Program Design Manager

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Venture Café Manchester - Program And Experience Design Manager

Are you ready to be at the heart of Manchester's innovation scene? Venture Café Manchester is on the lookout for a passionate Program and Experience Design Manager to lead our flagship Thursday Gathering and other groundbreaking initiatives.

Venture Café Manchester - Program And Experience Design Manager

Are you ready to be at the heart of Manchester's innovation scene? Venture Café Manchester is on the lookout for a passionate Program and Experience Design Manager to lead our flagship Thursday Gathering and other groundbreaking initiatives.

Join us in creating a dynamic and inclusive community where innovators connect, collaborate, and drive change. If you're excited about making a real impact and fostering a vibrant ecosystem, you belong at Venture Café Manchester!

ABOUT VENTURE CAFÉ GLOBAL INSTITUTE (VCGI) & VENTURE CAFÉ MANCHESTER

Venture Café Global Institute (VCGI) began in 2009 within the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) in Massachusetts, aiming to connect people, ideas, and resources globally. Today, it has grown into a worldwide movement, facilitating over 750,000 connections among innovators, creatives, and leaders across cities like Boston, Berlin, and Tokyo.

VCGI's mission is to drive global change by building a community of communities focused on solving humankind’s biggest challenges.

Venture Café Manchester will launch in Q4 2025 alongside strategic partner ARIA . Venture Café Manchester will partner with companies and organizations that are evolving business, education, technology, social justice, science and the arts within Manchester and beyond. Our flagship Thursday Gathering convenes hundreds of creative, resourceful people who are just as invested in improving life on this planet as you are.

YOUR DAY-TO-DAY WORK

The primary vehicle to engage the region’s innovation community is the weekly collaboration event, the Thursday Gathering, which attracts 200-500 people per week at each location. You will be responsible for curating and managing this event that regularly convenes members of the innovation community in an inclusive and open way. This event strives to complement and amplify, not substitute or compete, with other existing innovation community gatherings in Manchester.

Venture Café includes an informal social gathering to create opportunities for serendipitous encounters as well as structured conversations and educational sessions (live performances, panels, info sessions, demotables, etc.). You will manage and grow a pipeline of community organizations and partners to offer high-quality content based on monthly themes. Your primary role is to be the “chief curator” in order to design thoughtful, high-quality experiences for attendees.

Your work may also include working with members of the broader community to organize regular and special events.

A cornerstone of Venture Café Manchester will be to launch the Thursday Gathering and other programs that will help build a more inclusive innovation economy - inclusive of all types of industries and people. You will be responsible for the creation and implementation of programming that reaches into the area’s underserved communities.

As you work to operate these programs in Manchester you will be expected to:

• Work in tandem with Venture Café Director to build the Venture Café Manchester brand and position it as a neutral, valuable player that complements existing initiatives.
• Advance the mission of Venture Café Manchester which is to enhance and grow Manchester’s innovation community by working to make it more diverse, inclusive, accessible and better connected.
• Share learnings in Manchester with the broader Venture Café…