MediaCity Innovation Hub

The hub supports a community of businesses shaping the future of media: immersive experiences, virtual production, sound and gaming technology. My job was to identify and support innovation across a portfolio of projects. Within a year we had built a portfolio of over 35 collaborative projects with the Manchester creative and tech community, with combined public and private investment of over £2.7m going directly into innovation and regional SMEs, alongside hundreds of business assists.

Alongside the portfolio I ran community and talent development: events, hacks and labs with partners including Manchester Animation Festival, Beyond Conference, Creative UK, FutureEverything and Oxford Innovation, from virtual production film hacks to ComfyUI AI jams.

The thing I am proudest of is the DreamLab collective and lab space we created there, bringing businesses, freelancers, research and innovation talent together in one place to help Greater Manchester navigate a future where creativity and technology collide. Our AI work was featured in the 500 UK Trailblazers report from Verizon, supported by Epic Games.