventh day of The Crane Event Christmas Countdown, we reminisce on the work we’ve done alongside the fantastic Cambridge University Hospitals in delivering recognition events from Retirement to Long Service, to Divisional and their annual CUH Awards show.

Working alongside their team, it’s clear these events aren’t just a box-ticking exercise; they truly care for their staff, and we were delighted to be a small part of making it happen.

We had brilliant fun pulling this all together for them, bringing fresh ideas to the table (Flashing LED wristbands anyone?) and seeing the proof in the live event.

19/12/2023

One of the joys of event management is that you’re not necessarily tied to one destination. With that in mind, let’s explore our sixth day of The Crane Event Christmas Countdown!

From supporting European events in Sweden and France to giving a true Cambridge experience for business and educational groups from China, Switzerland, and the United States (and let’s not forget about the more homegrown events we’ve done up and down the country), 2023 really has satisfied our wanderlust!

As part of our destination management services, we love putting together the perfect itinerary, finding amazing venues, discovering hidden gems, and creating unforgettable moments, so, got an idea for 2024? Let’s chase sunsets together!

18/12/2023

On the Fifth Day of The Crane Event Christmas Countdown, we think back to September when we conceived and delivered a series of walking trails and illuminations to highlight Organ Donation Week.

After months of preparations, seeing an event come together is always satisfying, but with this series of events, all the emotions were present.

The Gift of Life Walk saw donor families, transplant recipients, specialist nurses, and clinical staff from various hospitals, come together to remember loved ones and celebrate organ donation - all while raising vital awareness for those still waiting.

And from emotions of the heart, we also brought joy to the eyes by splashing two Norfolk hospitals in pink as part of our illumination offering.

What a way to highlight this great cause!

🎨: Event Doodles by Carbon Orange

14/12/2023

Company summer event. Check. Family Festival Vibe. Check. Fun and Games. Check. Fire breathing Giant Robot. Che… umm, let’s rewind a minute.

Softwire is the focus of our fourth day of The Crane Event Christmas Countdown, where they, yet again, entrusted us to manage the production of their summer staff party.

Reeling off parts of the event including glamping, various activities, live music, fireworks, and the aforementioned robot (did we mentioned it breathed fire!?!) just won’t do this one justice.

We absolutely loved being on board helping it become a seamless weekend of fun and games for the staff to enjoy the celebration they deserved!

08/12/2023

On the Third Day of the Crane Event Christmas countdown, we double-barrel ourselves by showing what we get up to both back and front of house at an event.

Leading up to the Cambridge Folk Festival we joined our friends over at Novahub to project manage the event wifi installation, allowing everyone to share their memories online.

Once the festival went live, we shifted the focus of connectivity from technical to personal as our team donned their hospitality hats and welcomed in the VIP guests. Working with the fantastic Folk Fest team, we helped bring together personal performances, meet and greets and much more, ensuring the weekend really was ‘Cool as Folk.’

04/12/2023

The second day of The Crane Event Christmas countdown is going off with a bang!

Our delightful client wanted a retirement bash to remember, so we lined up spectacular fireworks, sustainable exploding confetti balloons, smoking cocktails, and flashes of colour - all served up with awesome Argentinian Asado BBQ from The Vargas Brothers.

But wait, what's a celebration without a band? We brought the perfect, 9-piece group that had everyone dancing to end the night.

Remember, retirement doesn’t always mean the end of the party. The afterparty is sometimes the best bit!

01/12/2023

This year has been an absolute success, both personally and professionally for The Crane Event. But we have a Christmas confession... we've been so busy it turns out that we’ve been quieter than a snowflake in a snowstorm when it comes to our self-promotion!

So, to make up for it, gather around the virtual fireplace as we introduce 'The 12 Days of The Crane Event'! Throughout December we'll be unwrapping some of our absolute favourite events from the past year.

On the first day of The Crane Event's festivities, we're taking you back to when we transformed Eddington Square into a bustling Beer Garden.

Picture this: Live music and entertainment, great food from some of the area’s leading street food vans, and craft beer sourced from local breweries. The weather was perfect, the vibe was chilled, and the Eddington eco-cups were soon emptied!

A great event that kicked off our season!

28/11/2023

Over the past few years we’ve lit King’s College Chapel in many different colours.

Tonight we were asked for a simple warm white to which we were, admittedly, sceptical.

Happy to report we were wrong!

12/11/2023

Happy Diwali!

We were honoured to be asked by Addenbrooke's Hospital to dress a room so their staff could drop in and celebrate.

Amazing food by Taj Tandoori, henna tattoos, tea light creativity and dancing.

Such a lovely event to be a part of!

05/07/2023

Lovely to be asked to do this for NHS East of England.

Thanks, as always, to King's College, Cambridge for allowing us to light a part of the college we’ve never done before , and to Nigel at Blueshed for the tech.

And a super thanks to A Cambridge Diary for always getting the shot!

King's College, Cambridge was illuminated tonight by The Crane Event and Blueshed to mark 75 years of the National Health Service.
NHS England

03/07/2023

Ugggh, don’t you just hate site visits… 😜

22/06/2023

Wordle thinks we should be your first choice 😉

08/06/2023

3 years ago... Wow... 💙💙💙

Remembering Lockdown #14

Tonight St John’s College illuminated the Bridge of Sighs in recognition of the NHS and key workers as part of . Many thanks to the team that made this possible: The Crane Event Pink Lamp - Event Lighting & Production Specialists Blueshed JMPS JezO's, Scholars Punting Cambridge and Tom who pushed the punt.

A portrait picture of Cambridge every day since 2010. (No 3712) Thursday 14th May 2020.

21/05/2023

Some more about yesterday ❤️❤️❤️

21/05/2023

Well, this makes our hearts sing... ❤️❤️❤️

We were approached by the Buckden Junior FC Owls Inclusion Development to sponsor the team jackets, an opportunity we jumped at.

The team offers a chance for the kids not just to feel, but to be included, the freedom to get outside and be immersed in team spirit.

The jackets are just a small part of that but to hear how much the kids love them, well, let's just say happiness can be infectious...

Yesterday, we went to watch them play at their very first football festival and they absolutely smashed it!

Thank you so much Buckden for getting us involved. We can't wait to see them all again!



📷Photos used with permission

06/05/2023

The student formerly known as Prince...

Thank you, Trinity College, Cambridge for asking us to help you celebrate your former student’s big day!

Whatever you're up to this weekend, live life like a king (or queen!)

We’ll be there tonight too, so do pop over to say hello!

Great to work alongside JMPS, as always!

04/05/2023

Loving this! Great work Motion Mapping!!

22/03/2023

Great morning spent visiting the London Christmas Party Show for summer events. (don't worry, we're not pushing Xmas... yet!)

Expanding our knowledge base of what great venues and event elements there are out there means we’ll be looking forward to an summer.

The Banking Hall venue was just amazing and just look at that floor! It's so groovy, it’s got two disco balls!

13/03/2023

David Attenborough, Chris Packham, Liz Bonnin, Steve Bradshaw… wow… It’s not every day you get to work on a project involving such powerful names within the world of conservation!

We were thrilled to deliver the digital campaign for the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. This project saw us bring in over 40,000 users to their Earth Optimism platform, a 186% increase in social media responses compared to previous summits and contributing to tools that helped continue the sharing of key messages beyond the event.

Read more: https://bit.ly/SHEOTCE

The best bit?

Despite having the honour to be part of such a great project, we’re thrilled to find they even had a session after our own heart ‘Saving the Cranes’ - https://bit.ly/TCESTC

What’s not to love?

If you’d like to hear more about how we can help your event reach its full potential, get in touch!

08/03/2023

I always thought a penguin was a biscuit, not a cake?

During a visit with one of our favourite suppliers today, we had to quickly pull over and take a photo of this brilliant yarn bomb!

02/03/2023

Great day at yesterday, taking in some of the fantastic sessions and seeing what’s new out there in event world!

Loved seeing the new twists on photo booths, from gif booths, a twist on 360 booths and this…the Scribble Booth by Event Rhino!

I now know what my ‘concentration’ face looks like…

15/02/2023

The walk to the office today was soundtracked by Daft Punk’s ‘Discovery’ blasting on the headphones. Add in the clear skies, and the shining sun, and we were suddenly transported to a field a couple of summers ago.

But this was no ordinary field. This field was where we supported the amazing Softwire in delivering their very own festival for their staff and families.

Held over three days on the outskirts of Cambridge, this was really something special for The Crane Event to be a part of. From a Daft Punk tribute act to a plethora of activities and unforgettable moments, it’s really no surprise that Softwire was recently voted, not only the #1 Company in the East of England but also #1 Best Large Company to Work For in the UK.

Read more: https://www.thecraneevent.co.uk/creating-your-own-glastonbury

The best bit?

They loved it so much, they’re doing it again and we can’t wait to get involved!

Thinking of investing in your team with a summer celebration? Get in touch to see how we can support you!

The Crane Event help Softwire create a multi-day festival for their employees