Rebellious Manchester

Welcome to our inaugural event for Techs and The City: Rebellious Manchester

Whether we are at the loom or at the laptop, Manuncians have a proud tradition of innovating, rebelling, delivering, and caring. Our very first event looks at the different ways the spirit of Manchester is woven into our DNA and how that has shaped, and will continue to shape, our tech industry.

We are delighted to say thank you to RentalCars.com (BookingGo) for sponsoring by providing us with pizza, refreshments (including soft drinks), and a space to have our first event.

Doors open at 17:30pm
Talks begin at 18:30pm
Event wraps up around 20:30pm

Zulf Choudhary
Founder and MD at Sparta Digital

Zulf is CEO of Sparta Digital focusing on consultancy in IoT, AR and data analysis. He combines future planning with practical insights working on many EU collaborative projects. Zulf combines running an IT business with running the Manchester Inventors group to encourage innovation and growth. Coming from a banking background he has heard very much all excuses to invest, few make sense.

He has passion for personal data and rights as well as the power of IT for good.

His talk is how to work with EU partners to get funding and make Manchester the centre of a collaborative hub for the fourth Industrial revolution. A history lesson on how things should be done!

Zac Williams
Co-founder and Director at GradTouch

At university, Zac had a clear idea of what he believed was the ‘right’ thing to do next. But when he didn’t get the 2:1 he needed to meet his offer to work for a large consultancy company, he was forced to rethink. Fast forward a year later, and he’d co-founded GradTouch – a graduate careers platform that helps businesses communicate their employer brand to students and graduates.

In the six years since, he’s worked with a range of companies, from start-ups to clients including Aldi, Next, Dyson and Pernod Ricard. GradTouch have visited hundreds of employers across the UK and Europe to capture videos of office life, which show potential employees what it’s really like to work there before they apply.

The company Zac has co-founded looks nothing like the vision he had of the corporate world in his student days. GradTouch employees work wherever they want, whenever they want, due to the company’s fully flexible working approach and introduction of unlimited holidays. A vocal advocate of company cultures that are built on trust and employee empowerment, Zac will be speaking about the essentiality of businesses being open to new ways of working in order to attract and get the best out of young talent.

Sam Coley
Co-founder & CTO at TickX

Sam has been passionate about business and technology from a young age, starting his first tech company aged 14. Aged 16 he setup SAMTEQ, a software development company building management systems for marina’s, distilleries and gym chains as well as touch screen surveys for customers including the NHS, RSPB, Balmoral Castle & Sport Scotland.

In 2015 Sam joined forces with Steve Pearce to co-found TickX, a search engine and comparison site for events. To date TickX has raised £4m from BGF Ventures, Ministry of Sound & 24 Haymarket, turned down offers on BBC Dragons’ Den and had over 1m people use the platform in 2017. This year TickX is aggressively expanding across Europe, launching into Cinema and growing it’s Manchester based, tech focused team to 40.

#MancunianIntroductions
We will hear 1 minute introductions from some tech companies that are either moving to Manchester, opening an office here or are a start-up.

Logo Competition
We don’t have a logo for our Meet-Up yet!! If any of you feel creative or like to design things, we are offering a 3 month Safari Books License ( https://www.safaribooksonline.com/ ) to the winning logo.

Look forward to seeing you there!