The MPA claims its relaunch has helped it reach the milestone of 1,000 members, doubling its membership from the days when it was known as the Manchester Publicity Association.

The MPA rebranded in September and under the guidance of its first paid employee, marketer Cindy Simmons, embarked on a drive to ingratiate itself with Manchester's creative community.

It says a series of creative workshops, guest speaker events, training programmes and adivisory services have added "over 500 new members" since the relaunch.

The MPA has now partnered with The White Room to survey Manchester's creative community about the training and development services they would like to see from the organisation.

To kick off its training and development calendar the MPA will run a comms workshop - ‘Different Disciplines, Same Direction’ -  from 31 March to 1 April at the Park Royal Hotel in Warrington

The workshop is aimed at individuals with three to five years experience within advertising, media, creative, PR, digital and client services.

Simmons said: "It’s now essential that we engage directly with the creative industries to get a complete understanding of the type of training and advice this sector needs.

"From this we will be able to develop a bespoke suite of courses and programmes that will help grow and develop individuals within this thriving sector."