PR Agency One is working with SCALE to build awareness of its founder and investor platform ahead of its Manchester event, taking place at Freight Island on 25 November 2026.

Following its London event launch, SCALE is expanding into Manchester with an ambition that extends beyond running another business conference. The platform connects early-stage and first-time founders with investors and entrepreneurs who have built, scaled and exited.

Our objective is to help SCALE establish its profile among founders, investors, and organisations across the North. The objective is to build awareness and raise its profile leading up to the November event.

The challenge is simple. Manchester has no shortage of technology events, founder networks and business communities. SCALE therefore needs to demonstrate why it deserves the attention of the regional business media rather than relying on the novelty of a new event in the city.

Why event PR needs a story beyond the event

An event date, venue and list of speakers provide useful information, but they don’t necessarily provide a compelling media story on their own.

Our B2B PR strategy starts with the issues SCALE exists to address. Founders need better access to investment, experienced operators and commercially useful relationships. Investors need credible routes to promising companies. Regional businesses need stronger connections to capital and expertise across the UK.

These challenges create a much broader communications platform than a traditional event launch.

Our work includes developing thought leadership, identifying reactive commentary opportunities, creating founder and investor stories and positioning SCALE within conversations about regional growth, startup policy and access to finance.

The aim is to give journalists and stakeholders reasons to engage with SCALE throughout the campaign, with the Manchester event acting as the point where those conversations intersect.

Turning SCALE’s events and communities into media narratives

SCALE already has access to a strong network of founders, investors, speakers, partners and supporters. Part of our role is identifying which voices and stories can carry beyond the event itself.

Women Who Scale, part of the SCALE platform, provides one of the clearest examples. It was built to improve access to capital, visibility and strategic opportunities for female founders while encouraging more women to participate in angel investment.

Women account for only 14% of UK angel investors, while female investors are significantly more likely to back female founders. That creates an important commercial conversation about which businesses receive early-stage capital and which growth opportunities investors may be overlooking.

We have used this evidence to develop feature angles and thought leadership around the gender investment gap, the performance of female-led businesses and the contribution female investors make to the startup ecosystem.

Building credibility within Manchester

Regional expansion brings a specific reputational challenge. SCALE cannot appear to be a London event that has simply booked a Manchester venue.

Credibility must be built through local relevance, relationships and participation.

Our work therefore includes outreach to regional business and technology media, potential media partners, founder communities and other organisations within Manchester’s business ecosystem.

We’re also helping identify contributors who can bring credible sector experience to the event and support discussions that reflect the ambitions and challenges of businesses in the North. This includes PRAO’s very own managing director James Crawford and associate director Abigail Outhwaite.

This local grounding matters. Strong event communications should show that an organiser understands the community it wants to connect with and add value to.

Creating momentum rather than a single publicity spike

The communications programme is designed to build progressively towards 25 November.

Activity includes press releases, media partnership discussions, thought leadership, reactive commentary, and speaker profiling. A shared measurement approach will track coverage and wider indicators of awareness across the campaign.

This reflects a basic truth about event PR – a single announcement may put an event on the radar, but repeated exposure to relevant ideas, credible spokespeople and useful opportunities is what establishes trust.

The strongest measurement will therefore extend beyond the number of articles secured. It will include the quality of the audiences reached, participation from founders and investors, engagement from regional partners and the extent to which SCALE becomes part of Manchester’s wider business conversation.

Bringing the SCALE community together

The campaign will culminate at SCALE Manchester on 25 November, bringing founders, investors, operators and partners together at Freight Island.

For PR Agency One, the purpose of the campaign is clear: to ensure the right audiences understand what SCALE offers before they arrive.

Coverage is one part of that process. The larger goal is to build recognition, credibility and momentum around a platform designed to help ambitious founders make commercially valuable connections.

By turning SCALE’s community, expertise and purpose into a sustained media narrative, we’re helping the event enter Manchester with credibility already behind it.