Why you should become a speaker
Connect
Connect with the Venture Café community of innovators, experts and maybe even investors or future clients.
Learn
Test your ideas, products and services and get genuine feedback from the Venture Café’s community of early adopters.
Share
Share your knowledge with eager minds and give back to the Venture Cafe Community.
Recognition
Build your personal and professional brand by positioning yourself as a thought leader in your field.
Play
Experiment, try new things and get inspired! Venture Café’s community is a great place to have fun with peers!
We want ideas that help people understand innovation on a broader and more applicable level.
Venture Café offers a reflection of the diverse, talented and entrepreneurial innovation community of Manchester and the region. Thursday Gatherings provide our innovation community with access to high-quality sessions and educational programming designed to create intentional spaces. Every Thursday startups, scale-ups, corporates, investors, talented individuals, and governmental organisations convene, connect, and build relationships at Venture Café.
Our goal is to provide our community with new, exciting, thought-provoking sessions to fuel conversation at Venture Café. We want ideas that help people understand innovation on a broader and more applicable level. Events should inject new ideas and perspectives into the conversation and enrich our thinking.
Before you propose a session, make yourself at home.
Venture Café isn't a happy hour or a sales floor. It's a neutral, inclusive room where founders, builders, and curious humans help each other. Reading and accepting our credo is the first step to becoming part of our program.
Be welcoming and friendly… and help keep the place tidy.
The community thrives because we welcome participants without regard to color, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, or disability.
Learn about other guests' projects, explore new perspectives, consider the absurd. Ask yourself how can I help?
We are not a bar, this is not a happy hour. If you think it is, you are in the wrong place.
Innovation is about top level thinking, not bottom line outcomes. Focus on building relationships that will last.
Challenge yourself to think outside of your norms and grow. Be willing to provide constructive feedback and share your ideas.
Let's start with the human part.
Tell us who you are and where to find you. We use this to confirm your session and keep you looped in.
What do you want to put in the room?
A clear title and a few honest sentences go further than a polished pitch. Tell us what would happen and who it's for.
A good session description answers three questions. You don't have to use the headings — just make sure the answers are in there.
Almost done. Just a couple of quick yeses and nos.
These help us route your session to the right person and stay in touch about ways you might want to engage with Venture Café going forward.
Thank you. Your session is in the queue.
We just sent your suggestion to our program team. You'll hear back from us within a few business days about scheduling and next steps.
Back to the homepageMaybe another time.
Venture Café only works because everyone in the room shares the credo. If it isn't a fit today, that's okay — we'd rather you opt out now than be uncomfortable later. The door is open whenever you want to revisit.
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