Door4 partners with Forward Role to bring practical AI sessions

Marketing and technology agency Door4 is bringing its AI Lab series to Manchester on Friday 5th June, hosted at the offices of digital recruitment specialists Forward Role in the heart of the city centre.

The AI Lab: E-commerce is a free, hands-on session for e-commerce managers and digital leaders who want to actually see AI tools working in practice. It runs from 8:30am to 11am.

The session is hosted by Door4 founder Leon Calverley and includes live demos of AI tools built on real e-commerce data - covering content production, product merchandising, customer service and analytics.

The session is built around what's achievable right now - simpler, practical applications inside real e-commerce workflows, not hypothetical use cases or vendor demos. AI Lab attendees leave with tools and prompts they can put to work the same week. 

Leon Calverley said: "We built the AI Lab because e-commerce businesses need to see it working, not hear about its potential. Most teams are already under pressure to do more with less - AI can genuinely help, but only if people understand what it actually does.

"What we're finding more and more is that the conversation doesn't stay inside marketing for long.

"Teams start with content or reporting, and quickly end up asking bigger questions - about how information moves through the business, where the manual bottlenecks are, and whether the system they've built around a process still makes sense. 

"Partnering with Forward Role to bring this to Manchester makes sense because those are exactly the conversations the right room will want to have."

The event will take attendees from simple AI chat applications through to automated workflows and agentic tools that operate without manual input.

Use cases include ad hook generators pulling from live SKU data, policy-aware customer service drafts, and GA4 analytics agents that answer questions in plain English.

Forward Role, who are hosting the event at their central Manchester offices, bring close to 20 years of experience placing talent across digital, marketing and e-commerce.

Rachel Wheeler, director at Forward Role, said: "AI is moving incredibly quickly, and there's a real appetite from businesses to cut through the hype and understand how these tools can create genuine commercial impact.

"What makes The AI Lab valuable is its practical focus - rather than talking about AI in theory, these sessions give marketers, e-commerce leaders and digital teams the opportunity to see real use cases, ask questions, and explore how AI can improve efficiency, customer experience and decision-making in day-to-day operations."

Wheeler added: "Businesses are increasingly looking for people who are commercially minded but also confident using AI-powered tools to improve performance, automate processes and uncover insights faster.

Sessions like these help demystify the technology and give people the confidence to start applying it in meaningful ways within their own roles."

The session is suited to e-commerce managers, digital leads and marketing directors. 

Register for free: door4.com/events/the-ai-lab-e-commerce-manchester