Benedict Mcmanus Email & Phone Number

Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom

As CEO and lead on the scoping and launch I have been responsible for working with the board and partners to create Wavemaker, the leading digital inclusion and skills hub for hard to reach young people and makers in North Staffordshire. Focussed on the delivery of life-long digital skills to audiences who are unable to engage in a traditional educational setting Wavemaker deliver sessions in coding, making, design and technology. With a delivery budget of £300k and full HR responsibility I make sure that Wavemaker has the right people and spends money on the right projects, whilst providing feedback to my oversight board and project sponsors. By using a project scoring system developed in-house I am able to quickly sign off project plans that fit our vision of "Making making work", and manage them through to delivery. We pride ourselves on the fast launch of projects that meet our aims, using our small size, and committed partner base to get projects from plans to live quickly. Feedback for Wavemaker has been glowing, with repeat engagement with many partners and significant local partner and media interest. With over 1,000 young people engaged in the space and through outreach, a weekly 'late make' to enable those working office hours to learn coding, making, digital and STEAM skills Wavemaker has a programme to continue to deliver excellence through our core team and wider network of subject experts who are brought in to help shape the learning experience that we offer. As a business Wavemaker has the distinction of being a first in the educational space - using a limited company with charitable aims to deliver real-world experience to everyone who visits, as such I am deeply proud of everything my team and I have achieved so far and look forward to working with more partners to deliver the Wavemaker experience, both in growing the Stoke-on-Trent project and internationally.

Hanley, Stoke-On-Trent, United Kingdom

Artistic Director for Digital

Staffordshire

Co Founder and creative director of a web agency that used technology to deliver unique learning and life experience through interactive media and digital outreach. As the creative lead I was responsible for working with prospective clients to understand what the desired outcome was and ensuring that their vision was not lost in the process of solution building. Working with high-profile organisations such as MIND to deliver easy to use and nimble web apps to deliver key information to their service users was immensely satisfying, and lead to North Staffs MIND being championed throughout the organisation for their innovative technology use. As an outgoing person who took the time to understand the actual needs of the clients, and what success looked like to them I was uniquely placed to use my own creative background along with my love for technology to ensure that the client received a solution that was on-budget, on time and met the outcomes that they were looking for. BitJam also worked with a variety of private, public and third sector clients and also delivered digital outreach to schools and educators to ensure that the best value was being obtained from schools' capital investments, our work here involved training and sharing of best-practice with teachers to allow them to get over their fear of new tech - to bring excitement back in to the classroom.

Digital engagement lead, project management and community facilitator. Worked extensively across the UK in direct, dynamic, hands- on cultural projects using creative collaboration at it's core.

West Midlands

Devised and delivered a varied programme of work from one off installations and commissions through to managing international audio workshop and award winning digital engagement films.

Stoke On Trent

Workshop facilitator. Graphic designer. Summer programme co ordinator. Session design and delivery. Mural painter.