Invitation to Tender for Innovate Manchester Events

MIDAS wishes to engage a full-service agency to deliver between eight & ten innovation-focussed events, which we envisage will be an equal mix of two different formats:

1. Large "Big-Ticket" events - aimed at engaging a large audience of around 50 -100 attendees from a mix of GM-based large companies, SMEs and academics, these events will tackle key emerging innovation themes and promote GM's science and innovation assets. Knowledgeable and engaging speakers, moderators and panellists will be identified and sourced by the winning bidder. The aim of these events is to excite the audience about the opportunities to innovate in Greater Manchester and provide a pipeline of companies interested in the innovation & collaboration opportunities discussed to be progressed to the Design Sprints.
2. Design Sprints - aimed at a smaller audience of 15-25 large companies and SMEs identified from the Big-Ticket events as being interested in collaboration opportunities, these expert-facilitated project development workshops will guide participants through the collaboration process from company match-making to developing project propositions. The key output will be the production of project propositions with a clear project brief/objective and a defined commercial opportunity.

The event topics will need to be agreed and approved by MIDAS in advance. Each event should be aligned to one of MIDAS's priority sectors, and we expect at least one event per sector during the programme. MIDAS' four priority sectors are:

• Digital, creative and technology (E.g. Fintech, Industry 4.0)
• Advanced Manufacturing/Materials
• Life Sciences and Healthcare
• Smart energy / low carbon