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Event Host

NOMA

NOMA

Based in the 20-acre NOMA neighbourhood in Manchester city centre, Dantzic is a fine example of art deco design and comprises six upper floors of unique workspace with real character – featuring open plan workspace, original parquet flooring, and exposed original ceiling detail.

For businesses with the ambition to try something different, Dantzic provides an environment that invigorates the mind and challenges the conventional, with neighbours including Amazon Web Services, Deloitte, the Ministry of Justice, and Co-op UK.

Located between two of Manchester’s main transport hubs – Manchester Victoria Station and Shudehill Transport Interchange — Dantzic is within three minutes walk of train, Metrolink and bus connections that serve the city and beyond, perfect for those visiting from near or far.

The wider NOMA masterplan is creating new homes, offices, hotels, shops, restaurants and bars around vibrant urban spaces and public realm. This is underpinned by a forward-thinking, neighbourhood-led approach to placemaking that champions the idea that places are better when people are involved in making them.

Our commitment to your safety:

We have experienced the enthusiasm of returning to live in-person events this year, having safely and successfully hosted more than 10,000 executives to date globally. While we are thrilled to convene together to propel growth within CRE, COVID-19 remains a worldwide concern and Bisnow is committed to practicing safe protocols at our events. You can expect the following:

  • Everyone attending the event will be required to demonstrate proof of a recent negative lateral flow test result (logged within 36 hours) or evidence of their COVID-19 double vaccination status.
    Please note: you must complete your lateral flow test before arriving at the event. There are no testing facilities available on site.

  • Temperature checks may be conducted at entry.

  • Contact tracing procedures will be employed for any reported exposure.

  • Enhanced sanitisation protocols will be adhered to throughout the event space including regularly disinfecting surfaces throughout the event and hand sanitiser provided to all attendees.

As guidance evolves, we will provide regular updates regarding all further developments and changes. Thank you for your continued support for Bisnow's event programme, we look forward to hosting you soon to do what we do best: network, connect, and engage to do more business.

Speakers and Panels

Nigel Henry

Nigel Henry

CEO

Fusion Group

David Campbell

David Campbell

Founder / Managing Director

Alumno Group

Basil Demeroutis

Basil Demeroutis

Managing Partner

FORE Partnership

Dr. Simon Merrywest

Dr. Simon Merrywest

Director of Student Experience

The University of Manchester

Nigel Henry

CEO

Fusion Group

Nigel has over thirty years’ experience in the Real Estate sector. As an entrepreneur, he has spent more than three decades in property development. Nigel has vast experience in sourcing, project managing as well as the structuring of cost efficient financing solutions.

He is a Co Founder & Co CEO of Fusion Group and leads the project management and financing of the group. He also has operating responsibility for running the company on a day to day basis.

Basil Demeroutis

Managing Partner

FORE Partnership

Basil is managing partner of FORE, a pan-European social impact real estate investor and

developer set up by Jeff Skoll, the billionaire co-founder of Ebay, to invest in property and

drive positive social and environmental impacts.

FORE is a family office, and now invests the money of more than a dozen wealthy

individuals and families from around the world, who share a commitment to sustainability

and social value. FORE is one of a very small group of UK social impact real estate

investors – and is active in London and key regional cities including Manchester and

Glasgow, as well as Germany.

FORE’s main focus is on offices, transforming outdated buildings into modern workspaces

that cater for the next generation of occupiers, with a rigorous focus on carbon reduction and

positive social impact.

Recently completed projects include Windmill Green, the most sustainable new office

building in Manchester. FORE is also bringing forward two sustainable offices in Glasgow as

well as TBC, a major new project at Tower Bridge, in London.

The Manchester Office Market

Philip Scott

Philip Scott

Investment Manager

Schroder UK Real Estate Fund

Jessica Bowles

Jessica Bowles

Director of Strategy

Bruntwood

Stephen Bradley

Stephen Bradley

Director - Investment Management International

Federated Hermes

John Ogden

John Ogden

Managing Director - North

CBRE

Mark Haywood
Moderator

Mark Haywood

Partner

CMS

Stephen Bradley

Director - Investment Management International

Federated Hermes

Stephen joined Federated Hermes in June 2015 and is a Director within the Federated Hermes Investment Management team. He has extensive experience in the industry having spent 11 years as a Senior Asset Manager at Threadneedle, 3 years as Managing Director/Head of Asset Management at IVG UK Ltd and 3 years as a Partner at Bidwells.

At Hermes Stephen works across two investment vehicles specialising in large office and mixed use investments in London and regional cities.

John Ogden

Managing Director - North

CBRE

John is an Executive Director of CBRE Limited and the Managing Director of the Northern business. John also sits on CBRE’s UK Board.

John joined CBRE in 2006, becoming an Executive Director in the Office Agency Team and was subsequently appointed Managing Director of the Northern Region encompassing the Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester offices.  John has been an Associate of the RICS since 1998.

John specialises in office leasing, acquisitions and providing strategic development advice. His approach is highly entrepreneurial and he is constantly seeking to innovate ways to differentiate space and target occupiers.

John is involved in several City Centre office development projects including Ask’s Embankment and First Street, Baring’s Landmark building on Oxford Road, Bruntwood’s SciTech portfolio, Landsec / Peel’s MediaCity and Aviva / Allied London’s Enterprise City.  He also acts on behalf of some of Manchester’s largest corporate occupiers including Rolls Royce, Lloyds and HSBC.

Mark Haywood

Moderator

CMS

Mark is a senior Real Estate partner with over 25 years’ experience, based in our Manchester office, and he heads CMS’s regional offices. He is an investment, development and mixed-use regeneration specialist with a particular interest in forward funding structures and so-called income strip deals across a range of sectors. In the last year, he has advised LandSec on the Media City deal, advised FEC and Mayfield Partnership on two of Manchester’s most ambitious regeneration projects at Northern Gateway and Mayfield respectively, and advised on numerous transactions relating to industrial and logistics assets. Mark is consistently rated as a top-tier lawyer by the leading legal directories.

The Outlook For Manchester’s Student Housing: Investment, Development & Planning

Erin Clarke

Erin Clarke

Structured Property Finance

Investec

Barbora Melezinkova

Barbora Melezinkova

Operational Real Estate, Long Income Funds

LGIM Real Assets

Ian Taylor

Ian Taylor

NorthWest Regional Head of Real Estate & Construction

RSM

Rachael Cunliffe
Moderator

Rachael Cunliffe

Founder & Director

ENGAGE 5

Erin Clarke

Structured Property Finance

Investec

Having qualified as a solicitor in 2007, Erin joined Investec in 2012 as Legal Counsel before moving in to her current role in 2016, where she is responsible for managing a large portfolio of clients, who largely focus on development and value-add activities. Her focus is on sourcing lending opportunities largely for development in residential properties for sale and rent, purpose-built student accommodation and the industrial and logistics property sectors.

Barbora Melezinkova

Operational Real Estate, Long Income Funds

LGIM Real Assets

Barbora Melezínková is Senior Asset Manager on LGIM Real Assets’ Long Income funds with specific focus on operational real estate, predominantly within the student accommodation, healthcare and leisure sectors. Barbora joined LGIM in March 2012, initially with the Research team where insight into the Higher Education sector was one of her areas of focus.Barbora has a BA in German and Russian from The University of Manchester, followed by a Real Estate Masters degree from Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh, and is a member of the RICS.

Ian Taylor

NorthWest Regional Head of Real Estate & Construction

RSM

Ian is an assurance partner specialising in providing audit, assurance and financial reporting services with particular expertise advising organisations in the real estate sector. Ian works with a wide range of clients from owner-managed SMEs to global businesses including private equity backed companies. An FCA with over 10 years audit experience alongside extensive commercial experience working for Land Securities Group PLC, a FTSE 100 listed Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and DEXUS Property Group, one of Australia’s leading real estate groups with exposure to commercial, industrial and retail assets along with capital management. Ian is a member of Investment Property Forum and a member of Forum for the Built Environment.

Providing Value To Prove Your Value: Trends Shaping The City’s BTR Real Estate

Shannon Conway

Shannon Conway

Residential Director

Glenbrook Property

Michael Howard

Michael Howard

Founder & Managing Director

Urbanbubble

Gavin Taylor

Gavin Taylor

Regional General Manager

Far East Consortium

Peter Rowe

Peter Rowe

Development Manager

Packaged Living

Liam Graham

Liam Graham

Senior Manager

Vilicom

Gearoid Collins

Gearoid Collins

Director of Sales & Marketing

Vilicom

Michael Swiszczowski
Moderator

Michael Swiszczowski

Group Board Director, UK

Chapman Taylor

Shannon Conway

Residential Director

Glenbrook Property

Shannon is passionate about creating communities for all ages and all levels of affordability. She maintains an open mind when it comes to approaches, solutions, and partnerships. Her avid interest in emerging trends and research helps keep us ahead of the residential curve. She has worked in residential property since 2003, racking up 15 years experience at JLL where she was a Lead Director. Shannon has known Guy and Ian for over 15 years so when she decided to go ‘client-side’ in 2020, Glenbrook was the obvious choice.

Outside of work Shannon loves exploring Europe in a motorhome. She’s strongly committed to sustainability too, including ‘not buying new’ - you’d never guess that all her clothes are preloved! Any spare time she has is devoted to testing cookbook recipes with her daughter and posting her reviews on Instagram.

Shannon sits on the board of her local Community Land Trust (CLT), participates in the GMCA Housing, Planning and Ageing Working Group, is a guest lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University and Sheffield Hallam University, and, as a past Chair of Women in Property, now holds a committee role.

Michael Howard

Founder & Managing Director

Urbanbubble

Michael Howard is the Owner and Managing Director of the North West’s (UK) award-winning Property Management Firm. During the 10 years of practice, Michael has become a keynote speaker for the property industry and is recognised as a Build-to-Rent (BtR) / Private Rented Sector (PRS) Specialist. This has led to the appointment of an advisory role by Manchester Life and the UKAA.

Since 2008, urbanbubble has been elected by nearly 11,000 residents to care for 10,000 schemes across the UK. The company has been recognised as one of the best places to work in the Property Management sector in the North West and has won numerous recognitions, including Best Property Firm from; Insider, Negotiator and News on the Block. Michael has personally been awarded ‘one of the most innovative entrepreneurs in property’ by EN Magazine.

Along the way, urbanbubble has partnered with renowned developers to devise and execute a world-class property service to key schemes by Legal and General, Property Alliance, Capital & Centric, Salboy, Elliot Group ... amongst many more prestigious names within the industry.

Michael has a BA in Economics and was selected by Manchester Metropolitan University to undergo the GS10K program along with the other top 6% UK growth companies.

Gavin Taylor

Regional General Manager

Far East Consortium

Gavin Taylor is a Mancunian with over 20 years’ experience in development, construction and portfolio management. He joined the Far East Consortium International Limited as Regional General Manager in 2016. Gavin’s role sees him overseeing the expansion of the organisation in the north of the UK and the establishment of a £4.6BN pipeline. He is also responsible for the Angel Meadow and Northern Gateway projects which will bring over 16,000 homes to Manchester. Previously, as Operations Director for Beijing Construction, Gavin was instrumental in the introduction and establishment of the international conglomerate in the UK. He was also the first non-Chinese citizen to become a director of a Chinese State-Owned Entity.

Peter Rowe

Development Manager

Packaged Living

Peter Rowe is a Development Manager for Packaged Living. He is responsible for development managing several of Packaged Living’s multi-family housing schemes across the UK, including the 352-home BTR scheme in Manchester, named The Castings. He’s a Chartered Town Planner and is experienced in city centre regeneration. Prior to joining the Packaged Living team, he worked for Turley in Manchester, a leading planning consultancy, where he successfully navigated complex real estate projects across the North West.

Liam Graham

Senior Manager

Vilicom

Liam is a real estate focused technologist who’s career spans 10 years in ICT, telephony and

managed services.

After 4 years working for O2’s largest business partner ‘Aerial Business Communications’ as a

Technical Executive, Liam was solicited to the role of Director at Spectrum Infrastructure and led its

sales operations of Small Cell and DAS solutions to real estate owners and occupiers in the UK,

servicing the growing demand for legal indoor mobile coverage.

Liam now joins the senior management team at Vilicom, a 20 year established in-building cellular

engineering organisation to lead the UK development of their ground breaking Open RAN Small Cell

platform, the first of it’s kind to be approved by mobile network operators to enable low cost, low

power and space efficient in-building 4G and 5G.

Gearoid Collins

Director of Sales & Marketing

Vilicom

Gearoid Collins is a customer driven Leader with responsibility for Commercial Sales and Marketing for Vilicom in UK, Ireland and strategic markets in Europe. With a particular focus on mobile connectivity he leads sales teams across Enterprise, Real Estate and offshore wind markets.

Collins holds a deep passion for solving customer connectivity problems and unleashing the benefits of mobile connectivity throughout the UK with Vilicom’s advanced product set of solutions.

Prior to this he held senior management positions in IWG PLC and Virgin Media where he spent 15 years growing its B2B business in Ireland and internationally.

Michael Swiszczowski

Moderator

Chapman Taylor

Michael joined Chapman Taylor in 2016 to build the practice’s expertise in the residential sector. Appointed to the Group Board in 2025, he continues to play a leading role in shaping and expanding the practice’s residential and hospitality portfolios across the group.

He has designed and delivered a wide range of award-winning projects, with a particular focus on Build-to-Rent, student accommodation, hotels, serviced apartments, and modular construction.

Michael is a regular speaker at international property conferences where he articulates Chapman Taylor’s design approach and skill sets, offering thought leadership on future living trends and sector evolution. He also serves as a Commissioner on the Radix Big Tent Housing Commission, a cross-party think tank that advises the UK Government on housing policy and contributes practical, evidence-based recommendations to address systemic challenges in housing delivery.

He was nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association for Rental Living (ARL) in recognition of his significant contributions to the Build-to-Rent sector. He also serves as a Special Design Advisor on the ARL Design Committee and is a RIBA-elected member of the Regional Council for RIBA North West.

Areas of expertise:

Mixed-Use / Residential / Build-to-Rent / Student Accommodation / Hotels / Retrofit

Why This Matters

What You'll Learn:

  1. Deep dive into Manchester’s office investment landscape covering unique insights into new players, projects, deal types, financing strategies, and lessons learned.

  2. In a city known for its punchy office space, how to stay ahead of the pack and meet tenants’ evolving requirements.

  3. Whether the long-term outlook and potential for investment found in student accommodation remains compelling.

  4. The trends influencing the student property market and the impact on rental values.

  5. The latest innovations in the city’s BTR design & development.

How You'll Do More Business: With Manchester’s ambitions to lead the way to ‘level up’ the economy, leaders are now making critical decisions and investments in the office and student accommodation markets that will come to fruition in the coming years. Gain exclusive insights into how owners and developers are thinking about future developments, where there is room for opportunities, and how new trends are shaping future portfolios. 

Who Attends: Investors, lenders, owners, developers, local authorities, tenants, agents, engineers, architects, planners and advisors.

Why You Should Attend: Bisnow events bring together the biggest power players in the industry to identify opportunities, build your network, and expand your business. With the largest audience of commercial real estate professionals in the world, no one knows how to help your business more than us. We're excited to be bringing the leading CRE players in Manchester back together again in person, so make sure you come early for breakfast to make the most of all the networking opportunities too. This is not an event to be missed!

For questions, comments or press enquiries, email our UK&I Producer Beth at beth.beeson@bisnow.com

Venue

Dantzic

Dantzic Street,

NOMA, Manchester, M4 2AH


Get Directions

Agenda

Time Activity
7:00 AM
7:30 AM
Breakfast & Schmooze
7:30 AM
7:40 AM
Bisnow & NOMA welcoming
7:40 AM
8:15 AM
The Manchester Office Market

Manchester is the UK’s fastest growing regional city and a leading European centre for digital technologies, possessing all the fundamentals that will drive occupancy and rental growth over the long term. It is a city that people want to live and work in showing a 355% population increase since 2002 and a 22% net increase in new restaurants and bars in the past 5 years sustained by over 500,000 people aged between 20 to 34 which is the largest regional millennial population in the UK. According to CBRE, there are strong signs of recovery in Manchester’s office market with 2,000 new jobs created in the NW in the 12 months to March 2021 and 51% of the development pipeline across 7 new buildings under construction are pre let. Who is investing in Manchester’s office market and why? How is the city positioned to attract and retain major tenants, what are tenants' top design and amenity demands, and how are flexible workspace operators faring?

8:20 AM
8:50 AM
The Outlook For Manchester’s Student Housing: Investment, Development & Planning

Manchester’s student population is 90,000 — one of the largest in Europe — and with Manchester’s new Local Plan set to introduce new policies for owner developers to deliver high quality accommodation, this session will seek answers to; how are buildings being valued amongst uncertainty, what is current investor sentiment for the market, will there be a change to flexible tenancies, how are amenities and experience changing to meet resident demands, and what does all this mean for rental values?

8:50 AM
9:00 AM
Stretch Break
9:05 AM
9:45 AM
Providing Value To Prove Your Value: Trends Shaping The City’s BTR Real Estate

JLL estimates that approx 5,600 flats are under construction around the city, demonstrating that Manchester is still very attractive to renters, despite a slowdown in recent years. To stay ahead of the curve, investors, developers and operators need to understand the next generation of renters. How is the renting experience evolving in order to retain occupancy levels and deliver returns?

9:45 AM
10:30 AM
Post Panel Networking