Tech Events in Manchester

Catch up with fellow tech founders, share ideas, and spark new collaborations face-to-face!

Join the Tech Founders Meet Up!

Are you a tech enthusiast or a startup founder? Come hang out with fellow innovators at our in-person gathering. It's the perfect chance to network, share ideas, and spark collaborations in a laid-back atmosphere.

Whether you’re launching your first app or scaling up, everyone’s welcome. Don’t miss out on meeting awesome people and exploring new tech trends together!

Network, learn, ask a question, meet other folks - these are all things that happen at user group events. These events are a really great opportunity to socialise in an informal learning experience.

Remember to tell your friends and the people you work with; make sure you register as soon as you can.

In-Person only event. Not being recorded.

Please complete the registration form with your full name and organisation you are from - we only collect this information to give to building security to let you into the event.

17:45 – 18:00 Intro and updates
18:00 – 19:00 Shubhangi Goyal - Evaluation of LLMs using prompt engineering.
n this session, I will discuss how prompt engineering can be leveraged to evaluate the performance, reliability, and limitations of Large Language Models (LLMs). By systematically varying prompts, we uncover model behavior across various tasks, including reasoning, summarization, and code generation. We’ll discuss prompt-based benchmarking methods, prompt sensitivity, and how to design effective evaluation frameworks.
Takeaways:
- Understand the role of prompt design in LLM evaluation.
- Learn techniques to test reasoning, bias, and robustness via prompts.
- Explore limitations of prompt-based metrics and how to mitigate them.
- Gain practical examples of evaluation setups across NLP tasks.

19:00 – 19:15 Break & Pizza
19:15 – 19:45 Ian Pike - FabCon Atlanta Databases Updates.
Looking back at the recent Atlanta FabCon event and the updates announced around Databases.
This includes SQL Server, Azure, and general Fabric Database updates.
What is new, what was made generally available.
There were some exciting updates to share and discuss so we will share in a short 30 min session.

Welcome, Manchester Data Intelligence Network!

Manchester Data Intelligence Network is a community-based networking event bringing people together to meet peers, share stories, and build meaningful relationships around data intelligence.

Hosted by Datacove, award-winning Brighton-based R, Python and Shiny experts, these events also offer inspiring talks, hands-on sessions, and open knowledge sharing, all in a friendly, inclusive environment. Whether you’re just starting out in data or a seasoned expert, there’s always something new to discover, spark your curiosity, and take back to the office.

We run four events each year in Manchester, offering fresh insights, lively discussions, and opportunities to connect with the wider Data Intelligence Network, anchored by the EARL Data Intelligence Conference, our flagship event held in Brighton each October.

The events are supported by the generous team at DiSH, Eagle Labs

For more information, sponsorship opportunities, or to get involved as a speaker, contact us at [[admin@datacove.co.uk](mailto:admin@datacove.co.uk)](https://datacove.co.uk/contact/) or visit https://datacove.co.uk

--- Talk Information ---

We’ll be joined by Rioch Brewer, Head of Data Insight at AJ Bell.

Lessons learned in delivering our first data science models

Rioch will draw on real-world experience from projects spanning portfolio risk measurement, churn modelling, and price anomaly detection.
In this session,
He’ll cover:

• Starting simple vs. designing a more complex solution
• Generating value even when data signals are weak
• Future plans: Analytics vs. Data Science vs. MLOps
• The importance of support structures, including project management, templates, and sprints

--- Schedule & Refreshments ---
Now, refreshments! Drinks and nibbles will be served from 6pm. Talks will commence at 6:30pm/6:45pm and the event will conclude at 8pm. The conversation will continue after the event at a local pub.

--- Sponsorship Information ---
Our event relies heavily on sponsorship from companies that attend. Please contact the organisers or [admin@datacove.co.uk](https://datacove.co.uk/) to get involved.

--- Arrival Instructions ---
There are several entrances for Heron House, however, to access DiSH you need to go to Lloyd
street reception. This is the same entrance used for the Registry office.
What3Words: mason.baking.dined

--- Registration Etiquette ---
At our meetups, the event is sometimes capped by the space. We’re committed to keeping these events accessible for everyone, but to make that possible, we need your help. Please ensure your registration is kept up to date. If your plans change, simply update your RSVP to reflect your availability. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Please feel free to spread the word.

We look forward to seeing you all again!

Join us at our TECH MIXER AND SOCIAL for afterwork drinks, networking with tech / IT workers in and connect with others in tech

Whether you're a seasoned tech veteran or just starting out, let's create the ideal afterwork place to meet and chill with other workers in tech - find that new job, expand your network, share ideas, and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in the industry. Let's inspire, innovate, and shape the future of technology in Manchester!

Tech, AI, Data, IT, and more ~

Event Details

💰 Cost: Free

🍺🥃 Afterwork drinks and social

📍 The Old Wellington (Inside, or ask for Tech Social) - 4 Cathedral Gates

🕕 5:30pm onwards every Friday

Or RSVP on the website for our Discord / WhatsApp communities, and to see who else is going and what their backgrounds/seniority/interests are:

🔗 Link to Website

If you cannot find us, ask staff about Tech Social, or ask in the WhatsApp community above.

Who Should Attend?

Perfect for Manchester tech professionals including:

• Software Developers & Engineers (Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, React, Node.js)
• Data Scientists & Analysts (Machine Learning, AI, Data Visualization, SQL)
• Cybersecurity Professionals (InfoSec, Ethical Hacking, Cloud Security)
• Product Managers & Tech Entrepreneurs
• Students & Tech Graduates looking to break into tech
• Career Changers entering tech industry
• Remote Workers & Digital Nomads in Manchester
• Startup Employees & Entrepreneurs
• Digital Marketing & Product Professionals
• Senior Engineers looking to mentor and network

What You'll Experience

• 🤝 Network with Manchester tech community
• 💼 Job opportunities and referrals from peers
• 🚀 Career acceleration through peer networking
• 🎯 Skill sharing and tech discussions
• 🧠 Knowledge sharing on latest tech trends
• 🎉 Social activities and games
• 🧠 Learn from peers about real-world challenges
• 🚀 Collaborate on projects and ideas
• 🎯 Mentorship connections (both ways!)
• 🍻 Fun, casual atmosphere - no matter your seniority level

Event Guidelines

• Support the venue by purchasing drinks/food (no outside items allowed)
• Maintain appropriate behavior and respect for all attendees
• Bring physical ID if required by venue (call ahead to confirm)

Manchester United Kingdom tech social mixer afterwork drinks AI connect network data IT programming cybersecurity digital nomad blockchain crypto big data science computer networking community jobs entrepreneur industry product design startup software development machine learning python javascript professional networking career development it professionals developers mentorship ai sql analytics data engineering business intelligence deep learning tensorflow pytorch data visualization data analysts ml engineers Manchester United Kingdom tech social mixer afterwork drinks AI connect network data IT programming cybersecurity digital nomad blockchain crypto big data science computer networking community jobs entrepreneur industry product design startup software development machine learning python javascript professional networking career development it professionals developers mentorship ai sql analytics data engineering business intelligence deep learning tensorflow pytorch data visualization data analysts ml engineers

Most telemetry is held together with string literals and good intentions. This talk shows how OpenTelemetry Weaver lets you treat your .NET application's telemetry like a proper engineering artifact — with schemas, codegen, validation, and live checks against what your app actually emits.

We'll cover:

• Defining a semantic convention registry as a single source of truth for your telemetry and the open standards
• Generating type-safe .NET code from that registry so you stop hand-typing attribute strings
• Validating your registry with policy checks in CI
• Using Weaver's Live Check to compare your running app's telemetry against your schema and catch drift before it breaks your alerts

Venue
This meeting is at Spektrix, 196 Deansgate.

Near to the Blacks store, and right next door to Pieminister, see building photo in the event gallery.

There will be someone in the foyer who will sign you in and then tell you how to find the venue.

This is a free event - there is no charge for a ticket or for the refreshments.

This event is in the form of a talk so you don't need to bring a laptop.

We often get enough RSVP's for there to be a waiting list; the list has always cleared by the early part of the week of the talk, but this relies on you releasing your ticket if you can no longer attend. Please remember to do this if your plans change.

Please ensure we have an email address that you do look at, so we can let you know of any last minute changes; and please use your full name on the site as it's the only way we, or the fire service, can account for you in the case of an evacuation/emergency/fire etc.

Catering will be provided (pizza and drinks). If you have any special dietary requirements please let us know via the event chat.

If you would need assistance to leave the building in the event of an evacuation then please let us know via the event chat.

Note for recruitment professionals - we don't exclude recruiters from our meetings but we would ask you to contact Rick Garner for a brief chat before you start attending.

Schedule
Doors open from 18:00
Intro and welcome 18:40
Speaker 18:50 (with a break at some point)
Wrap-up & prize raffle 20.45
Close ~21:00
(Don't feel bad if you have to leave early for a train/bus/lift home - no one will be offended)

We then adjourn to a local bar for a drink and a natter - this bit is optional but everyone is welcome to join us!

We're be back on Wednesday 13th May for the next ProductTank Manchester with great product speakers and great networking!

Location: Hosted and sponsored by https://nimbleapproach.comNimble
Renold Innovation Hub, 32a Altrincham Street, Manchester, M1 7JR (Cafe event space)

Speakers
------------

Adam Dadswell @ Nimble &
Niall Morrison, Lead Product Manager @ Betfred
Alice Rothwell, Senior Product Manager @ BBC
Talk: Lessons from shifting to Product-led

Bios:
Niall Morrison
Niall Morrison is a Product Leader at Betfred, helping drive the organisation’s move towards a more customer-led, product-focused approach. Over the past year, he has worked closely with teams to shift from roadmap delivery to problem-solving, experimentation, and continuous learning within a complex, fast-moving environment.

Adam Dadswell
Adam Dadswell is a Principal Product and Delivery Consultant at Nimble Approach. He has helped organisations including the DfE and Sky Betting & Gaming adopt more customer-first thinking, better balance delivery with discovery, and improve flow. Prior to Nimble, Adam worked at Booking.com, AO, and the BBC. At Betfred, he has been supporting the shift towards more product-led ways of working.

Talk Description: This talk shares reflections from Betfred’s ongoing shift from a delivery-focused model towards a more product-led approach, in partnership with Nimble Approach.
We’ll cover some of the practical changes that have been made, moving from outputs to outcomes, introducing more discovery-led thinking, and evolving how teams and leaders make decisions. We’ll also touch on where things have been more challenging, including the reality that progress is uneven and behaviour change takes time.

---

Rob Balderstone
Talk: Convincing everyone to own the problem

Bio: A product leader since 2022, Rob’s path to product was paved with years of performance marketing, focus groups, and deep-dive customer research. From law firms and global EdTech to smart home hardware, InsureTech, and retail/e-commerce, Rob has navigated the unique challenges of building products in both digital and physical spaces. He is a firm believer that the best products are born from a shared obsession with the problem at hand.

Talk Description: Spoiler alert: This will (intentionally) be the worst-looking presentation you’ve ever seen.

Early in my transition from marketing to product leadership, I grew incredibly frustrated with the imbalance of effort vs outcomes delivered by our team. I worked with incredible people, but despite herculean efforts, we were failing to deliver anything that truly mattered - constantly trying to keep pace with the demands of a CEO chasing shiny objects and changing priorities every standup.

This is the story of a single, bonkers presentation that became my most powerful tool for cultural change - which I have since delivered time and again, always with excellent, immediate outcomes. I’ll walk you through how this narrative helped me change the way the whole business worked, empowering engineers to challenge up and out, and ultimately moving the culture from "what are we building?" to "why are we building it?".

Alice Rothwell, Senior Product Manager, BBC

Pivoting into Product: Translating What You Already Know

Careers aren’t always linear - and in product, that can be a strength. Breaking into product can feel opaque - full of frameworks, jargon, and the sense you need the “right” background. But many of the skills that matter can be developed elsewhere. I’ll share lessons from my own transition: how to reframe your experience, why generalist skills are an advantage and how to turn existing strengths into product impact. Expect practical takeaways whether you’re moving into product or growing within it.

---

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

--------
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.

HER+Data MCR is a community working to connect, inspire, support and empower the NW UK’s Women in Data. Our goal is to bring together women and non-binary people who work in data or who would like to work in data - to support one another, share experiences and talk data - big or small! Whether you’re a student just embarking on a career or a seasoned data professional, this group is for you. We want to connect and inspire amazing data women with diverse expertise and experience.

This event is very generously hosted by Autotrader.

✨ Please note:

• Due to venue policies, this event is for 18+ attendees only.
• If you have any allergies/special dietary requirements, please let us know in advance, and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.
• If you have any access needs, please get in touch beforehand so we can ensure you have the best experience at the event.

Agenda
(All times in BST)
18:00 - 18:30 Networking with food and drinks
18:30 - 18:40 Welcome and announcements
18:40 Lightning talks and Q&A
20:30 Close

Speakers
Mrigna Singh is a Senior Data & Reporting Analyst at Korn Ferry, bringing over a decade of experience helping businesses cut through noise and turn data into meaningful decisions. In their talk, “My Understanding of the Data World,” they will share how they’ve navigated their career in the data field, the key lessons learned along the way, and what it takes to succeed as a Data Analyst.

Tiffany Plant is an MLOps Engineer at Fuzzy Labs with a background in data, spanning data analytics to data engineering. They are excited about exploring AI and deploying machine learning systems with positive real-world impact. In their talk “LLMs in the Wild,” Tiffany will explore how organisations can evaluate large language models before and after deployment, particularly in high-stakes environments where failures carry real consequences. They will highlight key risks and outline actions that can be taken to guide safe deployment.

Paige Pearson is a Manager in AI & Data at Deloitte. She will be speaking on building her career as a technical responsible AI developer.

By registering for this event, you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct.
Follow us on LinkedIn for updates!

Our Meetup page is very generously sponsored by KrakenFlex!

Better late than never, its the first NAUG event of 2026!!

Agenda to be confirmed shortly

Meetup location what3words:///daisy.coffee.awards

Session Details

Session 1 tbc

Session 2 tbc

Agenda:
6:00 - 6:30 - Welcome & networking
6:30 - 7:15 - tbc
7:15 - 7:45 - Food, drinks and networking
7:45 - 8:30 - tbc

Location Details
what3words:///daisy.coffee.awards
Address:18 Lower Byrom St, Manchester M3 4AP.

Morson Edge are based in a renovated space called the Bonded Warehouse which sits on the same site as the Old-Granada studio tour.

The entrance to the bonded warehouse can be reached from Lower Byrom street just next to the Museum of Science and Industry, the building entrance is on the right hand side across from the crystal maze. Google and apple maps may attempt to direct you to the rear of the building, if in doubt use the what3words location and look for the Crystal Maze too.

what3words:///daisy.coffee.awards

For our May meetup, we are thrilled to host a fantastic session hosted by Karam Kabbara, Lead Software Engineer from Kraken and Danish Javed, Senior Software Engineer from Codurance who will be discussing everything from cloud to culture via AI. Come along to learn, share and be inspired!

Details
From pricing up washing machines to customising coffins... and now saving the universe by controlling your electric vehicle while you sleep at Kraken Technologies. Unfortunately for you, you’ve probably run into code that Karam Kabbara has written at some point in your life.

Karam will lead a lively discussion alongside Senior Software Engineer Danish Javed from Codurance to share the hard-won lessons that only come from working on systems at a massive scale. This isn't a lecture; it's a candid discussion about what happens when good intentions meet bad production realities.

What to expect
We’ll be hosting a facilitated Q&A and group discussion, where Karam will be opening up about his journey through some of the UK's biggest tech platforms, starting with the infamous story of how he once came home to a $750 AWS bill... and how you can avoid the same fate.

We’ll be diving into:

• The True Cost of Cloud: Why "serverless" and "on-demand" can be a double-edged sword without the right guardrails.
• Building for Scale: Lessons on managing millions of connected devices and high-concurrency environments.
• Engineering Accountability: How to foster a culture where developers take ownership of the infrastructure they trigger.
• Modern Tooling: A frank discussion on the tools we use today (including the hype vs. reality of AI assistants) and whether they are making us better engineers or just faster at breaking things.

Who should attend?
This meetup is for software engineers who care about the "Craft" in Software Craftsmanship. If you’re interested in architectural patterns, cloud cost-optimisation, or just want to hear some honest war stories from a Lead Engineer at one of the UK’s biggest tech success stories, this is an event not to be missed.

What to bring

• Your curiosity: This is an open-floor discussion.
• Your own "war stories": We’ll be sharing reflections as a group, so bring a time you broke something (and what you learned from it).

Note: This is a discussion-based event. While you’re welcome to bring a laptop if you’re taking notes, no live coding or specific software is required to participate.

A big thank you to Codurance for hosting the event at their fantastic office in Bonded Warehouse and sponsoring the pizza and drinks.

More detailed directions (a picture of the front door)

We're having another Code Night!

It's a bi-monthly event, to collaborate with like minded Rustacians.
If you already have a project your working on - Awesome! Bring it.
If this is your first time using rust and you want to learn - Sweet! Please bring a laptop.
If you can get Rustup installed beforehand that will help speed things up, if not we will help you get setup on the day.

This month we will be at Hackspace Manchester. Be sure to check the meetup event for any updated details on the day (we are a little limited on space please update RSVP if you are unable to come).

The venue will open at 6:30pm and will run until 8:30pm

HOW IT WILL WORK
Event Starts (18:30) - Come down and join us for some food and drinks. You'll have an opportunity to share any problems/questions you're working on with other attendees.

During Event - Put any questions or conversation topics you want to discuss to the Rust community, it's likely someone will be interested and have an opinion!

Event Closes (20:30) - After the event we'll all head somewhere local for some post-event socialising.

If you have any dietary requirements please supply them when signing up to the event and we can make sure you feel welcome too!

Under 16s are welcome with a responsible guardian.

Looking for a Rust course
Our survey is still open to find people interested in a multi-session course
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeaQGwdxeNPPMZ51A778N7hqN2XHl9C8zaukZ5Fj22vfT-qUQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Sponsors

Codethink is a world-class provider of critical, high-performance software projects and solutions for international-scale companies in a range of industries including Automotive, Finance, Medical, and IoT. Headquartered in Manchester, UK, Codethink has pioneered software industry thinking around concepts of trustable software, working to improve the quality of software engineering.
Visit Codethink

Join us for May's PBIMCR meet-up

When: Thursday 28th of May 2026
Time: arrive for 530pm with talks starting from 6pm start prompt
Location: Canopius, 100 Barbirolli Square, Manchester M2 3AB
Session will not be streamed over MS Teams but uploaded to our YouTube channel in early Feb
Complimentary drinks & pizza provided by our hosts Canopius & sponsors Robert Walters

David Johnston - Power BI Developer working mainly in logistics

Topic Power BI Custom Visuals - have always been possible, but difficult. I'll share the workflow I use with VS Code, GitHub Copilot to create pbiviz custom visuals of your own.

About David:
Business Intelligence Consultant with broad experience across multiple business sectors, HR, Public Sector, Private, Start-ups, Freight & logistics, Outsourcing . Power BI, Power Query, Power Pivot, Power Apps, Power Automate, Trend Analysis, Data Analytics and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

Rebekah Holderness – Portfolio Reporting & Information Specialist at Network Rail

Title: I’ve got the Power! Utilising Power Platform with Power BI to take your reports to the next level.
Often numbers on a page and pretty graphs aren’t enough to answer business questions but how do we address this and retain interest in our reports?
- Power Automated emails to subject matter experts (SME’s) to provide periodic commentary
- Embedded Power App into our Power BI report to capture these commentary insights
- Feeding commentary back into the PBI dashboard to compliment visuals for end users

AI tools are often positioned as a way to write code faster but in practice, their biggest impact may be in how developers think, reason, and make decisions.

In this session, Zahed Heidari shares practical examples of using AI as a reasoning partner during real development work. We’ll explore how engineers are using AI to debug complex issues, navigate unfamiliar codebases, and structure technical decisions, without losing control or relying on “black box” outputs.

Rather than focusing on specific tools or prompt tricks, this talk centres on mental models and workflows that make AI genuinely useful in day-to-day engineering. Expect concrete scenarios, trade-offs, and patterns you can apply immediately.

Developers Now Have a Second Brain: Learning to Think With AI

You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of how to integrate AI into your thinking process — using it to extend your capabilities while maintaining strong engineering judgement and ownership.

Key takeaways:

• Using AI as a reasoning partner, not just a code generator
• Practical workflows for debugging and problem-solving with AI
• Structuring technical decisions with AI support
• Navigating unfamiliar systems more effectively
• Maintaining control, context, and engineering judgement

Who should attend

Software engineers, tech leads, and engineering managers who want to use AI more effectively in their daily work — especially for problem-solving, debugging, and decision-making rather than just code generation.

Why it's worth attending

Most conversations about AI in engineering focus on speed. This session focuses on thinking better. You’ll gain practical ways to improve how you approach complex problems with AI, alongside the chance to connect with Manchester’s growing applied-AI community.

Agenda

18:30 – Doors, pizza & mingling
18:50 – Introductions
19:00 – Talk by Zahed Heidari: Developers Now Have a Second Brain: Learning to Think With AI
19:30 – Q&A
19:50 – Open social & refreshments
20:30 – Close

Entry

Upon arrival at AND Digital, Manchester, please check in at reception and you’ll be directed to the meetup.