Among the topics discussed during the 'city region pilot' workshop was what can be done to combat the graduate brain drain from the region.
Currently, 70 per cent of graduates from north west higher education institutions remain here, with graduates from Manchester University among those most likely to gravitate to London or the south east.
Yesterday's event - hosted by Greater Manchester's inward investment agency MIDAS and the Commission for the New Economy - also revealed that `wealth generating' graduates tend to cluster around south Manchester and there is perceived to be a lack of `high value' jobs in the region.
And there remain problems with public transport across Greater Manchester.
The workshop, held at Chancellors Hotel, was designed to drive Manchester's status as the first `Statutory City Region'.
This initiative was launched by the government in April to boost sustainable economic growth.
The discussion was led by findings from the Understanding Labour Market, Skills and Talent report by the Manchester Independent Economic Review and the Graduate Retention and Language Skills report, commissioned by MIDAS.
The MIDAS report brings together research from universities, inward investors and other sources to focus on the retention of the 400,000 students from 22 higher education institutions within an hour of the city.
Colin Sinclair, chief executive of MIDAS, said: "The pilot provides Manchester with a huge opportunity to shape our shared destiny and will allow Manchester the flexibility to act responsively to local and city regional needs. This event has provided a good insight into our skills and graduate needs."
Some ideas to resolve the issues include:
Widening the definition of `talent' to include not just graduate talent, but those with enterprising and entrepreneurial characteristics
An initiative to harness talent from as early as five years old
Attracting more entrepreneurial talent through a seed fund for fledgling businesses
Providing more education for international trade.
Could more be done to prevent the north west losing its best graduates?
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