The Crane Event

10/02/2025

Looking back, lockdown was a funny old time.

As many events business’ turned to the world of virtual, we paused, breathed and took a very long walk.

It was on those walks we discovered our love of podcasts and, with our previous knowledge from working in the music industry, we jumped right in. First creating pods recorded entirely virtually, then visiting clients’ offices and setting up a makeshift studio to now this, The Crane Nest.

We house a dedicated space in the heart of Cambridge that provides:

🎙 Quality audio equipment
🔇 An acoustically treated room
💻 Editing and production services
🖥 Online recording
🕹 Remote recording
📪 Distribution services
🍺 A wide range of exceptional beers and ales to help loosen that tongue (well, that may be in the pub below).

So, get in touch and let’s get your voice heard.

More details here: www.thecranenest.co.uk

06/02/2025

Yesterday was a real treat visiting the London Summer Event Show, catching up with old friendly faces and meeting new suppliers, venues and experiences.

Our favourites were the deliciously personally branded Macarons from Minds, the perfectly poured cocktails from Mix and Match Ltd. and the absolutely brilliant terrarium workshop from Leafage

We can’t wait to introduce these to our clients!

23/01/2025

These dark winter nights and the historic architecture in our towns and cities are a perfect canvas to help raise awareness.

Over the years, we’ve been proud to give a quick turnaround with great results for such organistaions as Organ Donation Week, The NHS, East Anglia Air Ambulance, Pride, Trinity College and many, many more.

Whether it’s colour splashes, gobo projection or projection mapping, we’re here to add colour to your cause.

Want to know more? Let us enlighten you!

📸 St John’s - A Cambridge Diary

17/01/2025

First event of the year done!

This one was a gentle start with delivery and set up of an exhibition stand for First Ascent.

Flashback to almost 9 years ago and they were our first ever client as we started up The Crane Event.

Since then, we’ve been all around the UK with them, seen them grow to a powerhouse of tailored coaching & training, and even murdered* one of them for Xmas!

Thank you so much for trusting us with you event set up, we look forward to another great year!

*alright, so it wasn’t really murder but it was a very fun, immersive murder mystery evening. Pro tip: don’t murder the person who pays your invoices.

23/12/2024

As we prepare to wrap up another incredible year, we want to take a moment to reflect on all we’ve accomplished.

2024 has been full of creativity, collaboration, and record registrations!

From events on the steps of Westminster, conferences with guest appearances from a member of Busted, to huge community celebrations that brought the smiles, the fun, and everything in between.

This year we brought to life countless events across the UK, each tailored to reflect the personality and vision of our clients.

As we look to 2025, we’re thrilled to embrace new opportunities and exciting collaborations with our personalised approach to event production and marketing.

Thank you to our clients, team, suppliers, and community for making 2024 unforgettable. Here’s to an even brighter 2025! 🥂✨

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

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!