About this session

Welcome to Tech Forum: the strategy hub for IT and digital leaders driving enterprise transformation in real time.

This Manchester edition is shaped by the city’s overarching digital policy, the Manchester Digital Strategy 2021–2026, which sets out an ambition to become a world-leading digital hub. As the strategy enters its final year, the forum provides an opportunity to reflect on progress toward inclusive growth, closing the digital divide, and building a resilient smart city, while also addressing the practical realities organisations face as transformation accelerates.

Across a curated agenda of expert-led keynotes and peer-level discussions, attendees will explore the defining tensions shaping the next era of digital leadership. From the realities of AI integration and governance in large enterprises to the broader challenge of building inclusive, sustainable, and socially responsible digital growth, the programme will examine how organisations can innovate with confidence while ensuring technology serves both business and society.

Sessions will explore why many AI initiatives struggle to move beyond experimentation, what effective governance and operational readiness look like, and how leaders can balance innovation with transparency, trust, and accountability. Alongside this, discussions around digital inclusion and sustainable growth will examine how cities, institutions, and enterprises can work together to close access and skills gaps, strengthen public trust, and create technology ecosystems that benefit communities as well as economies.

Together, these conversations reflect a common thread running through Manchester’s wider digital agenda: technology alone is not transformation. Lasting impact depends on leadership, collaboration, resilient systems, and a clear vision for how innovation can create long-term value for organisations, people, and society.

                                                                                                                                                                                                          But beyond the insights, it is the company that sets this forum apart. You will engage with a trusted network of peers navigating the same high-stakes priorities, scaling innovation responsibly, managing complexity, aligning technology with business outcomes, and leading organisations through continuous change in one of the UK’s most ambitious digital cities.