IN4.0 Group's Centre of Excellence Impact Report for activity between 2021 & 2022, detailing the value of the impact we've had in the communities we work in and with through the Centre of Excellence at HOST Salford.
Unity Centre of Excellence at HOST, MediaCity
Impact Report 2021-2022
“Creating a ‘Beacon of the North’ for best-in-class technical skills and innovation across media industries.”
Contents Foreword About Unity at HOST
3 4 6 8 9 11
Promoting Skills Development and Training HOST Immersive Innovation Programme Unity Centre of Excellence on Campus Events Global Press Releases Social Media Infrastructure Immersive Lab and Projects Success Stories Our Team The Future of Unity at HOST
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
2
Impact Report 2022
Foreword
“This is an incredible coup for us, we are immensely humbled and privileged for Unity to have chosen us. We can now massively accelerate start-up growth, business innovation, incentivise the creation of thousands of jobs, and provide fair access to high-quality career starts with ground-breaking initiatives. Greater Manchester is blessed with the most integrated and diverse digital ecosystem, a foundation upon which our partnership with Unity will drive a job-rich recovery.” - Mo Isap, CEO of IN4 Group
“Establishing Unity’s UK Centre of Excellence at HOST brings a fantastic blend of high demand skills generation, cutting edge innovation and unparalleled business support.” - Simon Benson, Director of Immersive and XR at HOST
“We are so thrilled that Unity - the world’s largest 3D and immersive technology platform - has chosen MediaCity as its UK Centre of Excellence. It will mean so much for our ambitions around digital skills, it will bring innovation to Greater Manchester’s digital and tech ecosystem, but of course the Unity technology that can transform so many industries will be available to organisations here in Greater Manchester.” - Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester
3
About Unity at HOST
The Unity Centre of Excellence at HOST offers extensive in- person support to students, professionals and small businesses with a mission of becoming the ‘Beacon of the North’ for best-in-class technical skills and innovation across industries. The Centre of Excellence aims to upskill learners to prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow, promote interactive and
immersive technology usage across sectors, create highly skilled jobs and establish a central home for the thriving UK video games industry at MediaCity. It connects innovators with the creativity, imagination and expertise of Unity, providing unique and invaluable access to Unity’s technical leads, creatives and support networks.
What we’ve achieved...
HOST’s partnership with Unity has allowed for the creation and activation of a number of projects, bootcamps and programmes:
SKILLS CITY BOOTCAMPS
IMMERSIVE LAB
HOST IMMERSIVE INNOVATION MEMBERSHIP
UCofE on CAMPUS
EVENTS, WEBINARS
and INDUSTRY ROUNDTABLE CONFERENCES
4
Impact Report 2022
We introduced our wide community to Unity through…
5
60+
10+ HOST events featuring Unity
HOST Skills Bootcamps
Unity Bootcamp learners
100+ Unity webinar registrations
5 Unity trained staff at HOST
3 Unity Centre of Excellence on Campus University partners
15 Businesses specifically
200+ Businesses introduced to Unity through HOST
incubated with Unity at HOST
We delivered impactful and educational material...
480+ Unity Skills Bootcamp hours taught
2
Informative Unity- centric webinars
2
Industry roundtable events
96+
Mentoring sessions given
5
Promoting Skills Development and Training
Skills Bootcamps
Skills City at HOST is a unique, digital skills powerhouse transforming talent diversity in the North West. Skills City aims to break the barriers faced by those from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds, by fast-tracking learners into careers in digital technology every year. Funded by the Department for Education (DfE), Skills City is part of the Plan for Jobs initiative. Our Skills City Bootcamps currently include two Unity-centric courses: Unity Professional Programmer and Unity Professional Artist . These courses are designed to give learners the skills and confidence they need to earn their Unity Programmer or Artist qualification, and approach future employers.
Skills Bootcamps statistics... 2 2
22
Unity Professional Programmer Skills Bootcamps
5 Unity trained staff, mentors and facilitators Unity Professional Artist Skills Bootcamps
Unity exams booked
240
Learning sessions held
80+
Unity Bootcamp learners
6
Impact Report 2022
On this 12-week course, students follow the Unity Professional Programmer course syllabus which includes learning about player movements, UI, customisations, analytics and remote settings, navigation and animation. All of these skills will be checked in mini projects to put learners’ skills to the test. Unity Professional Programmer:
11 Professional Programmer exam levels chosen 7 Associate Programmer exam levels chosen 37% of learners unemployed upon enrolment 45% of learners had a disability 8 Professional Artist exam levels chosen 14 Associate Artist exam levels chosen 65% of learners unemployed upon enrolment 10% of learners had a disability
Programme statistics
34 Unity Professional Programmer learners 15 Interviewed for employment after course completion
22-54 Learner age range
8 Employmed after course completion
Unity Professional Artist:
On this 12-week bootcamp, students follow the Unity Professional Artist syllabus which includes learning about asset creation and management, UI design and interactivity, the Unity systems, effects, animations and build settings. Students will also take part in mini projects as well as a commercial project provided by one of our partners.
Programme statistics
48 Unity Professional Artist learners 19 Interviewed for employment after course completion
20-46 Learner age range
4 Employmed after course completion
7
HOST Immersive Innovation Programme This 12-month programme is designed to give businesses the opportunity to develop their AR, VR or XR services or projects with a community of immersive technical, business growth and innovation experts unlike any other. and we are continuously connecting our members to our Unity facilities.
During the first four weeks of the course, we will work with members to define their 12-month roadmap based on their target objectives. We will mobilise relevant business growth sessions as well as technical sessions with our Immersive experts and quarterly workshops with Unity.
Currently, we have 8 businesses involved in our Innovation Programme, with 4 businesses specifically focusing on our Immersive Innovation Membership offerings. Our membership numbers are constantly growing,
After the roadmap is developed, the following steps are carried out:
STEP 1
HOST will help members define their ‘sprint’ objectives – eg concepts, prototypes or business model basics
AR
FUNDING
MODELS
STRUCTURES
VR
STEP 2
PEOPLE
HOST will coordinate with Unity to provide any support needed – eg beta testing, mentoring or technical workshops.
NETWORKING
INNOVATION MEMBER SHIP
SALES & MARKETING
XR
GROWTH
SUPPORT
VALUE
RECRUITMENT
NAVIGATE
CURATE
ORGANISE
PLAN
STEP 3
E
Progress reflection and next steps will be discussed.
8
Impact Report 2022
Unity Centre of Excellence on Campus HOST has worked with three universities to establish a ‘Unity Centre of Excellence on Campus’ in three regions, with an aim of bringing immersive technology skills, jobs and business innovation support to the areas.
As part of the Unity Centre of Excellence on Campus, we have developed a ‘Train the Trainer’ programme to upskill faculty teaching staff in the disciplines of interactive media, computer sciences, and psychology to become Unity certified professional instructors. The Unity Centre of Excellence on Campus programmes also aim to train students as Unity professional programmers or artists; and provide graduate led immersive technology start-ups with dedicated business incubation support from HOST. On top of our 3 current campus facilities, we have approached over 20 UK universities to introduce them to our Unity Centre of Excellence on Campus offerings. We’ve had positive conversations with a number of them, and we’re very confident that we’ll be broadening our Centre of Excellence on Campus outreach in the future: Other UK Universities approached for Unity Centre of Excellence on Campus facility discussions:
9
Edge Hill University over 2 years:
6
180
Instructors trained and certified
Students trained and certified
90
12
Businesses incubated
Instructors provided CPD upskilling
Coventry University over 2 years:
5
300
Instructors trained and certified
Students trained and certified
120
30
Businesses incubated
Instructors provided CPD upskilling
University of Salford over 2 years:
3
90
Instructors trained and certified
Students trained and certified
9 Businesses incubated
10
Impact Report 2022
Events At HOST, we hold a wide range of events every year. From industry roundtables, to open days and partner events, the Unity Centre of Excellence and our partnership with Unity is showcased to our visitors from across the country. Here are some events we have held:
Webinars
Roundtables
We held two Unity-focused webinars over the past year, and received over 300 registrations for the events: ‘Unity is the future’ - promoting HOST’s Unity Skills Bootcamps ( 250+ registrations ) ‘Disruptive Innovation with Immersive Technologies’ - to promote HOST’s Immersive Innovation programme ( 40 registrations )
Roundtables We also held two industry roundtable events over the past year, where our Unity partnership and facilities were showcased to industry professionals.
U kie Westminster Games Week – to discuss the future of the gaming and esports industries in the North.
This event had 17 attendees in the setting of our Unity Centre of Excellence, and we exposed 20
businesses to our partnership with Unity through this event. HOST Esports & Gaming roundtable - to discuss HOST’s future esports projects in the North. This roundtable was attended by 15 gaming and esports industry members, who were introduced to our partnership with Unity.
Hands-on technology meet-ups:
VR Manchester Summer Mixer at HOST
We hosted a Digital Catapult Immersive Arcade Event, commissioned by the UKRI. This event was attended by over 30 Immersive and gaming enthusiasts who were introduced to our Unity partnership and facilities. The event gave us the chance to give our attendees a unique opportunity to experience the best examples of virtual reality 360 experiences created in the UK between 2000 and 2020 in the setting of our Unity Centre of Excellence. DCIA Digital Catapult Immersive Arcade Event
A relaxed, informal get-together to reconnect and talk about all things immersive for VR enthusiasts. This industry event took place at HOST within the setting of the Unity Centre of Excellence, with over 30 businesses in attendance. These businesses were introduced to our Unity facilities here at HOST.
11
World Esports Day university tournament
This event – held in celebration of World Esports Day – brought together three Universities and their Esports Societies for a competitive tournament and networking. Held in the setting of our Unity Centre of Excellence, within HOST Labs and the Immersive Lab, this event introduced around 60 young gaming enthusiasts to our partnership with Unity and the Unity Centre of Excellence facilities here at HOST.
HOST Women in Esports networking event
This event aimed to introduce and expand the HOST Women in Esports Network through panel discussions and networking at HOST. The event was attended by 30 gaming, immersive, Esports and technology enthusiasts and helped to progress a network of approximately 50 members. This event was specifically for women and non- binary network members, creating a diverse, safe space for attendees. At this event, we introduced our network members to our Unity partnership, facilities and Immersive Lab. We believe this network will directly feed into our Unity Skills Bootcamps, allowing us to increase our learner numbers and the gender diversity of our future cohorts.
Other events, including:
• ‘Immerse yourself in Virtual Reality with HOST’ • HOST open days • Prince’ s Trust Game Changer week • Prince 's Trust Unity taster
With many more events to come!
12
Impact Report 2022
HOST’s Unity Centre of Excellence is regularly featured in the press, including publications from Greater Manchester, the UK and worldwide. From launch to our ongoing events and projects, the word of HOST’s Unity Centre of Excellence is being spread throughout industry circles and communities alike. Global Press Releases
Excerpt from Salford City Council - March 2021
“HOST and Unity will collaborate to make sure Salford and Greater Manchester people are first in the queue for these exciting jobs and grow new talent to create games we cannot even imagine right now.” - Paul Dennet, Mayor of Salford
Excerpt from Manchester Evening News - March 2021
“The Centre of Excellence is another major asset in our world- leading digital city region. Greater Manchester is blessed with the most integrated and diverse digital ecosystem, a foundation upon which our partnership with Unity will drive a job-rich recovery.” - Mo Isap, CEO of IN4 Group
Excerpt from Education Technology - September 2021
“This unique partnership clearly demonstrates how we are addressing the sector skills gaps head-on and creating industry qualified pathways for our talent to step confidently into future careers.” - Dr Maria Stukoff, Director of Maker Space
Excerpt from XR Today - June 2021
“The Unity Centre of Excellence at HOST will define a new premium standard of skills generation in Unity. With the pace of innovation across industries, the academy is built to support the next generation of skills needed both for the roles of today and tomorrow” - Nicole Zingg, Global Head of Channel Partnerships at Unity
13
Social Media
Exposure across our audiences... 1,034 6,908 784 2,413 followers followers followers followers
HOST has a large presence on multiple social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. We also showcase the Unity Centre of Excellence to website visitors on our HOST Salford webpage, and our dedicated Unity Centre of Excellence website.
Unity Centre of Excellence webpage, one month statistics
726 Unique visitor
950 Direct traffic
HOST Salford website - UCofE webpage, one month statistics
187 Unique visitors
233 Direct traffic
Excerpts from Linkedin
14
Impact Report 2022
Infrastructure At HOST we have a number of staff engineers and Unity bootcamp graduates on hand to assist with training, projects, mentoring and events. We have also developed a number of partnerships with organisations and companies such as U kie , Gameopolis and the Prince ' s Trust to deliver Unity-focused events and programmes to a wider community.
Alongside this, Digital Catapult - the UK authority on advanced digital technology - and HOST are allies in creating long lasting growth and development of the UK’s immersive technology innovation ecosystem.
Across the last year, over 200 businesses have been introduced to our Unity partnership through HOST business incubation, acceleration and memberships, partnerships and events. Our Immersive Lab facility is also a key part of our Unity Centre of Excellence.
15
Immersive Lab and Projects
Using HOST’s state-of-the-art technologies and unique infrastructure, we’ve created a real- world testing environment to help transform innovations into reality. Our Immersive Lab provides a high-end, versatile suite of immersive tools and technologies, including a wide range of the latest VR and MR headsets, a motion capture
suite and a 4K stereoscopic Virtual Reality projection system delivering ‘VR in the room.’ HOST Labs – the area of HOST where the Immersive Lab is situated – has had approximately 1000 unique visitors over the year. These visitors are all exposed to our Unity facilities and partnership here at HOST.
The Immersive Lab is designed to facilitate the following applications and more:
• Advanced research • Simulation applications • Engineering and architectural visualisation • Motion capture for digital application development • Virtual production prototyping and development
• Immersive video game development and demonstration • Healthcare training development and delivery • ‘Metaverse’ technology prototyping and development • Collaborative reviews of immersive content
16
Impact Report 2022
Success Stories
Stella Vazquez, Junior Engineer at IN4 Group
Learner story: Stella Vazquez studied on our first Unity Professional Artist Skills bootcamp, and is now employed as a Junior Engineer at IN4 Group.
“The impact that the Unity Professional Artist Bootcamp had in my life has been monumental. As an interior architect, I always wanted to learn how to use Virtual Reality on my 3D architectural models. Then, I discovered that Unity isn’t just for video games; it’s an excellent tool for creating architectural visualisations too! Thanks to the Unity Bootcamp, I now know how to incorporate interactive systems in my 3d models, allowing me to visualise a completed architectural scheme in VR and showcase my design proposals in an immersive experience to clients.”
Phil Owen, Head of Engineering at d3t
Partner story: d3t - an award-winning, co-development studio within the game technology sector - is partnered with the Unity Centre of Excellence at HOST. d3t, with its combined 450 years of industry insight and experience, is supporting the centre through a combination of workshops, roundtables and guiding new start-up projects. “At d3t, supporting and mentoring the next generation of games programmers, on a wide variety of game development environments including Unity, is a key focus of ours. We also work with universities and initiatives both locally and nationally to ensure that students get the support they need to enter and thrive within the games industry, and we are excited to continue this with HOST.”
17
Our Team
Simon Benson Director of Immersive and XR
Amber Keats Education and Employment Manager
Rachel Birtwhistle Immersive and Gaming Project Coordinator
Luke Wolstenholme Associate Consultant
Jonathan Walsh Digital Innovation Technician
Ivaylo Ivanov Junior Engineer
Stella Vazquez Junior Engineer
Ilya Phillips Junior Engineer
18
Impact Report 2022
The Future of Unity at HOST
We have many future projects, programmes and partnerships ready to be planned and activated involving Unity at HOST:
• Our Unity Centre of Excellence on Campus will be activated next year, and more universities will be added • HOST Indie Games Accelerator programme • HOST plans to become an Esports epicentre for the North • We have Virtual Production projects and facilities currently in planning • More bootcamps in planning involving Unity
19
HOST Salford, Blue Tower, MediaCity, Salford, M50 2ST info@hostsalford.co.uk 0161 686 5555
20
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online