As the tailored events agency, we have four areas of expertise and hand craft each event to meet your objectives. Our experienced and senior team are detail-focused, hardworking and love what they do. Together we create an event tailor made just for you.
A well-established method of group communication the humble ‘PowerPoint’ conference, has long since been consigned to history. Today’s audience need the content to capture their imaginations, be interactive and fire their passion. We work with you to portray your story, craft your message and deliver a conference that realises your ambition.
Whether for internal managers, top clients or thought-leaders in your specific sector, taking any senior team away requires both a financial and time commitment. As the organiser it is often a very stressful time with high demands on you to both host and manage the event. We support you by finding your destination, developing the itinerary, managing the logistics and constantly look to add the creative finishing touches – allowing you to focus on your guests, and the business in hand.
Winning an incentive is a big deal. Whether the reward is a luxury stay in the UK or a trip further afield, being thanked is a powerful motivator. All incentives should remain aspirational to their audience and exceed the winner’s expectations. With a wealth of destination knowledge worldwide we are able to cut the cloth according to your budget and give your guests an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Some of the most powerful networking events are those that have celebration at their heart. As craftsmen we relish the opportunity to add a flourish to each and every celebration we are part of. Whether a seasonal event, a corporate anniversary or a company festival you can be sure that your event is not only tailored for you and your guests, but your brand too.
Browse the Gallery for real examples of our tailored work. Click on each one for more information, images and comment.
Call
+44 (0) 1753 839 498
Email
hello@crescendo.co.uk
Visit
2 Granary Court
South Warnborough
Hampshire
RG29 1RP
Meet the team.
Russell's communication, marketing and events career spans over 15 years, having worked in the IT industry early in his career. His passion for great engagement in a live environment, began early in life, at theatre school. He loves to work with all aspects of content and speakers from every level within an organisation, ensuring a consistent thread through any event. Russell has a breadth of sector experience, specifically working across the technology, retail and pharmaceutical sectors. A strategic thinker with his feet placed firmly on the ground! The founder of Crescendo.
Engagement is a critical part of our business. Often our role is to design a programme or event for a client’s most valuable assets; their customers, channels, and people, therefore it is critical for us to take the time to understand our clients, their culture and their business, to ensure we can put their 'conversations' into context.
Although Julia started in the legal profession she has over 20 years' experience in the events industry having worked for one of the world's most global agencies. A natural leader, inspiring to her colleagues and pre-emptive, Julia has worked with audiences up to 10,000, on a broad array of live event projects, including conferences, 'corporate' festivals, away-days and global incentives. Enthused by creative delivery and logistical excellence, she thrives in creating a genuinely inspiring environment for both crew and delegates, and is fun to be around. Co-Director of Crescendo.
Logistics are the unsung heroes of any programme. If they go without a glitch, then no-one notices but without proper management they can undo all the good work of the content being delivered.
From when I was young, I have always wanted to know what was behind the black door!!! No wonder I have spent the majority of my working life in the events industry, working behind that very black door. I started out as front of house in the catering industry and soon found myself in the midst of fields, racing tracks and build sites. This meant that I had to learn how to think on my feet very quickly and adapt to new environments. Due to the nature of this industry it was not long before I found myself working as an activity instructor. Over the course of my career I have worked for many events companies, worldwide and in very differing roles. I have worked in other areas of industry, but I have found that my passion lay in events. Events is where I am able to still be close and personal with the clients out in the field motivating them or ensuring that they have a stress-free and enjoyable day but I can also utilise my organisational skills in the office with regards to the pre-event details for conferences and parties. For me I am lucky that I get the best of all worlds, and seeing the clients happy is the best part of the event.
Dave has worked in presentation and communication throughout his career, starting as a broadcaster with the BBC and moving to training and development. He is now a performance coach concentrating on enhancing the skills of people and companies. He is skilled in coaching managers and leaders in effective performance conversations; enhancing their ability to question and clarify around the needs of the other party. His facilitation of events is a blend of energy, challenge and in-depth knowledge of the business situation. His style is interactive, participative, fun, high energy, and motivational. He enjoys working with audiences of any size to generate thought and self-challenge.
Conversations are the way we exchange ideas, thoughts and feelings. They are at the heart of civilisation and yet in our fast moving world we often find them very challenging. Working to improve the ability of individuals to connect and understand each other is what I do and there is nothing more fulfilling.
See what people say about the events we craft with them.
Taking place only once every four years, The Sail for Gold Ball is one of the highlights of the Olympic experience for the British Sailing Team and Crescendo ensured that it was an evening to remember for all of our guests keeping everything running smoothly behind the scenes and delivering an entertaining and successful event.RYA
We loved the creativity behind the bespoke branding for our event. The pre-event planning was excellent.White & Case
We have used Crescendo on a number of occasions to supply team motivational events for our senior staff drawn from our worldwide organization. Crescendo can be relied upon to understand the needs of the particular group and to design an appropriate and stimulating set of challenges. Delivery has been excellent and our people have enjoyed these events immensely.International Finance Director, Vodafone Group Services
I was challenged with ‘raising the bar’ at our annual Shell Chemicals event and uniting our senior management, bringing them together from over 40 different countries and a variety of different cultures. Crescendo was referred to me, and through their robust and creative process they won my confidence early on, encouraging us to push beyond our comfort zone and how we saw the event. This allowed us to design an effective event identity and deliver two remarkable and memorable evenings. They offered an exceptional logistical solution as well as offering creative lateral ideas, which united, stimulated and inspired a tough audience. I would be happy to work with them in the future.General Manager, Shell Chemicals
Crescendo really understood how to get into our mind-set, creating an exciting, challenging and engaging solution for our team. They were proactive from the start, accommodating to our needs and delivered a wonderfully theatrical and tailored event – rated to be the best and most exciting event to date by the team.Manager, Transaction Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Julia was very helpful and helped put me at ease, she was willing to help out with all aspects of the day not just Crescendo run ones. Thanks so much!Odeon Cinemas – Distributor Day
Crescendo really stood out in the pitch process, and delivered us a show that offered great value, creativity and firmly delivered on our objectives. The feedback from staff has been excellent, many citing the best event to date. It provided motivation and inspiration in the run up to Christmas.Director, Mothercare
The whole afternoon was fab from start to finish – I can’t wait to start planning another event and use Crescendo (of course).Mercedes
When we starting speaking to agencies about a high profile International customer event, to celebrate our 200 years in business, Crescendo seemed to understand our brand, business and requirements almost instinctively. We wanted something innovative and different, that recognised and celebrated our heritage, with a keen eye on the future. We enjoyed working with them, from beginning to the end of the project, they were very easy to deal with. It is not every day a company turns 200, and Crescendo realised that, rose to the challenge and delivered a superb, completely unique and creative solution to our event. I look forward to working with them again.Marketing Manager, Lucy Switchgear
Crescendo surpassed my expectations of delivering an innovative, high quality and well executed team activity to compliment our annual business partner event. The team excelled in developing activities relevant to our business objectives, engaging for the delegates, on brand, and above all else, enjoyable. So much so that our business partners are still talking about it!UK SMB Marketing Manager, Lenovo
Our events bring our senior leaders from all over the world together into one place. Crescendo took some of our greatest thinkers out of their comfort zone by providing them some really creative and themed challenges. We like that, and it works!Inmarsat
Crescendo created the platform to change our learning approach into a learner driven experience, into a personal journey supporting our team in their day-to-day jobs.UK HR Services, Diageo PLC
The event went like clockwork…no complaints at all, as the event went ahead as expected and promised…..with an enthusiastic team to ensure everyone had an enjoyable afternoon (baring the heavy rain!). Well done for organising another successful event for us.
Many thanks for a well organised and executed event for us.Delta Airlines Clivedon
As Cisco realigned its business in Europe to embrace the exciting opportunities of Web 2.0, we needed to allow our people across the region in the marketing teams to play their part and lead in our transformation. Working with the Crescendo team we utilised a risky but highly effective Open Space workshop format that generated excellent engagement, team spirit and real focus on the issues that needed overcoming to accelerate the business forward.
The Crescendo team were instrumental in the design and execution of the Open Space concept – and indeed our whole event. It has now become a new standard for performance output at out large European meetings as a result.CEO, Cicso
Find out what we've been doing and find out the latest news.
5th November 2018
Crescendo has promoted board member Julia Phillips from her position of operational director to managing director.
Phillips said: “Having been on the board since I joined and looking after the operations side of the business during a period of significant growth it feels like a very natural and progressive step for me.
“I am delighted to have the support of my clients, colleagues and suppliers, and look forward to the next chapter in Crescendo’s successful history.”
With a client list that includes Farrow & Ball, White Stuff and Burger King, Crescendo also encompasses Fruitful, a dedicated team events business, that Phillips founded before joining forces with Crescendo four years ago.
Russell Allen, founder of Crescendo added: “She embodies everything great about this industry and we are pleased to have her take up the role and join an all too small group of women who run agencies in our sector.”
“Her creativity, drive and enthusiasm make Phillips a natural leader and I look forward to learning more from her as we continue to realise our vision of being the best tailored event agency in the UK,” added Allen.
19th March 2018
The most inappropriate gift ever received?
Christmas for us all, is now a distant memory as we look forward to Spring. Gifts good and bad have been enjoyed or put away. However, for at least one lady Christmas provided a rather difficult task; writing the hardest thank you letter of her life. As a polite, well brought-up individual she has always found a positive attribute in every gift to allow her to sincerely thank the sender – on this occasion she is stumped.
That lady is my mother and the gift was sent all the way from the US. A dark grey, t-shirt, v-necked (not good for ladies of a certain age at the best of times) with a picture of my father’s great-great-great grandmother. I will not go into the various aspects of this gift that make it so deeply inappropriate but suffice to say the remote cousins who sent it will be waiting a while for a reply!
Now this is one thing with distant relatives but quite another on an event. Time and again, clients ask us to come up with unusual gifts or take aways from events. Their objectives vary from a pure gift to a reminder of key business messages but one thing seems to be in common – something unique that people will find useful.
24th October 2016
Flexibility. We have to give people the opportunity to use their time in a different way to ensure that they get a good return on their investment in coming to us. We have a variety of environments. When large corporations book in we want them to make use of all the spaces available, not just meeting rooms. They can take coffee breaks outside; utilising the space for more than just for meetings. We cater for a wide market from conferences to wedding and high quality dining to leisure. We’ll host the British Masters in 2016 and we are very proud to be involved in such a prestigious event. (more…)
