Engineering Leadership Events in Manchester

Find Your Message: A Public Speaking Workshop for Future ProductTank Speakers

Big THANKS to Craig Millar, Resonate Speechwriting who trains speakers, including for TEDx talk who's kindly offered to deliver this training for FREE for ProductTank members!

And another big THANKS to Grayce, who has kindly offered to host this event in their office and provide food and drink.

About this event
The success of ProductTank has always depended on members being willing to stand up and generously share their hard-earned lessons, ideas and experiences.
But giving your first talk can feel daunting.
Most people worry about confidence, structure, or whether they have anything worth saying. It's easy to wait until you feel "ready" - but the reality is that very few speakers ever do.
The good news is that impactful speaking isn't about being naturally confident or highly polished. It's about having a useful idea and caring enough to share it. And with a little exploration, we often discover that our experience is more valuable to others than we realised.
To help develop future ProductTank speakers, we're delighted to offer this free interactive workshop, led by experienced speaker coach Craig Millar.
Whether you're hoping to speak at ProductTank one day, another industry event, or simply want to communicate your ideas more effectively, this workshop will help you take the first step.

Who is this for?
This workshop is for ProductTank members who:

• Feel they might like to speak at ProductTank one day, but don't quite feel "ready" yet.
• Wonder whether they have anything valuable enough to talk about.
• Have ideas and experiences but aren't yet sure how to turn them into an engaging talk.
• Would like to communicate their ideas with greater confidence, clarity and impact.

No previous public speaking experience is required, just a willingness to explore and discuss your ideas and experiences with others.

What you'll do
Through practical exercises and small-group discussions you'll:

• Recall experiences that could become engaging talks.
• Identify the lessons your audience will find most valuable.
• Learn practical techniques that make talks easier to prepare and deliver.

By the end of the workshop, you'll have started developing a talk that you could continue refining for ProductTank or any future speaking opportunity.

About the workshop leader
Craig Millar is a speaker coach who has spent the past decade helping leaders, technical experts and more than 30 TEDx speakers turn their experience into talks that audiences remember.
He believes that everyone has valuable experiences worth sharing, they simply need the right process to uncover and shape them.

"No matter how good the speakers were at the start, Craig managed to help them develop their skills and become ready to deliver a great TEDx talk."
Yousif Hussin, TEDx Organiser

"I am blown away by how some great and simple tools are so effective."
Helen Herd, Global Head of Sustainability, McBride Plc

"Craig will improve your speech tenfold. The value of a good speech and presentation is huge."
Kavita Sahai, Serial Entrepreneur

Learn more at www.resonatespeechwriting.com

Event details
Location: Grayce, 1st Floor Hilton House, Hilton Street, Manchester M1 2EH
Time: 6:00pm–8:30pm

Every conference speaker gave their first talk once
The turning point wasn't becoming more knowledgeable. It was realising that the experience they already had could genuinely help other people.
If you've ever thought, "Maybe I'd like to speak at ProductTank one day," this workshop is for you.

Please note

• Tickets are free but places are limited.
• If your plans change, please update your RSVP so someone else can attend.
• We may take photographs during the event for community and promotional purposes.
• Venue and event details may be subject to change.

We're be back on Wednesday 30th September after a summer break with the usual format...drinks, food and 3 great speakers!

Location: Grayce, 1st Floor Hilton House, Hilton Street, Manchester M1 2EH
Big thanks to Grayce for hosting us again!

Speakers: Julian Bass, Nire Adetimehin and Bevan Broadbent...

Julian Bass: Julian Bass is an author researcher and consultant who has studied product ownership in large-scale offshore software development projects for over a decade. His research findings show how large-enterprise practitioners use a team-based product ownership model in multi-national projects. Julian’s book “Agile Software Engineering Skills” argues that early career software development practitioners need a combination of technical, collaboration and process skills. He is Professor of Software Engineering at University of Salford and Founder of Red Ocelot Ltd. Julian has a PhD in systems engineering from University of Sheffield, is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

Talk title: Managing Technical Debt: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Talk description: Technical debt is a metaphor for the unwanted complexity that accrues in software as new features and changes are repeatedly added to a system. Following current best practice, teams regularly set aside a proportion of their development effort to mitigate technical debt. Yet technical debt is not accrued uniformly and does not create impact equally in different parts of the software landscape. So, how can you find out how much technical debt that you have? How do you know where is it? Are you overspending? Or are you building-up problems? We’ll explore the good, the bad and the ugly or managing technical debt.
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Nire Adetimehin: Nire Adetimehin is a Product Marketing Manager who works at the intersection of strategy, storytelling and execution. She has experience across B2B and B2C SaaS, helping teams stay aligned around customer needs and bring products to market with clarity.

Talk title: Are Customers Still Kings? How SaaS Products Can Remain Customer-Centric in a Fiercely Competitive Market

Talk description: Every SaaS company claims to be customer-centric, but are their product decisions proving it? This talk explores practical ways teams can stay close to customers, avoid reactive feature-chasing and build around the outcomes users actually value.
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Bevan Broadbent: Bevan is a Leadership Coach. After 20+ years in Product Leadership with JLR, Kingfisher, Boohoo, Portswigger, Gamma and many more, he now helps others (those that will let him) grow into leadership more powerfully than they believed possible.

Talk title: Why I left Product, and why you should stay

Talk description: After 20+ years I chose to leave my first love - Product, and immersed myself in a new love - Coaching.
How a career founded on ruthless prioritisation can lead to life changing pivots.

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Why you should come?
Networking with fellow product people 👋

• Great talks from local and national speakers 🎤
• Food 🍕and drink 🍺
• We welcome people from all backgrounds!

We're a friendly bunch, our typical crowd includes:

• senior product leaders
• startup founders
• mid-level PMs
• new PMs
• people looking to get into Product
• engineers/developers
• designers
• people who work with product teams - and just want to learn more.

Whatever your situation, come along and say hello.

Event timings
6:00pm start - Networking (drinks and food)
6:30pm - Talks (3x 20-min talks + 5-min Q&A)
8:00pm - Talks finish - more networking - drinks and food
8:30pm - Close
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Please note:

• Speakers and venue are be subject to change.
• We sometimes take photos at our events for community and promotional use. By attending, you’re happy for any photos you appear in to be used in this way.
• Your name will be used for registration and check-in purposes only.
• Tickets are free but limited — please update your RSVP if you can’t make it so someone else can grab the spot.

Agile conference in Manchester, United Kingdom