Green Circles Manchester | AI Hackathon | Supported by Barclays

about this event

A hackathon connecting AI builders with industry experts - supported by Barclays Eagle Labs & Silicon Mingle.

Ten boroughs. Ten teams. One day to build something your city can actually use. Greater Manchester has ten boroughs. On the day, each borough will have its own team — bringing together local government, technology, business and emerging talent. Each team will include a representative from its borough council, a tech mentor, a business mentor and three mentees. At the end of the day, every team will pitch what they've built to a panel of VCs, council leaders, startup ecosystem figures and industry leaders.

The Challenge: Every borough will bring a genuine local challenge. You'll receive your team's challenge on the day, introduced and explained by someone who works on it. From there, your team will have the day to understand the problem, develop an idea, build a prototype and prepare your pitch. Your solution should be tech or AI-enabled — but it doesn't have to be purely technological. The best ideas might combine technology with better processes, services, partnerships or ways of working.

The kinds of problems boroughs are wrestling with include adults who want to retrain but don't know where to start, council services overwhelmed by repetitive enquiries, local businesses struggling to find local talent, young people leaving education without a clear route into work, and community groups doing great work that residents struggle to find.

The kinds of things you could build include an AI assistant that helps residents navigate council services in plain English, a matching platform connecting volunteers, community groups and local needs, a triage system handling routine enquiries so council staff can focus on complex cases, a skills-matching service connecting local employers with school and college leavers, or a local discovery tool making it easier to find support, spaces, funding, community groups and other resources already available in the borough.

Your Team: There will be ten teams — one for each Greater Manchester borough. Each team brings together a local council representative (the problem owner), a tech mentor (helping turn ideas into something real), a business mentor (helping think about users, value and viability) and mentees (bringing energy, ideas and a willingness to build). The ten boroughs are Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan.

Who This Is For: This registration is for mentees — with 60 places available across the ten teams. Mentors, council representatives and judges register separately. You don't need to be an expert. You just need to be curious, willing to learn and ready to get stuck in. You should apply if you're a university student or recent graduate, an early-career engineer, designer, product person or marketer, teaching yourself AI tools and looking for a real problem to use them on, from one of the ten boroughs and want to build something for your own community, early in your career and looking for people to learn from, or someone with ideas and the motivation to turn them into something tangible.

The Pitch: At the end of the day, every team will present its solution to a judging panel featuring VCs, local council leaders, startup ecosystem leaders and industry figures. Winning teams will receive prizes from our sponsors. But the bigger opportunity is what happens next. Strong projects could lead to introductions to potential employers, support to continue developing the idea after the event, exposure to investors, founders and industry leaders, and support from the borough the solution was built for. A great pitch doesn't just win a prize — it can give a good idea somewhere to go next.

What You'll Leave With: Built something for a real place and a real problem, worked directly with someone from local government, gained hands-on experience using AI and technology under time pressure, received mentorship from people building technology and running businesses, received feedback from investors and industry leaders, made new connections across Greater Manchester's tech and startup community, and have a project you can talk about, show and build on.

Register: 60 mentee places. Ten boroughs. One day. Bring your curiosity. We'll bring the challenge. Join us and build something Greater Manchester can actually use.

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