The founder

Built by someone who has done both sides of this.

Gerrard Allam is a professionally trained bartender and licensed urban planner. He spent over a decade behind the bar at a high-volume bar-catering company running more than 100 events annually, and just as many years facilitating public workshops and community engagement events as an urban planner and designer. The Craft Collective is where those two careers meet: the craft and precision of cocktail making, combined with a professional facilitator's instinct for group dynamics and structured participation.

Gerrard Allam, founder of The Craft Collective
Why this exists

A room full of spectators isn't a team experience. A room full of participants is.

After years behind the bar leading high-volume events, and then a full career facilitating public workshops, open houses, and design charrettes as an urban planner, a pattern started to emerge.

The formats that created real energy had one thing in common: they gave people a chance to engage and collaborate, and a reason to care about the outcome.

Cocktail classes and happy hours are social. But they're passive. Planning workshops engage people, but the subject matter isn't necessarily about team building and having a good time.

The Craft Collective came from asking what would happen if you combined the two. The dynamic participation and structured roles that make a great public engagement session work, built into a cocktail event where the stakes are real and every round has consequences.

The dual Makers and Judges tracks, the back-loaded scoring, the live leaderboard. Every structural decision exists to sustain excitement and create real involvement from the first round to the awards ceremony at the end.

The format does not let people coast. It gives them something to play for, an exciting moment at the end, and an overall experience worth remembering and learning from as they move through their careers.

Gerrard Allam facilitating a team building session, full group listening
Credentials

The experience behind the experience.

Diageo World Class · National Runner-Up

In 2018, Gerrard swept all three qualifying rounds of Diageo World Class before finishing second in his host country's national final. It's one of the most demanding bartending competitions in the world, judged on technical precision, creativity, and presentation under pressure.

Lead Bartender · High-Volume Events

Over a decade behind the bar, including a lead bartender role running more than 100 high-volume events annually. That volume builds a specific kind of instinct: reading a room, managing energy across a crowd, and delivering precision at scale.

Urban Planner & Designer

In his full-time career as a licensed urban planner and designer, Gerrard has facilitated hundreds of public workshops, open houses, and community engagement events. The same instinct for structured participation, room energy, and group dynamics runs through every Craft Collective experience.