📍 Venue: SISTER – Renold Building, 32a Altrincham Street, Manchester, M1 7JR
This Thursday, find out how you can connect your business with high-impact social organisations at the tech sector engagement event in partnership with the Manchester Tech for Good Catalyst Programme at Venture Café Manchester.
Funded by Manchester City Council and delivered by the Tech for Good Alliance in partnership with Manchester Digital and techUK, this pioneering three-year initiative pairs skilled tech professionals – from developers and engineering teams to founders, CTOs, and CSR leads – with local charities, CICs, and VCFSE community groups in need of digital support.
Attend this targeted briefing to discover how your company can lend its technical expertise to amplify local community impact, champion innovation for social good, fulfill meaningful social value goals, and develop new skills in the process. You will hear real-world case studies from participating businesses, and learn how volunteer projects are scoped and managed, as well as how they benefit your business. You’ll also have the direct opportunity to sign up your business on the night.
Partners: Tech for Good Alliance, Manchester City Council, Manchester Community Central and techUK
Powered by Advanced Research + Invention Agency
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.
Join us before the main event to explore the Innovator Showcase, where you’ll have the chance to meet the talented startups. Be the first to experience the innovative technologies and forward-thinking ideas on display.
🌱 Carma is a certified B Corp and social enterprise turning climate action into measurable social impact. With over 600 businesses funding tree and kelp planting, Carma also supports UK Veterans through paid planting roles, training and charitable donations, helping businesses demonstrate social value and report their impact with confidence.
🌿 Meelate - In a world optimised for more, true wellness is the first thing we lose, silently eroded by overoptimisation, overstimulation, and overconsumption. Meelate helps high performers thrive and stay grounded with one system connecting the fundamentals: nutrition, movement, and inner alignment, shaped around their lives.
Building physical tech on a tight runway? Join Matt Langford, designer and hardware tech GTM strategist at PPP, for an actionable 1:1 strategy session to help bring your hardware out of the lab and into the hands of paying customers.
- Get expert guidance tailored to your live development challenges, including
- Crafting a lean launch roadmap
- Selecting high-impact prototyping and production strategies
- Defining your core spec (and knowing what features to cut)
- Navigating regulatory, manufacturing, and support ecosystems
Book a 20-minute slot to stop over-engineering, protect your runway, and accelerate your path to market.
An introduction to Life Mechanics and how the Life Mechanics Mind-Management Model can help any individual, but more specifically, creatives, innovators and those who find themselves with consistently overly busy minds almost all the time, manage anxieties, feeling of imposter syndrome, low motivation, issues related to self-esteem and mental burnout. The workshop introduces a technique to help manage stress and facilitate relaxation of the mind and body, and explores the true extent of the mind-body connection.
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.
Hear from the Manchester Tech for Good Catalyst team to connect the city's tech sector with voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations.
Can cross-sector collaboration truly bridge the gap between commercial tech capability and community need? Join us for an inspiring, practical discussion exploring how technology skills can be mobilised to deliver transformational social impact while generating real return on investment for businesses.
Chaired by Kirsty McIntosh (Tech for Good Alliance & Scottish Tech Army), this panel brings together perspectives from third-sector leadership and industry technologist volunteers. We’ll look under the hood of real Tech for Good projects to examine:
-
The social case: How small charities leverage corporate tech skills to modernise operations, scale their reach, and better serve vulnerable communities.
-
The business case: How participating in skilled volunteering sharpens technical capabilities, boosts employee engagement, supports recruitment and retention, and fulfils corporate social value goals.
-
The practical reality: What effective cross-sector scoping and collaboration look like in practice.
Manchester’s tech ecosystem is booming, yet many local community causes, charities, and non-profits face resource constraints, digital skill gaps, and outdated operational tools. The Manchester Tech for Good Catalyst was created to bridge this divide—pairing skilled tech volunteers with local VCSE (Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise) organisations to deliver practical, high-impact digital solutions. Tech for Good Alliance CEO Alistair Forbes will walk through the basics of the Catalyst programme, a three-year initiative funded by Manchester City Council.
A facilitated discussion exploring how involvement in Tech for Good projects can support staff development, employee engagement, innovation, social value, recruitment and retention. Through practical examples and discussion, attendees will consider how technology skills can support Manchester's communities while also creating tangible benefits for their own organisations.
Building physical tech on a tight runway? Join Matt Langford, designer and hardware tech GTM strategist at PPP, for an actionable 1:1 strategy session to help bring your hardware out of the lab and into the hands of paying customers.
- Get expert guidance tailored to your live development challenges, including
- Crafting a lean launch roadmap
- Selecting high-impact prototyping and production strategies
- Defining your core spec (and knowing what features to cut)
- Navigating regulatory, manufacturing, and support ecosystems
Book a 20-minute slot to stop over-engineering, protect your runway, and accelerate your path to market.
📍 Venue: SISTER – Renold Building, 32a Altrincham Street, Manchester, M1 7JR
This Thursday, find out how you can connect your business with high-impact social organisations at the tech sector engagement event in partnership with the Manchester Tech for Good Catalyst Programme at Venture Café Manchester.
Funded by Manchester City Council and delivered by the Tech for Good Alliance in partnership with Manchester Digital and techUK, this pioneering three-year initiative pairs skilled tech professionals – from developers and engineering teams to founders, CTOs, and CSR leads – with local charities, CICs, and VCFSE community groups in need of digital support.
Attend this targeted briefing to discover how your company can lend its technical expertise to amplify local community impact, champion innovation for social good, fulfill meaningful social value goals, and develop new skills in the process. You will hear real-world case studies from participating businesses, and learn how volunteer projects are scoped and managed, as well as how they benefit your business. You’ll also have the direct opportunity to sign up your business on the night.
Partners: Tech for Good Alliance, Manchester City Council, Manchester Community Central and techUK
Powered by Advanced Research + Invention Agency
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.
Join us before the main event to explore the Innovator Showcase, where you’ll have the chance to meet the talented startups. Be the first to experience the innovative technologies and forward-thinking ideas on display.
🌱 Carma is a certified B Corp and social enterprise turning climate action into measurable social impact. With over 600 businesses funding tree and kelp planting, Carma also supports UK Veterans through paid planting roles, training and charitable donations, helping businesses demonstrate social value and report their impact with confidence.
🌿 Meelate - In a world optimised for more, true wellness is the first thing we lose, silently eroded by overoptimisation, overstimulation, and overconsumption. Meelate helps high performers thrive and stay grounded with one system connecting the fundamentals: nutrition, movement, and inner alignment, shaped around their lives.
Building physical tech on a tight runway? Join Matt Langford, designer and hardware tech GTM strategist at PPP, for an actionable 1:1 strategy session to help bring your hardware out of the lab and into the hands of paying customers.
- Get expert guidance tailored to your live development challenges, including
- Crafting a lean launch roadmap
- Selecting high-impact prototyping and production strategies
- Defining your core spec (and knowing what features to cut)
- Navigating regulatory, manufacturing, and support ecosystems
Book a 20-minute slot to stop over-engineering, protect your runway, and accelerate your path to market.
An introduction to Life Mechanics and how the Life Mechanics Mind-Management Model can help any individual, but more specifically, creatives, innovators and those who find themselves with consistently overly busy minds almost all the time, manage anxieties, feeling of imposter syndrome, low motivation, issues related to self-esteem and mental burnout. The workshop introduces a technique to help manage stress and facilitate relaxation of the mind and body, and explores the true extent of the mind-body connection.
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.
Hear from the Manchester Tech for Good Catalyst team to connect the city's tech sector with voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations.
Can cross-sector collaboration truly bridge the gap between commercial tech capability and community need? Join us for an inspiring, practical discussion exploring how technology skills can be mobilised to deliver transformational social impact while generating real return on investment for businesses.
Chaired by Kirsty McIntosh (Tech for Good Alliance & Scottish Tech Army), this panel brings together perspectives from third-sector leadership and industry technologist volunteers. We’ll look under the hood of real Tech for Good projects to examine:
-
The social case: How small charities leverage corporate tech skills to modernise operations, scale their reach, and better serve vulnerable communities.
-
The business case: How participating in skilled volunteering sharpens technical capabilities, boosts employee engagement, supports recruitment and retention, and fulfils corporate social value goals.
-
The practical reality: What effective cross-sector scoping and collaboration look like in practice.
Manchester’s tech ecosystem is booming, yet many local community causes, charities, and non-profits face resource constraints, digital skill gaps, and outdated operational tools. The Manchester Tech for Good Catalyst was created to bridge this divide—pairing skilled tech volunteers with local VCSE (Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise) organisations to deliver practical, high-impact digital solutions. Tech for Good Alliance CEO Alistair Forbes will walk through the basics of the Catalyst programme, a three-year initiative funded by Manchester City Council.
A facilitated discussion exploring how involvement in Tech for Good projects can support staff development, employee engagement, innovation, social value, recruitment and retention. Through practical examples and discussion, attendees will consider how technology skills can support Manchester's communities while also creating tangible benefits for their own organisations.
Building physical tech on a tight runway? Join Matt Langford, designer and hardware tech GTM strategist at PPP, for an actionable 1:1 strategy session to help bring your hardware out of the lab and into the hands of paying customers.
- Get expert guidance tailored to your live development challenges, including
- Crafting a lean launch roadmap
- Selecting high-impact prototyping and production strategies
- Defining your core spec (and knowing what features to cut)
- Navigating regulatory, manufacturing, and support ecosystems
Book a 20-minute slot to stop over-engineering, protect your runway, and accelerate your path to market.