Royal Museums Greenwich’s Corporate Development and Commercial Hire teams joined forces to co-host the First Light Showcase evening at Cutty Sark. This showcase event was one part of a wider initiative to engage media, marketing, experiential, and events agencies with Royal Museums Greenwich's venue hire, sponsorship and corporate membership offerings. 

Engaging agencies allows us to connect with new brands and sectors who, historically, may not have considered arts and heritage partnerships as part of their marketing strategy. Furthermore, working with events agencies facilitates the creation of new and exciting brand partnerships. In the current climate, rights holders such as Royal Museums Greenwich must continue to think laterally about sponsorships and brand partnerships, and agencies can guide us in this venture.

This event marked an inaugural moment for Royal Museums Greenwich, brought to life through a first time-collaboration of all museums’ commercial departments: Commercial Hire, Travel Trade, Corporate Development, Membership, Licensing & Publishing, and Retail. 

Through this unified effort and partnership, we were able to create something impactful and totally unique that really embodied the essence of Royal Museums Greenwich, enabling us to showcase the full scope and strength of the RMG brand.

Our event flow was carefully curated as an immersive and sensorial journey guiding guests through the rich palette of historical venues within our unique collection. We dreamt & designed the event’s aesthetic and culinary journey in collaboration with two of our amazing, accredited suppliers: Moving Venue Catering & Light Motif Productions, with a local partner Uber Boat by Thames Clippers and finally, with our corporate partner La Martiniquaise (CUTTY SARK Whisky). 

Moving Venue curated an entirely bespoke menu, meticulously designed to showcase a selection of delicious, venue-based canapes, each thoughtfully crafted to reflect the unique character of our historic sites. In collaboration with CUTTY SARK Whisky, Moving Venue also developed a series of extraordinary cocktails, each expertly themed around the individual venues within the Royal Museums Greenwich collection. 

Light Motif truly exceeded expectations and showcased their creativity with their ‘out-of-this-world’ custom-built food stations. Each station, uniquely designed to reflect the distinctive character of Royal Museums Greenwich’s venues, truly brought the experiential element of our brief to life. 

We wanted to take our guests through an immersive journey into Royal Museums Greenwich’s brand and boy, did we! 

As guests discovered the various food stations, they were transported to the Queen's House, the Royal Observatory and even got to walk on the Prime Meridian, all the while being under the gleaming copper Hull of Cutty Sark itself. It was a sight to behold, an experience that truly had to be lived to be believed.

This experience was designed to introduce guests to everything our events have to offer while also showcasing our branding opportunities for corporate partners. For this fabulous event, we were proud to be supported by Uber Boats and our longstanding corporate partner and Cutty Sark Whisky, who treated us to their classic blended scotch for our themed Sailor cocktails which guests enjoyed in CUTTY SARK Whisky’s own striking enamel camping mugs.

This was such an incredible night with lots of exciting doors opening and conversations starting. We are excited to start new collaborations and continue and develop existing partnerships! 

The planning and delivery of this event required teamwork and expertise from across the organisation including Development, Commercial Hire, Publishing & Licensing and Astronomy Engagement.

We cannot say it enough, the success of this event demonstrates the power of taking a collaborative approach to projects and we cannot wait for the next opportunity to do it all over again.

Written by Mileva Corenthin (Senior Sales and Business Development Manager) & Edie Walwyn (Corporate Partnerships Fundraiser).

📸 ALL IMAGES CREDIT: Jeff Oliver Photography