The British Council chose Manchester Central as the perfect place to promote British Education to representatives from around the world.

Selected due to its location and extensive transport routes in and out of the city, the ‘International Education Services Conference’ saw over 550 delegates welcomed to the iconic venue, with visitors travelling from as far and wide as Kenya and Dubai.

Held in December across the venue’s Exchange Rooms and purpose-built auditorium, the main hall was configured to create a clear divide between meeting and exhibition space, with the organisers also taking advantage of the venue’s smaller meeting rooms for more formal one to one meetings.

With many delegates visiting the city for the first time, the event revolved around a strong social programme, with a civic reception held at Manchester Art Gallery followed by a gala dinner underneath the wings of Concorde; located at the nearby Manchester airport.

Angie Dickinson, Client Relation Lead for The British Council, said: “Manchester Central was the perfect venue for us. It’s right in the heart of the city and has fantastic conference facilities professional, modern and timeless – a bit like Manchester itself!

From the beginning, nothing was too much for the team. Our event had a short lead time, but the team were high professional, dynamic and flexible, no matter what we asked of them. They have a vast amount of experience within the industry with one common goal – customer satisfaction.”

Digital, creative and tech businesses from across Greater Manchester recently took part in a two-day Growth Sprint to help them find new ways to grow.

Delivered by Jonathan Courtney, CEO of AJ&Smart, the event at Gorton Monastery focused on building a culture of continual innovation and experimentation among entire business leadership teams.

The Growth Sprint is part of Amplify, a nine-month growth programme from GC Business Growth Hub with partners Form. It is targeted at SMEs in Greater Manchester’s digital, creative and tech sectors that have significant potential to scale and create new products, services and jobs in the local economy.

Richard Jeffery, director of business growth, GC Business Growth Hub, said: “The Growth Sprint has been an excellent example of trying to find new and effective ways to help businesses tackle barriers to growth.

“The Sprint helps businesses to get their ideas moving as quickly as possible, generating momentum for the full senior leadership team and embedding a mentality of continual growth. The energy in the room was palpable, and we can’t wait to see businesses continue their journey on the programme over the coming months”.

“The Growth Sprint has proved a great way for us to tackle some of our challenges as a business quickly and immediately,” said Jaime Gee, managing director at Jam, one of more than 70 participating business leaders. “The momentum it has given us is invaluable.”

Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. and Manchester United have jointly announced the signing of a multi-year, global partnership under which Spectrum Brands’ iconic Remington personal care brand will become the Manchester United Football Club’s first official Electrical Styling Partner.

The partnership, which includes both the men’s and women’s teams, will see Remington and the club working together to deliver high-impact marketing campaigns to Manchester United and Remington fans alike.

One of the largest brands in Spectrum Brands’ broad portfolio, Remington has been integral to the world’s grooming and hair care routines for generations.  Established in New York in 1937, for more than 80 years the Remington brand has been inventing, reinventing and evolving to create a range of grooming and hair care products at the cutting edge of design, fashion and technology.

As part of a major multi-channel activation, Remington and Manchester United will collaborate on a campaign which celebrates individuality and the power of inner confidence. The partnership will underpin and amplify Remington’s “The Story of You” campaign, which champions the brand’s mission to help customers build confidence to be themselves, recognising that a person’s journeys, experiences, values and aspirations make up who individuals are as people. The partnership will seek to inspire and enable more people to “Get Your You On”, motivating them to have the confidence to make their mark in everything they do.

Manchester United’s Group Managing Director, Richard Arnold, said: “Remington is one of the most famous and established brands in their field and they are a great addition to our family of commercial partners. Our partnership is not only about bringing our fans high-end styling products, it aims to inspire and encourage individuality though powerful activations and campaigns with both Manchester United’s men’s and women’s team.”

Tim Wright, Vice President for Appliances at Spectrum Holdings, commented: “Our partnership with Manchester United provides a fantastic opportunity to showcase the quality and versatility of Remington products with passionate fans of the world’s biggest and most revered sports brand.

“We have an impressive record of breaking the mould with our product innovation worldwide, and we feel this will be translated in our partnership with Manchester United, and in particular our involvement with both the men’s and women’s teams.”

Manchester-based, award winning food photographers, STM Photography start the year with an imminent rebrand to reflect extension of the specialist services offered and new studios soon to open in both Manchester & Leeds.

Rebranded as Eat & Breathe, the new studios will not only feature state-of-the-art equipment, development and presentation facilities; but also new additions to the team, selected for their experience working within the Food & Drink sector.

Darren Hickson, Director of Photography, commented: “The service we now offer is so much more than photography; with recipe development, styling consultancy, post production and motion all now becoming a pre-requisite

“We are now able to offer a much wider range of integrated Content Services, aligned to the needs of our clients in and around the Food, Drink & Leisure sectors.

“February also sees a few new faces in the studio with Chloe Warde joining the photographic team and Clover Hutson joining to head up styling and food insight.

“Both have worked extensively within the food sector in retail and the on-trade, and bring with them a wealth of technical knowledge and creative experience.”

Eat & Breathe will also incorporate a purpose-build Food Hub for presentation, NPD and filming; including professional kitchen facilities, meeting space and technology to present ranges, skills or  facilitate menu development. Services also extend to packaging prototyping and retail visualisation. The facility will allow our clients to step away from their regular ‘work’ environment and creates a space to think, plan and innovate. A productive space to stand back and ‘Breathe’, without any day to day distractions. Eat & Breath have worked closely with industry minds to design and equip The Hub, which is available for bookings (separate to photography requirements) from April.

Currently operating from Ancoats Manchester, new studios are under construction in Manchester’s Northern Quarter and a second studio in Leeds City Centre. These will come into full use over the next 3 months.

Phil Marshall, Managing Director at Eat & Breathe, added: “This is a really exciting time and the culmination of many conversations with clients of how we can continue to add more value, above and beyond the award-winning work Darren & the team are producing.

“Adding a wider range of content services and facilities that create a workspace for NPD and presentation provide a unique space for our clients.

“This in conjunction with the creative, digital and social content services offered from our sister agency Shoot the Moon, provides a nimble, integrated team of specialists to deliver outstanding content.”

Manchester-based video production company Coolbox have appointed Cain Jennings as their new in-house Producer.

Based at M-One Studios, Coolbox specialise in creating online and social content for the food and drink industry.Their clients include Johnnie Walker, Booths, The East India Company, Coca Cola, Pizza Express, Glengoyne Whisky, PayPal, Facebook and The National Lottery.

Since graduating with a degree in Media Production from Staffordshire University in 2017; Cain has worked with Tunafish Media, first as an in-house Videographer, then as Head of Content. Over the past 2 years he has produced video content for clients such as TUI, Barburrito and Holland & Barrett.

Coolbox relocated from Edinburgh to Manchester in 2015. Their mission is to be the first port of call for food and drink brands across the North West looking to take their video marketing to the next level.

Director and Founder Marc J Grundy said: “We have grown the business steadily since we moved from Edinburgh. As Manchester’s food scene becomes ever more varied and vibrant, our client base has expanded and we needed to grow the team to service this demand. Cain has a great eye when it comes to filmmaking and has already proved to be an invaluable member of the team.

It was a hard decision to make the move from Scotland to Manchester. Edinburgh has a well-established food culture, but the scene in Manchester gets better by the day. I think we arrived at just the right time, 2019 is going to be a big year for Coolbox, which is why I wanted to bring some fresh talent to the team.”

Newly appointed Producer Cain Jennings added: “We have so many fun projects on the horizon at Coolbox, we can’t wait to show everyone what we’ve been working on. It’s great to be part of a team with a shared passion for creating content for such a lively and exciting sector.”