Manchester — Week of 9 Nov 2026

Join us for an exclusive 1-DAY MASTERCLASS! A day of networking and workshop session.

SFG20's online summit for the building maintenance and facilities sector, covering how digital standards and maintenance software are changing compliance and asset management practice.

MISRA's public conference on where its coding guidelines go next, and what AI-assisted development means for code that has to be demonstrably safe. MISRA guidelines govern C and C++ in safety- and security-critical software: automotive, aerospace, medical devices, industrial control. The day covers the latest developments in the guidelines and gives users room to share how they are applying them in practice. The audience MISRA names is specific — developers writing to the guidelines, the internal reviewers and auditors who check that work, and managers accountable for safety-relevant projects. 08:30 to 16:15 at Delta Hotels Manchester Airport in Hale Barns. GBP 50 general admission. The agenda and speaker list are not published on the ticket page. Why go: the standards body itself in the room, which rarely happens outside the automotive supply chain. Best for embedded and safety-critical engineers, and the compliance people who sign their work off.

TWIPN North morning on AI adoption in advertising. The IAB sets out its adoption research and policy work with Government, followed by an agency panel on driving AI adoption inside a business and a talk from OpenAI's Michelle McKelvey. Free, at WPP Manchester.

An online session from The Curve on the operational side of AI governance — what has to happen after the framework is signed off for controls to still be working six months later, and where governance programmes typically decay.

A one-hour online session from GM Business Growth Hub on how AI assistants surface businesses to overseas customers, and what to change to improve that visibility. Free.

A one-hour fireside chat and book launch at the Portico Library asking a blunt question about AI: whose problems is it actually being built to solve. Jenny Garrett OBE and her daughter Leah-Sunshine Garrett are in conversation as part of the library's Portico Ubuntu: Queens in Print series. The pairing is the point — two generations on who gets designed for and who gets designed around as AI systems are built out. Doors 18:00, talk 18:30 to 19:30, at 57 Mosley Street. GBP 10, and suitable for ages 14 and over. Why go: a short, cheap counterweight to the build-first AI events filling the rest of the Manchester calendar, in one of the city's better rooms. Best for people shipping AI products who want the equity question put to them by someone outside tech.

Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants' annual user group for ADMS 6 - air quality dispersion modelling, new features and applied case studies. Technical audience.

A demo day run inside NatWest's Manchester Accelerator hub, where a hand-picked group of entrepreneurs pitch to a panel drawn from the Manchester ecosystem, NatWest's own team and founders who have raised before. The panel gives live feedback on each pitch: structure, delivery, the questions that get asked and the ones that trip people up. The afternoon runs 14:00 to 17:30 at the hub on Spinningfields Square, with networking during and after. Free, and open beyond the pitching cohort, so you can come to watch. Why go: watching four or five founders get picked apart kindly, in order, teaches you more about your own deck than a week of reading will. Best for pre-seed and seed founders in Greater Manchester about to start raising, and anyone who wants to see what investors in this city actually ask.

Strive welcomes you to 'Tech and Business Networking', an event for tenured and newcomers at Rain Bar! Event is 18+. Limited Tickets.

CONEXEN's Manchester November edition - curated introductions for founders, operators and investors rather than open-room networking.

Strive welcomes you to 'Multi-Vertical Business Networking', an event for tenured and newcomers at Rain Bar! Event is 18+. Limited Tickets.

Monthly meetup following the Open Space Conference in Manchester, open to the public, students and industry veterans. Donations toward running costs.

Join us for a reflective discussion on the innovative use of materials has progressed over the last five years

First edition of a monthly breakfast from CyberLab at the Greater Manchester Digital Security Hub. Agenda: 08:30 breakfast, 09:00 cyber news, 09:15 walkthrough of CyberLab's upcoming HackRisk app with a personal Cyber MOT, 09:45 open Q&A. Free, approval required, limited seats.

Somewhere in your business right now, someone is probably using AI you don't know about. Not maliciously. Just because there's no sanctioned way to do it properly, so people quietly route around the gap. That's not a discipline problem. It's a design problem.

with Gareth Ford Williams (Director of Accessibility, Double FW Ltd and CAN) · Llara Geddes (Solutions Director, AND Digital) · Emily Webber (Consultant, Tacit) + 1 more

Natter Community's one-day conference on design, product and AI, at Autotrader, 3 Hawkshaw Street, on Thursday 12 November, 8:30 to 18:30. Breakfast and lunch are included. The theme is transparency in digital products. Speakers so far: Gareth Ford Williams (Double FW and CAN) on accessibility, Llara Geddes (AND Digital), Emily Webber (Tacit), Rachel Morgan-Trimmer (Firebird), design writer Rob Alderson and Carrie Tudsbury, service design lead at Autotrader. Registration is 8:30, talks start at 9:30, and the full agenda is still being filled in. General admission is 50 pounds. Why go: a full day with people who ship digital products, and a lot of it is about how AI is changing design work. Best for designers, researchers and product people; engineers and founders will get less out of it.

Join our half-day marketing event on Thursday 12th November covering Paid Media, SEO, Organic & Brand at the Everyman Cinema in Manchester!

Three back-to-back hour-long workshops run by Google trainers on using AI in day-to-day business work, rather than a talk about where AI is heading. The first covers productivity on complex projects, drafting with Gemini, research with NotebookLM and workflows in Google Workspace. The second applies the same lens to customer service, content and automated research for decisions. The third is marketing-specific: audience research in NotebookLM, campaign content with Gemini and performance reporting in Google Analytics 4. Each session includes live demonstrations, and no prior AI experience is assumed. It runs 09:00 to 12:00 in Manchester city centre; the venue is confirmed by email to registered attendees. Free and fully funded, so places are limited and businesses must be Greater Manchester trading organisations to qualify. Why go: the most hands-on free AI session in the city this month, and the only one that walks through the tools with a trainer in the room. Best for owners and marketers who tried Gemini once and stopped.

with Matt Royle (Marketing Director, commited) · Edd Dale (Learning & Development Director, Illuminate Learning) · Will Gardner-Brennand (Commercial Director, commited)

Morning briefing for business owners, finance directors and operations leads on moving from AI experiments to implementation: where it saves time, governance, security, data protection and ROI. Includes live Microsoft Copilot demos and an expert panel. No technical background needed.

Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants' user group for ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Roads - urban and roadside air quality modelling for practitioners.

with Kirsty Mason (Keynote speaker, )

A 100-person conference for technology and data leadership built around the theme 'Show Me the Money: The AI Accountability Reckoning'. CIOs, CTOs and AI leaders discuss where AI and data spend is actually returning value, with keynote, panel discussions and networking.

Come and connect with like–minded creatives at RA Live in Manchester!

with Beth Rogers (Public Policy Manager, IAB UK) · Si Hunt (Insight & Planning Manager, IAB UK) · Eliza Lyons (Member Services Manager, IAB UK) + 1 more

IAB UK brings its AI programme north for an afternoon on AI in advertising and media: regulatory developments, findings from the State of AI in Advertising report, and how agencies and advertisers are actually applying the technology — followed by networking drinks.

The weekly Venture Café Thursday Gathering, this edition on links between Manchester and Osaka and what a route into Japanese markets looks like for companies here. Free, with registration through the Venture Café community platform.

**🚀Are you ready to supercharge your start-up journey?** If you're on the verge of launching your dream business or already navigating the world of start

A workshop for parents to give you the skills, knowledge and confidence to support your child or teen with the tricky world of modern AI.

Monthly HER+Data MCR community meetup at Colony Fabrica co-working space. Time taken from the CompiledMCR listing, not the Meetup header.

In-person events made to share the processes used by freelancers, founders and teams.

The November edition of Datacove's Manchester data community night, with two talks and a long networking tail. Fiona Pye, Senior Data Analyst at AutoTrader UK, talks about two years embedded in a backend development team: what moving between analytics and engineering changed about how she works, and what the developers got back in understanding of the data they produce. Jonas Almesri, co-founder of GenSight.AI, follows on AI visibility — how large language models decide which brands they see, believe, cite and recommend, and the measurement problems his team is working on as agents move from recommending to buying. Drinks and nibbles from 18:00, talks around 18:30, close at 20:00, then a nearby pub. Free, at DiSH in Heron House. Datacove runs four of these a year in Manchester. Why go: two speakers who actually do the work, on the two questions data teams are being asked right now. Best for analysts, data engineers and anyone responsible for being found by AI.

with Jitesh Gosai (Principal Tester, Mobile Group, BBC) · Ben Flannery (Principal Consultant, Transform)

Deliver Sessions is a meetup for people interested in how software teams work well together. This edition, Into the Unknown, is hosted by consultancy Transform in the Express Building on Great Ancoats Street, with refreshments provided. Two talks. Jitesh Gosai, Principal Tester in the BBC's Mobile Group, covers navigating uncertainty in complex software systems. Ben Flannery, Principal Consultant at Transform, looks at moving beyond "in or out" in team conversations about AI, using a retrospective-style approach. It runs 6 to 8:30pm and has a code of conduct. Price isn't stated on the page. Why go: delivery, testing and team practice from a named BBC practitioner, which is rarer than another AI demo night. Best for delivery managers, testers and engineering leads.

An online session from Eco Home Lab Manchester introducing FlexMeasures, the open-source platform for scheduling flexible energy assets.

NetMCR, the Manchester .NET community meetup, listed on the TechNW calendar - talks and discussion for .NET developers in the North West.

A half-day cyber security training session for Tameside businesses, delivered by DiSH and Lancaster University with GM Business Growth Hub and Tameside College: an introduction to cyber fundamentals and Lancaster's interactive Cyber Threat & Risk Lego Game. Free, businesses only.

Explore the main types of funding available to UK businesses and identify which option could best support your own business goals and stage.

One-day event at the Lowry Hotel for ecommerce founders and brand owners on applying AI in a real online shop. Ten talks from founders running brands at £1M to £10M revenue, plus six or seven small-group roundtables. One talk is named so far: Andrew Afonin on wiring AI into Magento, HubSpot and Klaviyo rather than bolting on a chatbot (10:00). Runs 9:00 to 17:00, registration and coffee from 9:00. EcommerceCamp says there are no agency pitches on stage. The ticket price isn't published on the page; refunds are available up to 7 days before. Why go: operators talking to operators, with revenue numbers attached, is rare in ecommerce AI. Best for founders and heads of ecommerce at small and mid-size brands. Only one speaker is named, so judge it on the roundtables as much as the talks.

An event that gives you the opportunity to network with other PRs and gain valuable insights from journalists.

CHAIN Manchester's tenth annual conference for students, apprentices and early-career engineers, with talks from speakers representing IChemE, the Nuclear Institute, CIBSE, IMechE, the IET, IStructE and ICE on career paths and professional registration, plus networking. Free, at the University of Manchester.

Manchester Data Hive is a free, volunteer-led day for data and AI people working in the Microsoft stack: Fabric, Azure SQL, Power BI and Copilot. Two rooms of 50 run parallel tracks at the Copthorne Hotel in Salford Quays, with talks from data engineers, analysts, scientists and AI practitioners. Sponsors cover the cost. Listings give 9:00 to 17:00. No agenda or speaker names are published yet, and the site's ticket link looks like a placeholder, so check it before you travel. Why go: free, small and technical, and first-timers are welcome. Best for BI analysts and data engineers who want a day of Fabric and Power BI practice without conference prices. With no agenda yet, it's a bet on the community.

Saturday conference themed 'AI in Practice: Shaping the Future of Learning, Work, Leadership & Enterprise'. Covers generative AI, agents and automation alongside jobs, cybersecurity, deepfakes, privacy and responsible AI. Tickets from £39. Doors 09:00, programme 11:00 to 15:00. No speakers announced yet.