We were immensely proud to have been a key sponsor of this year’s Manchester Tech Festival, an event designed by the tech community for the tech community.

The event, which ran for the two weeks between 28^th October and 8^th November, saw a collection of specialist conferences, fringe events and evening socials being hosted around the city to bring the Manchester tech community together.

Having gotten involved in the event, we felt a real sense of community from everyone involved, from the attendees to the event organisers to the panellists. It was clear from the offset that everyone was there to celebrate innovation, share insights and connect with like-minded people.

As a Manchester-based tech recruiter, we were thrilled to get involved, and the team had a blast chatting with so many people about their careers during the fortnight of events. We were also lucky enough to see a couple of talks, and we’ve popped a few of our thoughts below.

Women in Technology

One of our biggest highlights was the Women in Tech [Unfiltered] track day, which was back by popular demand. It was empowering to hear women from such a diverse range of businesses and backgrounds, come together to discuss some of the barriers to women working in tech, regardless of how difficult they may be to talk about.

Women in Tech [Unfiltered] co-organiser and Product Management Leader Lauren Gibson really grabbed our attention with her session about her experiences of the glass cliff theory, a phenomenon where women are commonly promoted to leadership roles in times of crisis, which ultimately sets them up for failure.

Wendy Amexo, Keynote Speaker on AI Ethics, DE&I & Career Transition and founder of TechJumpstart Hub CIC, also sparked a fascinating conversation during her segment about the challenge women face of being underrepresented in the tech industry. She said: 

“There’s a lot of environments that lack the support and right conditions for growth for women working in technology. I want to help the women and allies attending my talk today to take the necessary steps to find their own space and to add value.”

With so many inspiring women taking the stage, we’re sure there were many who left the session filled with ideas to support and uplift female colleagues.

Leadership day

Another absolute highlight for us was the Leadership day, which featured a whole host of speakers delivering talks specifically designed to support tech leaders in taking care of themselves and their teams. We particularly enjoyed Product Consultant and Coach, Holly Donohue’s session answering some of the most burning questions about product strategies.

“Product strategy is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot with an assumption that everyone agrees on what one is. Your product strategy is there to build a common understanding of the customer needs in your market space, how you'll solve for those needs and how you'll differentiate and win in that space.”

It really shone a light on how easy it is to take a misstep with product strategy if you’re not getting everyone bought in early on and setting yourself clear drivers to meet your customer’s wants and needs.

Artificial Intelligence

For the AI portion of the event, Principal Consultant at Roke Manor Research, Mark West’s fascinating talk about deepfakes, digital deception, and democracy piqued everyone’s interest. This highly publicised and often controversial topic explored this new world, delving into how deepfakes have been used in politics and the tell-tale signs we all can look out for.

In addition, Equal Experts Peter Petrovics session about GenAI in the enterprise: Lessons learned from building Europe's largest GenAI Conversational FAQ was also a thought-provoking discussion, particularly when we were shown a live demo of AI’s potential in booking flights.

Wellbeing and Technology

While work is understandably important, the event also promoted the importance of respite with the help of Jamie’s Jungle, who hosted free wellness sessions that promoted mindful 'creation without consequence'. Attendees had a blast creating miniature glass domes filled with dried flowers and learned more about the peaceful practice of mindful making. It was a real highlight of the event for many.

Manchester Tech Week is crucial for collaboration, building connections and encouraging innovation and we’re thrilled to have been able to play a small part in making it happen. We’re already counting down the days until the next one!