Manchester is an important regional center in the North of England, and where I grew up, this week I'm visiting the area to spend some time with family, but I took some time off to attend one of the local social media events in the area, Social Media Cafe, in downtown Manchester. I thought I'd write a post about the Manchester social media scene (This post will probably evolve over time as I find more info and get more feedback from people in M/C's social media scene):
Social Media Cafe
Started in 2008 by Josh R @technicalfault and Martin Bryant a Social Media Cafe is a regular event held in downtown Manchester discussing social media. I attended the September 7th 2010 event, we had four speakers, in two concurrent sessions. Held at the Revolution Bar at Deansgate locks. Good attendance, and lively conversation, Josh & Martin prefer speakers to interact with the audience by asking questions and soliciting opinions and ideas.
Manchester Digital
Manchester Digital is a trade association for digital companies in the North West of England. Manchester Digital was formed in 2001, and the nonprofit Manchester Digital Ltd was set up in 2002.
MadLab
A community organization hosted by passionate volunteers, MadLab hosts events and creative designers and developers to build a new digital Manchester.
BVCA Digital Age
A conference bringing together entrepreneurs, angels and venture capitalists to discuss the future of start-ups in the Uk, held in the northwest.
Manchester BarCamp
Manchester's own BarCamp just finished in August, but this un-conference is at number 3.
Manchester Investment Development Ageny Service (MIDAS)
MIDAS is an important regional government institution for economic development that seeks to attract and grow business in the greater Manchester region.
SAScon
A new Manchester based search engine marketing conference held in association with SEMPO.org.
Update: 9/15/10 Maria Aretoulaki, VUI Designer, Linguist, Copywriter and Director of DialogCONNECTION Ltd has written a great follow up post about the social media scene in Manchester, "The Social Media scene in Manchester (UK) is very sociable!"
