As part of a wider promotion of Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026, Cambridge BID engaged the office sector through a variety of exciting events and activations.
Activities throughout the week included a picnic in a punt experience, ‘meet the brewer’ and beer tasting, cheese and wine sampling, tea tastings and a competition with the chance to win tickets to one of our Food & Drink Week events. Activations were a mixture of larger scale events and intiatives, engaging lots of workers in the city, as well as smaller, more intimate ones.
Why was it important?
Cambridge BID (Business Improvement District) consists of over 1,200 city centre businesses, with the office sector being one key business type. Food & Drink Week worked as part of a wider ongoing project to connect with and support businesses within the sector.
The project aims to engage and bring benefit to offices and corporate businesses in a similar way to other Cambridge BID schemes.
Jessica Gaynor, Events and Project Executive at Cambridge BID said:
“The office sector makes up such a large part of our BID area and we want them to see the benefit of working in such a vibrant and diverse city. Feeding our ongoing office engagement project into larger events like Food & Drink Week, engages workers in new and exciting ways, while enabling them to find out more about the wider work we do throughout the year.”
What events did we run and how did we do it?
By way of promoting Food & Drink Week to the office sector, we provided free** experiences for those keen on trying something new. Our events utilised business to business connections, creating new opportunities for all involved.
Cambridge BID is grateful for all the businesses that took part in this promotion.
Tea tasting with Bird & Blend for Marks & Clerk
Marks & Clerk took part in an in-office tea and matcha tasting experience run by Bird and Blend Tea. The activity saw the whole office enjoy products provided by the tea shop, as well as purchasing some to bring home. Marks & Clerk also enquired about providing a similar experience for their office in London too.
Jacqueline Bullock, Regional Office Manager at Marks & Clerk, Cambridge and London:
“Cambridge BID planned and delivered a tea tasting experience for our Cambridge office which was part of Food & Drink Week 2026. They helped to secure the activity led by experts at Bird & Blend Tea, where we tried a variety of teas and matchas on site over the lunch period, whilst learning a few new and interesting facts. Our team thoroughly enjoyed the tasting and purchased some delicious teas of their own. I’m keen to work with Bird & Blend again in the future and bring a similar experience like this to our office in London!”
Picnic in a punt experience for Aetha Consulting
The ‘picnic in a punt’ experience that Aetha Consulting took part in was run in partnership with Scudamore’s Punting Company and Hot Numbers. Scudamore’s kindly provided a punt in kind for the team as part of this collaboration as well as organising for professional photography to be taken.
Frances Newman, Office Manager at Aetha Consulting:
"We all had a lovely time thanks to Scudamore’s and Hot Numbers, as well as the Cambridge BID team that planned the experience for us.
Our chauffeur, Charlotte, was great! We all enjoyed her tour and, if she hadn’t told us, we would never have known it was only the second time she had done one.
The food was all delicious and the drinks were very much appreciated."
The collaboration between Scudamore’s and Hot Numbers on this event was created by Cambridge BID and has provided a new partnership opportunity for the businesses.
Connor Finn, Marketing Manager at Hot Numbers:
“As part of Cambridge Food & Drink Week, we were approached by Cambrige BID with the opportunity to showcase our menu items to a local office for a 'picnic in a punt' experience. We enjoyed being able to promote our business in this way and receiving photos back from the group enjoying our food alongside the tour.
This opportunity has also brought us potential new connections and business opportunities. We would recommend working with Cambridge BID for these reasons.”
Cheese and Wine tasting provided for FORA
Cambridge BID organised a cheese and wine tasting experience to take place at FORA. Led by experts at d’Arrys and Cambridge Wine Merchants, clients and staff within the building enjoyed a selection of products, found out a bit more about them as well as discovering the events and activations running throughout Cambridge Food & Drink Week.
With up to 2,000 clients over six floors, the experience simultaneously worked as a great opportunity for d’Arrys and Cambridge Wine Merchants to reach a new audience as well as well as exploring working together for a pop up in the city.
‘Meet the Brewer’ and beer tasting for Hays Recruitment Agency
Hays Recruitment Agency took part in a 'meet the brewer' experience, hosted by King Street Brewhouse. They discovered how their brewer makes the beer, sampled a selection of local beers explained by the experts at Brewhouse as well as enjoying items from the buffet menu. Hays received a tour of the venue including the private dining spaces available for corporate meetings.
Adam Budd, General Manager at King Street Brewhouse:
“They had a fantastic time enjoying both the tour and the food, even ordering a few extra dishes from the menu along the way. Afterward, they stayed on for more drinks and took the opportunity to explore our private spaces, clearly making the most of the experience. My team looked after them brilliantly throughout, creating a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.
A special thanks to Jess, Nat and Hannah at Cambridge Bid for organising everything so smoothly — it was a pleasure to host such a well-organised group, and we’d be delighted to welcome them back again in the future”
Competition - Winning Tickets to a Food & Drink Week Event
Another way we engaged local offices was by running a competition to win tickets for one of our Food & Drink Week events. Winners enjoyed tickets to a Craft and Cocktail evening, ran by Elle Events and hosted at Novi.
The competition was shared with countless offices in the local area, with winners including employees from Mott MacDonald, Graphcore AI and Deloitte.
**activities and events subsidised by Cambridge BID
