Unity User Group North West, Growing a Local Unity Learning Community
- AVimmerse
- Feb 8, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 8
In early 2022, AVimmerse helped launch the North West Unity User Group as a way to bring developers, artists, educators and industry professionals together around shared learning.
At the time, interest in Unity, immersive technology and real time engines was growing fast. What was missing locally was a space to slow things down, share practical experience and talk honestly about where these tools were actually useful.
This event was designed to do exactly that.
Why we started the North West Unity User Group
The Unity ecosystem can feel overwhelming, especially for people coming from film, architecture, heritage, education or design backgrounds.
Our goal was not to sell tools or trends. It was to create a grounded learning space where people could understand how Unity fits into real world practice.
For our first event, we were joined by Professor Bob Stone, an experienced industry professional with over three decades working across immersive technologies, and Professor Andy Miah from the University of Salford, whose work explores future media, digital culture and emerging technologies.
Together, they helped set the tone for the group.
What we explored together
The session covered a broad range of topics, including:
How Unity is used across games, simulation and real time visualisation.
Practical demos showing how projects are built in Unity.
Unity education for artists, designers and programmers.
The realities of VR and AR beyond marketing language.
Design prototyping for architecture, engineering and construction.
The role of immersive tools in future production workflows.
Rather than focusing on hype, the conversation stayed rooted in real experience and practical outcomes.
Learning Unity beyond the hype
One of the most valuable aspects of the event was its honesty.
We discussed where immersive technology genuinely adds value, where it does not, and how people can make informed decisions about learning Unity without feeling pressured by trends like the metaverse narrative.
This approach has shaped AVimmerse’s work ever since.
What this work led to
Events like the North West Unity User Group helped lay the foundations for
• University teaching and guest lecturing
• Professional training and curriculum design
• Community focused immersive projects
• Long term partnerships with education, heritage and cultural organisations
Rather than treating Unity as a single skill, it became part of a broader conversation about storytelling, place and meaningful digital work.
From community learning to long term projects
Today, that same philosophy runs through everything AVimmerse produces.
Whether working on immersive heritage projects, educational programmes or long form storytelling initiatives, the focus remains the same
Use technology carefully, with purpose, and in service of people and place.
This post remains as a record of where that journey started.
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