Manchester — Week of 27 Apr 2026

Manchester Tech Week opens with Found Up North's full-day founder gathering at Campfield — workshops, introductions and the kind of unvarnished founder conversations you only get in private.

Intimate lunch organised by Manchester Angels to bring together potential new female angel investors. A small-format gathering focused on introducing women to angel investing in the Manchester ecosystem. Hosted at Tattu — one of the city's signature venues. Rare opportunity to meet active women angels during Manchester Tech Week.

techUK's Scaling in... Retail session, hosted at Gateley in Manchester, brings retail-tech founders, scale-ups and investors together for a working afternoon on the growth questions that matter at Series A-B: margin, unit economics, and cross-border expansion. Part of Manchester Tech Week.

True Worth Tech Talks hosts a Chatham House-style roundtable on Shadow AI — the unsanctioned tools already running inside most organisations — and how CTOs, CISOs and people leaders are handling it. Senior-only, limited seats, Bloc at Bruntwood SciTech.

Alliance Manchester Business School hosts the latest instalment of its Scale Up Series, focused on how scaling companies are actually embedding AI across their org — not the vendor story, the operator story. Part of Manchester Tech Week's fringe programme.

WomenWise brings together senior women from across the Northern tech ecosystem for a Real Talk evening on leadership. Panel, Q&A and structured networking at Colony King Street. Part of Manchester Tech Week.

A DTX Fringe evening for GM tech leaders on the intersection of AI, cybersecurity and the human layer — the behaviours, training gaps and policy choices that actually determine risk in an AI-augmented workplace. Hosted by GM Business Growth Hub at Glaisyers ETL.

The flagship of Manchester Tech Week. Two days at Manchester Central, co-located with UCX, Creator Economy Live and IR B2B — Manchester's biggest tech gathering of the year.

UCX Manchester runs alongside DTX at Manchester Central, covering unified communications, cloud telephony, contact centres, CX, AV and the AI layer that's now reshaping all of them. Co-located with DTX Manchester — one badge, four events.

Creator Economy Live lands in Manchester for two days at Victoria Warehouse — the UK's #1 influencer-marketing conference, bringing together brands, creators, agencies and platforms. Strategy, measurement, partnerships and the hard commercial questions behind creator-led growth.

CloudGuard and BCN team up for a Manchester Tech Week happy hour — short tactical talks on cloud, security and AI, then drinks. Deliberately informal, deliberately early-evening, and deliberately focused on the people doing the work, not the people selling it.

An evening on the design, safety and accessibility challenges of social VR — what works, what doesn't, and where the research is heading. For anyone building in XR, games, social platforms, or working on online-safety policy. Part of Manchester Tech Week.

CONEXEN's monthly Manchester mixer brings together biopharma, life-sciences and health-tech founders, investors and researchers. Hosted at Squire Patton Boggs in Spinningfields as part of Manchester Tech Week.

Silicon Mingle returns for its monthly last-Wednesday gathering during Manchester Tech Week. No panels, no pitches, no presentations — just good old-fashioned networking for the Manchester tech community. Proudly supported by Barclays Eagle Labs and the MASOOD Entrepreneurship Center. One of the most consistent high-signal Manchester tech networking rooms of the month.

Manchester Metropolitan University's Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMMIC) runs its next innovation pathway cohort, starting during Manchester Tech Week. A fully funded programme for manufacturing and materials businesses working with MMU experts on test, validate and deliver stages. Launch/kickoff session on 30 April.

Manchester Digital's Digital Her programme runs its annual Curiosity Camp for career changers and returners looking to move into tech — this year with Deloitte. A day of practical sessions, employer introductions and honest career-path conversations for anyone rebuilding a tech career.

A Manchester Tech Week afternoon session on AI in the cultural heritage sector — galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM). Practical case studies on collections intelligence, interpretation, access and rights. Strong hidden-gem pick for anyone at the AI × arts × public-institution intersection.

Launch event for the Women in Tech and Cyber Hub (WiTCH) Manchester chapter — a new community focused on women building careers in cyber and technology across Greater Manchester. Hosted at N Brown on Lever Street as part of Manchester Tech Week.

Power BI Manchester (PBIMCR) runs a recap session from Microsoft's FabCon 26 conference on Microsoft Fabric — what actually matters for Manchester-based data teams, which of the new features are production-ready, and what's still a wait-and-see. Hosted at Slalom's Marble Street office.

DevOps Society's Manchester Tech Week evening with Steve Wade (Kubernetes Ambassador) on how high-performing engineering teams actually communicate. Pattern-level, practical, and directly applicable on Monday morning. Colony King Street.

Venture Café Manchester's Thursday Gathering lands squarely on Manchester Tech Week evening with a themed programme on regional innovation — what the North's model actually looks like, who's investing, and what the next three years need to look like. Weekly format, free, open to anyone.

Manchester's Rust community meets at ADA College in Ancoats for its monthly technical evening. Two talks, networking and discussion across the Rust language and its applications. 541 members, 4.8-star community rating over 77 prior events. Programme open for speakers (talk@rustmanchester.co.uk).

The launch of Manchester's new Responsible AI Network — a founding-moment event for anyone working on the practical side of AI governance, ethics and implementation in the city.