Planning a leadership away day in Manchester
The best Manchester venues for a leadership planning day have daylight, wall space for paper and room to break into groups of four. These are ten we'd shortlist, with restaurants and evening ideas.
Manchester is compact enough that a leadership team can walk from the station to the venue, to dinner and to the evening without a taxi. These are the venues we'd shortlist for a planning day in and around the city.
Ten venues we'd shortlist in and around Manchester
What we look for: daylight, walls you can stick paper to, space to break into fours, and somewhere else to have lunch. A U-shaped table looks smart and kills conversation.
Hotel and boardroom
The Midland
Peter Street
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
A former Refuge Assurance building by Oxford Road station, with meeting rooms off a grand hall.
Manchester Central
City centre
The convention centre. Useful when the planning day sits inside a larger leadership conference.
Characterful space
The John Rylands Library
Deansgate
A Victorian Gothic library with event spaces. Memorable for a board day.
Hallé St Peter's
Ancoats
A restored church that's now the Hallé's rehearsal space, in the middle of Ancoats' restaurants.
The Lowry
Salford Quays
An arts centre on the water with conference rooms and plenty of daylight, by MediaCity.
Innovation and tech
Manchester Science Park
Oxford Road corridor
Bruntwood SciTech meeting rooms and event space in Manchester's innovation district, bookable by the hour.
Manchester Technology Centre
Oxford Road
A Bruntwood SciTech building five minutes from Oxford Road station, with rooms for 8 to 100.
Country house within an hour
Rookery Hall
Nantwich, Cheshire
A country house that offers exclusive use for senior teams, with 38 acres for breakouts when the weather's kind.
De Vere Cranage Estate
Cranage, Cheshire
A rural retreat with 28 meeting spaces and grounds for breakouts, within reach of Manchester Airport.
Dinner for the team
Somewhere that takes a group of eight to fifteen without splitting the table.
Hawksmoor
Deansgate
Private dining in a Victorian courthouse building. Reliable for a leadership dinner.
Dishoom
Bridge Street
Group feasts in a former Freemasons' hall. Easy to book for twelve.
Mackie Mayor
Northern Quarter
A restored Victorian market hall with independent food traders. Everyone eats what they want.
20 Stories
Spinningfields
Rooftop restaurant and terrace with views across the city.
Mount Street at The Midland
Peter Street
Dinner in the same building as the planning day, so nobody drifts off home.
Evening activities that aren't cheesy
Short, a bit competitive, and over in an hour, so nobody feels trapped.
Flight Club
City centre
Social darts with automatic scoring.
Junkyard Golf Club
City centre
Crazy golf built from salvaged junk. Daft in the right way.
Lane7
City centre
Bowling, ping pong and karaoke rooms under one roof.
Roxy Ball Room
Arndale
Pool, shuffleboard and duck pin bowling, with bookable group areas.
NQ64
Northern Quarter
A retro arcade bar. Surprisingly good at levelling a room.
Getting there
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.
Planning facilitation in Manchester
We run strategy days, away days and ai strategy workshops in Manchester, at any of these venues or your own.
Questions people ask first
Do you get paid for recommending these venues?
No. We don't take commission from any venue, restaurant or activity on this page. They're here because they suit a leadership planning day.
Can you run our day at a venue that isn't listed?
Yes. Tell us the room and we'll plan around it, anywhere in or around Manchester. What matters most is daylight, wall space for paper and room to break into groups of four.
How many people should be in the room?
Eight to fifteen is the sweet spot for making decisions. Everyone there should be deciding, informing a decision or owning the work that follows. We run larger groups too, with more structure.
Where do you work?
Anywhere in the UK, including London, Manchester and Birmingham, plus Europe and the US. In person or online.
Researched October 2026. We don't take commission, and listing a venue doesn't mean we've run a session there. Check availability and prices direct.
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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.