This week was the first of three busy weeks for me, Equitus and TiE UK North.
Highlights of this week include the Board (on which I represent TiE) meeting of the Manchester India Partnership, which was graced by Dr. Venkatachalam Murugan, the Consul General of India in Birmingham. It was pleasure and privilege to talk to Dr.Murugan, particularly in Tamil, and spend a few inspiring minutes with him.
The stunning Emirates Old Trafford was the venue, where the board led by Simon Arora and Jo Ahmed, with representation from MIDAS (Joe Manning), Lancashire County Cricket Club (Dan Whitehead), Marketing Manchester (Victoria Braddock), Manchester Airport (Lucie Hinton), Greater Manchester Combined Authority (Nicole Strickland) and the Universities. A lot of important points including direct flight connectivity between Manchester and India, Indian Men's Cricket Team's tour of England in summer 2025 with a test scheduled at Emirates Old Trafford, TiE UK North and TiE Global Summit. It was also an amazing catch up with good friends Ravi Kumar, Ani Kaprekar and the perennially inspiring Gulnaz Brennan (checkout SheInspires).
This was followed by hosting Ravi Narayan from TiE Bangalore, who took valuable time out of his busy schedule to travel up to Manchester. We discussed a lot of things including a few important events next week (about which you will hear this time next Sunday). We also spoke about the TiE Global Summit 2024, being held in Bangalore, the city in which I have born, and I call home (with Manchester, of course). We then went to Masood Entrepreneurship Centre's Accelerate Me Demo Day, where we got to hear from some exciting inventors and entrepreneurs such as Josiah Edebiri, Olivia Burns, Dylan Simpson and others. This year's Accelerate Me program has been superbly delivered by Alex Radulescu, Alexia Elena Catutoiu, and their team. It was a pleasant surprise to bump into Lee Pugalis, Sam Royle and to meet James Summerton for the very first time.
I am incredibly pleased with the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem we have and are building in Manchester. This means a special mention for the Turing Innovation Cluster, where I am a business mentor, and Jasmin Kailath, Elizabeth Scott MBE, James Akrigg, and Naomi Timperley.
I am cognizant of the role TiE UK North and TiE Global have in developing and showcasing this city region to the world!