AI strategy workshop for leadership teams in Manchester
We run AI strategy workshops across Manchester and the North West: facilitated sessions where a leadership team decides where AI fits into its plan, its organisation and how it operates, and what that means for each team.
Spend the day deciding where AI changes your 2027 plan: what you'll do differently, what you'll stop doing, and who owns each decision. We work at venues across the city centre, Salford Quays and Cheshire, or at the one you've already booked.
For leadership teams, senior leaders, executives and boards who need AI decisions rather than another demo.
What the day covers
- Where AI changes your market, and what your customers will expect from you in 2027.
- Where it changes how you operate: the work agents and automation can take on, and what that means for each team.
- What you'll stop doing, and what you'll fund instead. If the plan has no "we will not", it isn't a strategy yet.
- Goals, owners and a 30-day follow-up, booked before anyone leaves.
We treat AI adoption as a strategy-execution problem rather than a procurement event. The day ends with decisions your board can see, not a list of tools to trial.
Venues for an AI strategy day in Manchester
An AI strategy day lands better somewhere surrounded by people building with the technology. These Manchester innovation spaces put the leadership team in that company, with a more traditional option if the board prefers.
The Midland
Peter Street · Hotel and boardroom
Where Rolls first met Royce. Meeting rooms from boardroom size to the 700-capacity Alexandra Suite, minutes from Oxford Road and Piccadilly.
Kimpton Clocktower
Oxford Street · Hotel and boardroom
A former Refuge Assurance building by Oxford Road station, with meeting rooms off a grand hall.
Manchester Central
City centre · Hotel and boardroom
The convention centre. Useful when the planning day sits inside a larger leadership conference.
Manchester Science Park
Oxford Road corridor · Innovation and tech
Bruntwood SciTech meeting rooms and event space in Manchester's innovation district, bookable by the hour.
Manchester Technology Centre
Oxford Road · Innovation and tech
A Bruntwood SciTech building five minutes from Oxford Road station, with rooms for 8 to 100.
Piccadilly and Oxford Road stations cover most of the city centre venues on this list. Manchester Science Park and the Manchester Technology Centre sit on the Oxford Road corridor. Rookery Hall is about 10 minutes from Crewe, which is on the London Euston line.
All our Manchester venue, restaurant and evening ideas
Venues researched October 2026. We don't take commission, and listing a venue doesn't mean we've run a session there. Check availability direct.
Why bring in a facilitator
What we do that is hard to do from inside your own team.
We do the prep
One-to-ones, pre-work and the data, ready before anyone sits down.
Structure that works
Frameworks proven in hundreds of sessions, fitted to what you need to decide.
The skills to run the room
Timing, pace and the recovery moves when a conversation stalls.
Objective and neutral
No budget to protect, so we can challenge anyone, including the CEO.
We spot the patterns
The things people keep circling back to, which are hard to see from inside the team.
We read the room
Who has gone quiet, who is holding back, and when to push or pause.
We coach in between
Support for the people who own the next steps, so momentum carries.
We adapt on the day
Because we do this a lot, we change the plan when the room needs it.
What you can count on
Whoever's in the room, every session we run meets the same standard.
Experienced facilitators
More than 500 workshops facilitated, by people who have built, run and sold companies. Collette Easton is an Association for Coaching accredited executive coach.
Success agreed first
Before we design anything, we agree with the sponsor what the session has to achieve, and build every part of it around that.
Speaking your language
Matt Roberts has been a founder, CEO, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Product Officer, and began his career in ad agencies. He has worked across every function, so he speaks your team's language and nothing slows down.
Every voice heard
We talk to attendees beforehand, and chair the room so the most senior voice never sets the frame.
Nothing lost afterwards
Decisions, owners and dates are captured as they happen, and the follow-ups are agreed before anyone leaves.
Skills your team builds by doing the planning
We don't teach theory. Your team learns these by planning its real year, with us alongside.
Estimating the value of an idea
Put a rough value on each option before anyone argues for it, so the debate is about evidence, not volume.
Experiments with learning loops
Turn uncertain bets into small tests, each with a date to review what you learned.
Questions people ask first
Is this AI training for the leadership team?
It's a strategy workshop. People leave understanding what AI can do in your business, but the point of the day is the decisions: where to use it, what to fund and what to stop.
Who runs it?
Matt Roberts, a two-time SaaS founder with a venture-backed exit, who builds with AI agents and automation and treats AI adoption as a strategy-execution problem rather than a procurement event.
Where we work
We run planning days and away days across the UK, Europe and the US, in person or online. These are the cities we're asked about most.
AI strategy workshops elsewhere: London and Birmingham.
Also in Manchester: strategy days, away days and venues, dinner and evening ideas.
Related
Last updated
Tell us what has to be decided.
Thirty minutes with Matt Roberts. Tell us who'll be in the room and what you need by the end, and we'll tell you how we'd run it.