Events & Networking

Lancashire offers innovative businesses, founders and entrepreneurs a wealth of face to face and online events. From casual networking sessions to masterclasses linked to a specific business topic, the county is home to a friendly and supportive innovation and tech community which can help businesses to thrive. Here are just some of the groups and programmes currently running:

Boost is Lancashire’s Business Growth Hub. It hosts a wide range of programmes, workshops and events – both physical and digital – designed to help companies of all types grow and prosper.

The Boost website also has a comprehensive online directory of local business events organised by third parties including universities, local authorities, government departments and private sector organisations. To access the event calendar – which is regularly updated and can be filtered by location – go here.  You can also get details of how to add your own business events for free here.

With a focus on peer-to-peer networking and collaboration, Lancashire’s Digital Hub helps to strengthen relationships between different technology clusters throughout Lancashire. It also helps to bring early stage businesses and scale-ups together with potential investors, and connects key tech influencers with Lancashire’s wider business community.

It does this through a regular programme of free Tech Talks events held in venues across the county including the popular Techy Tuesday weekly lunchtime sessions in Preston. Lancashire Digital Hub also produces the annual fhunded Live event in Lancashire, and manages the Lancashire Digital Leaders Group. More details here.

The Fraser House co-working space in Lancaster hosts a wide range of innovation-focused B2B events. While some of these are for Fraser House members only, others are open to anyone interested in Lancashire’s technology and digital sectors. Fraser House is also home to the fhunded investment programme which has its own regular events programme. To keep up to date with what’s happening at Fraser House follow them on LinkedIn here.

Lancashire has two Chambers of Commerce. The North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce represents over 1,600 businesses based in around Lancaster, Wyre, Fylde, Preston, Chorley, South Ribble and West Lancashire.

The East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce covers businesses based in the east of the county, including Blackburn, Darwen, Nelson Burnley, Accrington, Clitheroe and Rossendale. Both offer a packed programme of events and networking opportunities for all types of Lancashire businesses.

For details of the North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, click here.

For details of the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, click here.

The online events platform Eventbrite is used by many Lancashire, North West and national organisations to list details of business events. You can search by location, date and event type (including searching only for events that are free), and can register for tickets.

Meetup is another free, searchable site where special interest groups and niche professional networks list details of forthcoming events. Meetups are usually more informal gatherings and can have an emphasis on community and socialising, as well as knowledge exchange.