Beyond the hype: Accelerating business with AI
Artificial intelligence and digital technologies are transforming the way organisations operate, compete and grow. But beyond the headlines, what does this mean for established businesses looking to improve productivity, innovate and unlock new opportunities?
This event brings together leading academics, industry experts and business leaders to explore how AI and digital innovation can be applied in practical, responsible and commercially valuable ways.
If you’re looking to scale existing digital initiatives, this event will provide the knowledge, connections and confidence to take the next step.
Why attend?
- Hear from academic and industry experts.
- Learn more about GROW AI, our new funded programme supporting businesses to drive inclusive economic growth, strengthened by the region’s AI ecosystem.
- Explore our state-of-the-art spaces including The Den (Digital Education Nexus), our £1.27 million mixed-reality facility featuring high-specification computing, an immersive theatre, and one of the UK's largest suites of advanced Anatomage tables.
Who should attend?
Business owners, directors, senior managers, innovation leads and digital transformation professionals from businesses across Greater Manchester.
Start your day by exploring the opportunities that AI and digital innovation present for your business, while building valuable connections with organisations driving growth across the Greater Manchester region.
https://www.mmu.ac.uk/about-us/our-campus/buildings/dalton-building
Book your tour of The DEN (Digital Education Nexus) as part of the Beyond the Hype: Accelerating Business with AI event.
Led by an academic expert, this exclusive tour offers a behind-the-scenes look at Manchester Met's £1.27 million mixed reality facility, showcasing immersive technologies, mixed reality environments and advanced Anatomage tables.
Discover how your business can collaborate with the University to apply AI and emerging technologies to workforce development, research, simulation, testing and innovation projects.
Book here – Limited places applied
Tour Registration / Networking / Light breakfast: 08:00AM – 08:20AM
Tour: 08:20AM – 08:50AM
Main Event Registration / Networking / Light breakfast: 08:30AM – 09:00AM
Main event starts: 09:00AM – 10:00AM
Optional Networking: 10:00 - 10:30AM
About the Speakers:
Keeley Crockett SMIEEE SFHEA is Professor of Computational Intelligence at Manchester Metropolitan University, with over 27 years’ experience in research and development across ethical and responsible AI, computational intelligence and AI applications. Her work focuses on making AI practical, responsible and inclusive, working with SMEs, public sector organisations and communities to ensure citizen voices are represented in the development and adoption of AI.
Keeley has led and contributed to major UK initiatives spanning AI policy, skills, public engagement and responsible innovation, including work with UKRI, the Alan Turing Institute, the UK Government and Greater Manchester organisations. She was one of the founders of the People’s Panel for AI, an EPSRC Public Engagement Champion and PI of the EPSRC-funded PEAs in Pods project, which co-created the first People’s Charter for AI with communities across Greater Manchester. She is also an international expert in AI ethics and safety, having founded and chaired the IEEE Technical Committee SHIELD and currently chairing the IEEE CIS AI Ethics Education and Awareness Taskforce.
Dr. Matthew Shardlow is a Reader in Natural Language Processing at Manchester Metropolitan University and is a member of the Department of Computing and Mathematics. He completed his PhD at the University of Manchester in 2015 on the topic of lexical simplification and has led research in this area through workshop and shared task organisation. His work has focussed on the application of artificial intelligence to language, revolving around topics such as lexical complexity prediction, text simplification, the prediction of emoji in tweets and multi-word expressions. He has worked for several years as an expert speaker on the technologies underlying recent advances in the forefront of AI and the language we use to describe these and has delivered keynote talks both nationally and internationally on his research.
Stuart Pearson is Head of Innovation at Citizens Advice SORT, which serves Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, and Trafford. He leads a team building AI tools for the advice sector, including Caddy, an AI assistant that supports advisers and is now used in around 100 local Citizens Advice offices, and CaseNote, which has been adopted by national Citizens Advice for case note automation. Stuart has spoken on AI and access to justice at Stanford Law School and was named in the Foundever AI 100 UK 2026 list. His focus is on using AI to help advisers do their best work while keeping people at the centre of every decision.
Interested In The Event?
If you’re interested in attending, you can book online here.
For any further enquires about this event, contact [email protected]
