The Hard Truth: Buy Cheap Buy Twice

Written by Spartan Crew: Specialist Event Crew for Live Corporate Events, Exhibitions & Conferences | Spartan Crew, London, UK

What looks like a saving on paper often ends up costing you time, efficiency, and in many cases, your reputation. Untrained crew slow-up builds, make avoidable mistakes, mishandle equipment, and create pressure where you don’t need the stress. So when you’re comparing quotes and one comes in significantly lower than the rest, but is from a firm run out of someone’s living room, it’s worth asking what are you actually getting for your money?

At Spartan Crew, we’ve built our entire operation around one principle: properly trained crew save clients time, stress, and ultimately money. Where other crews w

ould arrive and discover how to do a task on the job, Spartan Crew arrive ready and familiar with what’s needed.

Back when I was a freelance sound engineer nearing the end of my time on the road in the mid 2010’s, the majority of crew I came across hadn’t actually had any formal training. The result was mistakes made on the job, extra time rectifying them, not to mention the near misses where injuries could have cost businesses time and money.

I couldn’t understand why they weren’t put through a comprehensive training package, so when Spartan Crew was born in 2017, a bespoke crew training centre with manual and technical training to get crew show ready and prepared for all the nuances we find out on an event site was a clear must. I would later come to realise it certainly isn’t easy or cheap, but Spartan Crew lives on the same values and beliefs that training is crucial today having seen it pay off for our clients.

But what constitutes ‘proper’ training? Time to prepare rather than learn on the job in the midst of a high pressure load in / de rig with 50 crew buzzing round you, and techs / production wanting to ‘get outta here as quickly as possible’.

Our training centre features a purpose-built, full-scale back of truck one case deep, allowing crew to practise real-world loading scenarios. Every case is clearly labelled, and with a full truck pack to work from, crew are trained to communicate, plan, and execute loads exactly as they would on site. 

For me it’s the small, intricate details which you can’t replicate from one on one training. Take tripod stands. We run through a bunch of kit, including speaker stands, tripod stands and a full size manfrotto stand. Ratchet straps? Every person has to correctly operate a ratchet strap around a flight case. Taping down cables, easy if you have done it 100 times…. But an eye sore when you see a wonky scrunched up white line of tape across the ballroom floor, so we lay out a few lines of cables and we learn how to do a straight 1M line of tape, and if it’s not straight we start again. Building truss, pipe and drape, setting up zargees…. All of these are done in person, with everyone completing the tasks correctly under supervision from one of our crewchiefs who has been in the game a long time, and trained by myself on how to deliver training. 

There are no instructional videos and no shortcuts just hands-on training and a clear standard we expect every crew member to meet. We’re not just preparing people for a single job; we’re instilling the Spartan standard in individuals who go on to carry it with them throughout the industry. Seeing Spartan-trained crew out on sites year-round, delivering that same level of professionalism, is something we take real pride in.

Get in touch at bookings@spartancrew.co.uk if you have any questions or would like a quote for your next event.