A day in the Life of an MTP Engage Manchester Attendee "Product people - Product managers, product designers, UX designers, UX researchers, Business analysts, developers, makers & entrepreneurs 16 March 2021 False #Mtpengage, manchester, manchester central, mtp engage manchester, Product Management, product management conference, Mind the Product Mind the Product Ltd 870 Product Management 3.48
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A day in the Life of an MTP Engage Manchester Attendee

We’ve been planning MTP Engage Manchester for almost a year now, and we’re confident we’ve put together a conference that’s representative of this epic city and showcases the best that the North of the UK has to offer.

We’re product managers who have designed the entire MTP Engage experience for product managers – so what does that mean? To bring that to life we’ve written a post that explains what attending the conference will be like.

Arrival

We’ve all been there; anticipating a great conference, pumped and ready to go. But the first thing you’re greeted with at the venue is a long queue for registration, one that takes an age to get through. Don’t worry! We’ll have 15 volunteers from the product community on hand at MTP Engage Manchester to make sure there’s no huge queue. And we’re using registration tech honed over the years of use at #mtpcon London so you should experience a smooth and efficient start to your day.

Once you’re inside – and Manchester Central is an incredible venue – our research shows that people’s priorities are first coffee, and then WiFi. Ahead of a day packed with inspirational talks, no one wants nasty coffee from a vending machine. We’ve found an excellent local coffee provider, Das Camper Collective, from Sale, Manchester, who’ll be on hand to serve free coffee throughout the day.

A Das Camper Collective coffee van

Venue WiFi can be flaky because usually venues assume that just a small portion of an audience will connect one device to their WiFi network. But our attendees aren’t a typical conference audience and we know that a large number of you will want to be online, and many of you with up to four devices. So we’ve increased the standard venue bandwidth hugely, and removed the annoying portal you might need to go through to use the WiFi.

Once you’re connected, you can head to the main hall where you’ll find a range of sponsors – from web analytics to recruitment – to look around and view their latest offerings. And yes, there will be swag.

The Keynotes

The main auditorium at Manchester Central

After a few hellos, at 9.45am we’ll get underway with the first keynote talks. There’ll be three 30-minute keynotes from top product leaders from around the globe; we kick off with the brilliant Nilan Peiris of TransferWise, followed by Pivotal Labs’ Gabrielle Bufrem from San Francisco. Then Tom Loosemore of Public Digital finishes up our morning keynotes. You can read more about our speakers and why we picked them in our blog post last month.

The Sessions

MTP Engage Manchester isn’t a copy of #mtpcon London. We want attendees to have the time to engage with our speakers, something that’s not possible in a huge auditorium. So, after the first three keynotes, we will break out into three tracks for session talks in smaller rooms at Manchester Central. Here, you’ll get to hear inspiring and thought-provoking talks and have the chance to ask questions afterwards. You don’t need to pick one session track and stick to it; there are short breaks after each talk to let everyone switch around if they’d like to.

After two back-to-back session talks, we break for lunch.

Lunch

We’ve worked with the venue to create a  delicious lunch that can be eaten on the move. There’s variety to make sure there’s something for all tastes, tolerances, and preferences. One tip – the chicken is epic.

Lunch will be long enough to network and look around the sponsor stands, and maybe answer a few emails or Slack messages, but not too long. After lunch, we’re back into the session speakers with three back-to-back session talks.

Final Keynotes

After the session speakers and a final coffee break, we’ll move  on to our last three keynotes. And what a line-up to finish the day: Manchester’s own Lou Cordwell, founder and CEO of digital designers magneticNorth; Lucie McLean, Head of Children’s Product at the BBC, who gave an excellent talk at ProductTank Manchester in May last year; and straight off a flight from the US, Dave Wascha, who has given celebrated talks at #mtpcon in both London and San Francisco.

That wraps up the day. But that’s not all… it’s time for the afterparty!

Afterparty

The sponsor hall will be transformed during the final keynotes to host the afterparty. We’ve got a DJ and free drinks to fuel those all-important conversations you’ll be having with the new product people you’ve met.

So that’s what we mean when we say MTP Engage Manchester is designed by product managers, for product managers; it’s grounded in user research, it’s been refined from previous versions and is designed to meet user needs and aspirations! Hopefully you’ll agree that it’s set to be a great event – tickets are on sale now. We’ll see you on the 8th February!

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About the author

We’ve been planning MTP Engage Manchester for almost a year now, and we’re confident we’ve put together a conference that’s representative of this epic city and showcases the best that the North of the UK has to offer. We’re product managers who have designed the entire MTP Engage experience for product managers - so what does that mean? To bring that to life we’ve written a post that explains what attending the conference will be like.

Arrival

We’ve all been there; anticipating a great conference, pumped and ready to go. But the first thing you’re greeted with at the venue is a long queue for registration, one that takes an age to get through. Don’t worry! We’ll have 15 volunteers from the product community on hand at MTP Engage Manchester to make sure there’s no huge queue. And we’re using registration tech honed over the years of use at #mtpcon London so you should experience a smooth and efficient start to your day. Once you’re inside - and Manchester Central is an incredible venue - our research shows that people’s priorities are first coffee, and then WiFi. Ahead of a day packed with inspirational talks, no one wants nasty coffee from a vending machine. We’ve found an excellent local coffee provider, Das Camper Collective, from Sale, Manchester, who’ll be on hand to serve free coffee throughout the day. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="544"] A Das Camper Collective coffee van[/caption] Venue WiFi can be flaky because usually venues assume that just a small portion of an audience will connect one device to their WiFi network. But our attendees aren’t a typical conference audience and we know that a large number of you will want to be online, and many of you with up to four devices. So we’ve increased the standard venue bandwidth hugely, and removed the annoying portal you might need to go through to use the WiFi. Once you’re connected, you can head to the main hall where you’ll find a range of sponsors - from web analytics to recruitment - to look around and view their latest offerings. And yes, there will be swag.

The Keynotes

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The main auditorium at Manchester Central[/caption] After a few hellos, at 9.45am we’ll get underway with the first keynote talks. There’ll be three 30-minute keynotes from top product leaders from around the globe; we kick off with the brilliant Nilan Peiris of TransferWise, followed by Pivotal Labs’ Gabrielle Bufrem from San Francisco. Then Tom Loosemore of Public Digital finishes up our morning keynotes. You can read more about our speakers and why we picked them in our blog post last month.

The Sessions

MTP Engage Manchester isn’t a copy of #mtpcon London. We want attendees to have the time to engage with our speakers, something that’s not possible in a huge auditorium. So, after the first three keynotes, we will break out into three tracks for session talks in smaller rooms at Manchester Central. Here, you’ll get to hear inspiring and thought-provoking talks and have the chance to ask questions afterwards. You don’t need to pick one session track and stick to it; there are short breaks after each talk to let everyone switch around if they’d like to. After two back-to-back session talks, we break for lunch.

Lunch

We’ve worked with the venue to create a  delicious lunch that can be eaten on the move. There’s variety to make sure there’s something for all tastes, tolerances, and preferences. One tip - the chicken is epic. Lunch will be long enough to network and look around the sponsor stands, and maybe answer a few emails or Slack messages, but not too long. After lunch, we’re back into the session speakers with three back-to-back session talks.

Final Keynotes

After the session speakers and a final coffee break, we’ll move  on to our last three keynotes. And what a line-up to finish the day: Manchester’s own Lou Cordwell, founder and CEO of digital designers magneticNorth; Lucie McLean, Head of Children’s Product at the BBC, who gave an excellent talk at ProductTank Manchester in May last year; and straight off a flight from the US, Dave Wascha, who has given celebrated talks at #mtpcon in both London and San Francisco. That wraps up the day. But that’s not all… it’s time for the afterparty!

Afterparty

The sponsor hall will be transformed during the final keynotes to host the afterparty. We’ve got a DJ and free drinks to fuel those all-important conversations you’ll be having with the new product people you’ve met. So that’s what we mean when we say MTP Engage Manchester is designed by product managers, for product managers; it’s grounded in user research, it’s been refined from previous versions and is designed to meet user needs and aspirations! Hopefully you’ll agree that it’s set to be a great event - tickets are on sale now. We’ll see you on the 8th February!