What is MTP Engage Manchester, and why Should I Attend? [Mind the Product]

Incredible speakers. Epic venue. Great coffee. A community, united. This is MTP Engage Manchester.

On February 7th and 8th 2019 we’re bringing MTP Engage to Manchester for two days of product learning, including inspiring product talks, deep-dive training workshops, and the chance to engage with your product peers.

ProductTank Manchester started six years ago, when 23 product people got together at the BBC to talk about the BBC London Olympics app (yes, it was that long ago!). Back then, only a handful of businesses in Manchester had product teams as we know them today, and even fewer had product managers. Many people in the region were forced to look elsewhere; Leeds had some big businesses taking digital seriously, Liverpool had Shop Direct, and London was jam-packed with opportunities.

In the years since then, we’ve seen amazing growth in the product management community, led by a huge increase in the number of product-oriented businesses in Manchester, pioneered by the BBC and AutoTrader. According to TechNation.io, there’s been an increase of almost 50% of digital tech jobs in the city. Now, there’s a thriving digital scene with businesses such as Booking.com, Co-op, Sainsburys, LateRooms and Boohoo all running sizeable product teams, in addition to AutoTrader and the Beeb.

ProductTank has grown alongside the community, going from the initial 23 to a thriving tribe and community. There are regularly over 100 attendees at our meetups,  which now run monthly with amazing speakers from across the country.

Given this growth in ProductTank, we thought it was the right time to take it to the next level, combining all the great things about ProductTank with everything we love about Mind the Product, to create MTP Engage Manchester!

Come to the Manchester Central Auditorium

MTP Engage Manchester is positioned between #mtpcon (the world’s largest product conferences in London, San Francisco, and Singapore) and the ProductTank meetups that take place in 150+ cities around the globe. To be held at the Manchester Central Auditorium, we believe MTP Engage Manchester will be a unique event, and the first product conference in the city.

We wanted to take the best of both worlds when crafting MTP Engage Manchester; so we’ll have incredible speakers from across the world delivering jaw-dropping keynotes, but we’ll also have smaller, breakout sessions where the audience can engage with speakers in a more intimate space. Additionally, we’ll be running deep-dive workshops the day before the conference for a real hands-on learning opportunity.

Call for Speakers

During the conference you can expect six keynotes (the first of which have already been announced) and a choice of 28 sessions across four tracks. They’ll be run by product people from across the UK, sharing their experiences and hands-on learning.

If you’ve got an interesting session that you’d like to run, we’d love to hear from you. We’re opening our call for speakers now, and you can apply here.

Mind the Product has a legendary after-party, and you’ll be pleased to know we’ll be bringing this to Manchester too. We’re sure the Mancunian attendees will show everyone how we can party!

We’re really excited to be bringing MTP Engage to Manchester, and we hope you’ll join the product community there on February 7th-8th, 2019! Learn more about the event and buy your conference tickets now. Workshop tickets will be available soon.

We’ve got a few other blogs planned from co-organisers Sam and Graeme in the lead-up to the event, giving you a behind-the-scenes look at organising the conference.

The post What is MTP Engage Manchester, and why Should I Attend? appeared first on Mind the Product.

Source: Mind the Product http://www.mindtheproduct.com/2018/09/what-is-mtp-engage-manchester-and-why-should-i-attend/