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, on a £3.2m accelerator, with the investment 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. That AI workflow work saw me named one of the 500 UK Trailblazers in the UKII Intelligence Report 2024, sponsored by Verizon and Epic Games, for AI workflow innovation.

Related: R&D and innovation programmes and how to work with me.

More on virtual production, LED volumes and ICVFX in Manchester and the North West.