📍 Venue: SISTER – Renold Building, 32a Altrincham Street, Manchester, M1 7JR
Summer is over. It's time to reconnect, refocus and look ahead. Join Manchester's innovation community as we explore the opportunities shaping the months ahead - from emerging technologies and funding calls to partnerships, investment and new routes to growth. Hear from founders, investors, researchers and innovation leaders on what's next for the ecosystem, then connect with the people and organisations who can help turn ambition into action. Whether you're building, scaling, researching or investing, this is where the next season of innovation begins.
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Step into a space where every conversation could spark something new. Enjoy music, refreshments, and a lively atmosphere designed to bring people together, whether you’re exchanging ideas, discovering collaborators, or simply sharing a laugh. This is the perfect moment to unwind, connect, and let serendipity guide your evening.
Start your evening with this quick overview of Venture Café, what we do as a community, and how you can make the most of our weekly Thursday Gathering! Bring a friend, grab a beverage, and plug in to the ecosystem - it’s time to connect, learn and share.
Venture Café is a global movement built on a simple but powerful belief: isolation is the enemy of innovation.
Through our weekly Thursday Gatherings, founders, researchers, investors and innovators come together to share ideas, explore new technologies and build meaningful connections. As ecosystem activators, Venture Café Manchester is creating a central hub for the city’s innovation ecosystem, driving visibility, collaboration and community.
And if you’d like to get more involved with Venture Café, there are plenty of ways to join our network:
🤝 Become a partner
🎤 Speak at an upcoming Thursday Gathering
🙌 Join our ambassador team
💬 Connect with us on LinkedIn
📩 Sign up for our weekly newsletter
Join our Lightning Pitch session where you’ve got just 60 seconds to introduce yourself and share your business or idea with the room. It’s fast, fun, and a brilliant way to meet fellow founders, spark conversations and get your idea out into the Manchester startup community.
Greater Manchester has no shortage of ideas, talent or ambition. But what needs to happen next to turn more of that innovation into successful businesses, investment, jobs and long-term economic growth?
Bringing together perspectives from local government, academia, investment and the wider innovation ecosystem, this panel will explore where Greater Manchester is making progress, where the gaps and barriers remain, and what needs to change.
From connecting research and capital to creating the right conditions for founders to start and scale, we’ll ask what Greater Manchester should prioritise now – and what a stronger, more connected innovation economy could look like next.
