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Cisco’s Ian Kennedy on why Manchester is the ideal place for tech startups

Ian Kennedy

Emily Spaven spoke to to Ian Kennedy, vice president of technical operations for EMEA, at Cisco, about how Manchester is emerging as an important UK tech hub.

Manchester: Famous for industry, famous for sport and famous for music, but what about tech?

It may not be the first city that comes to mind when you think of the world’s top technology hubs, but Manchester’s tech scene is growing and already boasts some impressive success stories. Accommodation booking site LateRooms.com, fashion e-tailer BooHoo.com, e-commerce site Auto Trader and many more all call Manchester home.

A few decades ago, multinational technology company Cisco Systems saw Manchester had strong potential for becoming the UK’s second city for tech and created a presence there.

“We made the decision 20 years ago to invest in the north, build a base, and that would provide us with the ability to attract staff [locally],” explained Ian Kennedy, vice president of technical operations for Cisco, covering the EMEA region.

Kennedy, who was born and bred in Manchester, has seen some important developments occur in the city, particularly in recent years.

“The government has been doing some significant work over the past few years to try and redress the economic imbalance between the north and south,” he explained.

Kennedy went on to say the region has a strong combined authority, with 10 local authorities all working very closely, which stems from the fact Manchester experienced devolution before any other part of the UK. More recently, it experienced NHS devolution, with Greater Manchester becoming the first English region to gain control of its health spending.

“I think there’s a wonderful partnership between the local authorities, the academic community and the business community. It’s a very close family feel to Manchester and Greater Manchester. I think with devolution, with the opportunity to get even more devolved power and more control, I think we’ll see some really interesting investments coming from [the authorities],” he added.

Kennedy believes the city’s history of change and innovation has set it up to be the perfect testbed for a lot of technology-focused pilot activity.

Talent

Of course, a business-friendly local government is a bonus, but it’s the presence of high-calibre talent that’s vital to the creation of successful tech startups, which can continue the trend of innovation. Kennedy is adamant Manchester has this in abundance.

“There is an incredible amount of talent in the region, we have some superb academic institutions, some of the best in the world, both from a research perspective but also in terms of the graduates,” he added.

Cisco hopes to harness and develop some of this young tech talent over the coming years in its new facility, being built with Manchester Science Partnerships (MSP).

Called Mi-IDEA, the site is designed to accelerate digital innovation in the North of England and will work with early-stage companies to develop innovative technologies and solutions.

It follows in the footsteps of its London equivalent, IDEALondon, an initiative between Cisco, DC Thomson and UCL, opened in late 2013. The idea was to give these corporates access to interesting startups, with the young companies gaining a range of support, from free working space to legal advice and business mentoring to access to a wide network of contacts.

“We recognised, building on our activities at IDEALondon, that there was a real opportunity to take the same model and do it somewhere else in the UK, and the natural place to do that would be aligned to another major Cisco facility. So we selected Manchester,” Kennedy said.

Located in MSP’s newest 70,000 sq ft development, No. 1 MSP Central, in the heart of Manchester’s innovation district, the space is scheduled to open in early in 2017. Cisco will aim to take in between 16 and 20 startups, which focus mainly on the emerging space of the Internet of Things.

Smart cities

The Internet of Things and Smart Cities are currently very hot topics in Manchester, especially since the city won £10m in government funding in December to become a world leader in this type of technology.

The competition for the funding received 22 entries involving 34 cities across the UK, but it was Manchester’s City Verve project that was declared the winner.

CityVerve aims to demonstrate applications of Internet of Things technologies and services across four key areas: healthcare; transport; energy and environment; and culture and community. The idea is to demonstrate a Smart City at scale and provide a replicable model for other cities in the UK and overseas.

“It’s incredibly exciting, nothing has ever been attempted like this before, certainly not in the UK and we don’t believe anywhere else,” said Kennedy.

He believes Manchester is the perfect location for such a project given its size and existing infrastructure.

“This is about taking a post-industrial city, recognised as leading industrial revolution but still left with a lot of that infrastructure, and being able to make it smart, being able to work better, to deliver better quality services to the citizens and to visitors and employees who work in the city.

If we can do that in Manchester, we can replicate that capability everywhere else, every other post-industrial city in the world could benefit from the same types of solutions that we develop in Manchester,” he explained.

A vibrant city

Aside from the business, research and mentorship opportunities presented to tech companies located in Manchester, what else does the city have to offer?

A heck of a lot, according to Kennedy. It boasts world-recognised theatres and cultural venues, great restaurants, and a vibrant nightlife, he said.

“[It’s] actually one of the best cities for city-centre living, there are thousands of people now living in the city centre and every night it is humming. There’s so much activity going on around the streets, with people eating, drinking and going out.”

He added there is a “real buzz” about the place, which makes Manchester not only a great place to work and grow a business, but also in which to live.

“Generally speaking, certainly from a Cisco perspective, I can’t think of any better place we could be in the UK. There’s an old saying that Mancunians are all about getting things done – don’t just talk about it, just do it. And that’s a truism. It’s absolutely true. And I think that’s one of the things that stands out for me every day,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in Issue 12 of our print magazine – The PropTech issue. Get your copy here.

For more on Manchester’s tech scene, head over to our Manchester documentary.

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