The Landing at MediaCityUK appoints new Innovation Manager

The Landing, MediaCityUK’s tech hub specialising in high growth tech start-ups and scale-ups, has appointed Natalie Jameson – a leading technology changemaker and best-selling author – as its Innovation Manager to help further foster opportunities for innovation with The Landing’s community of businesses. The newly-created role will see Jameson focus on driving diversity and digital innovation. She will be working to bring together civic leaders, citizens, tech entrepreneurs and educators to help create a more inclusive and sustainable digital eco-system at The Landing and within the region.

Natalie’s background includes acquisitions funding, founding and successfully exiting a number of businesses and she was formerly in a senior role within Siemens Plc, where she gained insight into how technology was changing the future of work and its implications for women’s equality and society as a whole. She has also co-authored a number of Amazon bestseller list books on innovation, sustainable industrialisation and women in business, including a collaboration entitled ‘Legacy: The Sustainable Development Goals in Action’, which was co-authored with 51 other changemakers and dedicated to global change through business.
The Landing is a technology enterprise incubator for high-growth companies at the heart of MediaCityUK and is home to the UK’s first 5G enabled immersive lab – which offers a wide range of AR, VR and Mixed Reality technologies – and to Vodafone’s 5G testbed.

In her role as Innovation Manager, Natalie Jameson will be continuing The Landing’s recent work around creating and leading think tanks, accelerators and workshops as well as other initiatives in conjunction with local goverrnment, large employer organisations and technology-led businesses.

Natalie commented: “I’m hugely excited by the potential for technologies like artificial intelligence to improve health, make us safer, and drive jobs for the region and how my new role at The Landing will contribute towards that. Technology innovators currently don’t represent society as a whole, so we need to increase inclusivity and participation of women and other underrepresented groups in the design and development of these technologies to ensure solutions meet everyone’s needs and reflect the way we live our lives.”

Natalie added: “Digital technology has the potential to solve some of the world’s biggest societal, environmental and economic issues and I’m looking forward to bringing together all of my experience in my role at The Landing and creating some exciting opportunities for innovation and diversity for everyone’s benefit.”

Jon Corner, CEO at The Landing, said: “We are delighted that Natalie Jameson has joined us as Innovation Manager. She has an impressive portfolio career spanning twenty years, with outstanding experience in the combined areas of innovation, diversity and technology for social good.

“We have unparalleled facilities and a commitment to innovation, and we’re confident that Natalie will be a great addition to the team here at The Landing. The drive towards diversity and equality in tech is essential and we look forward to the opportunities we can all create together.”

As part of her role at The Landing, Natalie Jameson is hosting panel discussions at the Digital City Expo, which is part of the Digital City Festival at Manchester Central on the 11th and 12 March. As host of the ‘Innovation and collaboration in MediaCityUK: the future is NOW’ panel on 11th March, Natalie will be joined by representatives from resident businesses at The Landing including In4.0 Group, Inevitable and SLWF Media. On the same day, Natalie will also be taking part in the discussion on ‘Why is diversity and culture key to accelerating your business?’.