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Creative Consultancy by Contact

We offer a range of training and conference services, delivered by some of the best creative minds in our city.

Our team of skilled freelancers and Contact staff have expertise in staff training, workshop facilitation and community engagement. From autism awareness training sessions delivered by young people with autism spectrum disorder, to using live art for staff development workshops, our creative consultancy services deliver memorable sessions for your staff.

At present, we're working on delivering our training sessions virtually, so please get in touch if you'd like to have a chat about your training requirements.

We regularly work with private businesses, local authorities and the education sector to deliver bespoke training packages.

Recent clients include: Chester Zoo, Future Everything, ONE Manchester, University of Manchester, Manchester City Council, Reclaim, Greater Manchester Police, Virgin Trains, the BBC, Electricity North West, GMCVO and Siemens UK.

    ‘Contact’s creatives are innovative, exploratory and refreshing… their purpose, vision and values marry exactly with those of our organisation: supporting outreach into our community and supporting enterprise and talent in Manchester.’

    Sue Bagguley, Head of Strategy and Business Development, Siemens

    What we offer

    We offer a wide range of creative services and often work closely with clients to develop bespoke packages. Below are a just a few of the many services we offer:

    Creating Anti Racism Culture

    A training, awareness and change programme developed by our AD/CEO Keisha Thompson and Contact. This programme is designed to help organisations make a proactive step-change towards a meaningful and enduring anti-racism culture. Over the course of two full-day workshops, this course unpicks the structural complexities of prejudice and discrimination, and provides a space for reflection, challenge and ultimately change-making.

    Learn more about our Creating Anti Racism Culture programme here

    And you can learn more about Keisha’s development of the programme here.

    wRap Up!

    A conference enhancement service with a difference. Engage delegates using live spoken word/rap artists to open, punctuate and close your conference/seminar. The highly skilled wRap Up! team tailor their performances to the most important themes of the day to spark inspiration and motivation in the room.

    Creative Solutions

    Let us bring some creative flair to give your conference, seminar or meeting. Our established and highly skilled team of creative facilitators will help you deliver key information and messages whilst ensuring lively discussion and engagement.

    Community Engagement

    Connect your business with the people that matter. Bridge the gap between you and the communities you serve through a creative engagement programme developed and delivered by us.

    Creative Training Packages

    We will work closely with you to help bring a creative element to your staff training programme. We offer bespoke training packages in Customer Services, Equality and Diversity, Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace and Public Speaking.

    Film and Digital Content Packages

    We have a dynamic film team ready to mobilise and capture your event or help you create new content for your social media platforms or website. We can also help you review your digital output through creative consultation.

    Contact us

    To enquire about venue hire, please complete our venue enquiry form and return to hires@contactmcr.com, or call our events team on 07917950468.

    • Chester Zoo Safari Rangers

      We’re working with Chester Zoo re-vamping their Safari Ranger Programme using the creative arts to help them better engage with a wider variety of learning styles - this years subject is ‘Sustainable Palm’.

      The workshops are designed to run as weekly sessions throughout one half term, or they can be delivered as a one-day workshop for schools. If you would like more information, or to book for your school please email: hires@contactmcr.com

      Find out more

    • CityVerve Community Champions

      Spanning two years, our recent project delivered in partnership with FutureEverything was our most sustained community project to date. Creative Experts delivered a range creative workshops, walking tours and community forums taking the CityVerve message out to local communites.

      CityVerve aims to build a smarter, more connected Manchester using new technologies whilst creating a blueprint for smart cities around the world, is made up of a consortium of 21 partners, and is backed by the UK Government and Innovate UK.

      Find out more

    • Future Fires Short Course

      We worked with the Future Fires programme to design a short version of the 6-month course to help train young leaders at York Medial, a new festival showcasing international digital artists and media makers.

      Based at Contact, Future Fires is an innovative leadership programme, that empowers young people in the design and delivery of their own creative projects. The short Course runs over two days, includes practical and creative skills development in project planning, budgeting, fundraising and networking and is the perfect course to initiate youth leadership within an organisation.

      Find out more

    • Not in my Honour with GMP

      We teamed up with Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and two schools, Manchester Grammar and Levenshulme High, to create a play that helps pupils understand honour based abuse: Not In My Honour.

      Using a script developed with playwright Aisha Zia, the play was performed by both schools and explored honour-based abuse in a wide variety of forms, from family acceptance of transsexuality to forced marriage. Through the play, pupils were empowered to speak up against such practices within their own communities.

      Find out more

    • Management Consultancy and Training with Siemens

      We worked with the Customer First Department at Siemens to help senior managers tackle challenges around communication between teams.

      After consultations with employees, the Creative Experts dramatised the challenges and frustrations faced in their daily working lives and performed these voices back to a national conference of managers alongside exercises, discussions and frameworks for tackling personnel challenges in an emotionally engaged way.