Join us at Merged Futures for an exciting exploration of our interactive archaeology game, developed in collaboration with the Museum of London Archaeology and young archaeologists from Northamptonshire and Solihull.

This project has actively involved children aged 5 to 15 in every stage, from conceptualisation to testing and quality assurance, creating a unique opportunity for youth engagement in heritage. 

The game features a database that captures player statistics, allowing us to gain valuable insights into user experience and learning outcomes.

We’ll discuss our findings and the lessons learned from involving young players in the development process, emphasising how this project fosters a deeper connection to archaeology and local history.  

Additionally, we’ll touch on our web and mobile heritage simulation for the Luton hat factory, designed to enrich educational experiences in Bedfordshire schools.

Join us to discover how these initiatives empower the next generation and pave the way for future innovations in Games-based learning. 

Presenter:  This session is delivered by Buildersbrew,a forward thinking Games Development company infused with budding new talent. They have grown from a small team of supportive academics involved in digital projects at the University of Northampton. 

Now they are a stand-alone business that is focused on developing unique games-based products, enhancing the employability of our 'Builders' and generating positive social impact in all we do. 

Join Paul Long, Creative Director of MBD, to hear about Steel Town Tales. This ambitious project brought to life the history of Corby's Steel industry using cutting edge technology.

Steel Town Tales included months of community engagement, from interviews with workers, to immersive media skills sharing with young people.

As the team learned more about Corby's history, and its hopes for the future, a Virtual Reality experience was created to tell the town's story, and celebrate the amazing community spirit that exists in Corby today.

In this presentation, Paul shares the creative journey of the project, and the technology that brought it to life. 

Get ready for an exciting update from the Goblin team at UON! 🎮✨

They will be showcasing the latest progress and developments on the Arcade Machine and Game specially commissioned for the Women's Rugby World Cup. 

Join us as the team dives into the art, design, and programming challenges they've tackled, and don't miss your chance to test out the game yourself and share your feedback!

This interactive session will be led by the dynamic duo, Vikaas Mistry and David Nicholls, along with the talented core development team of UON students. 

Come and be part of this thrilling journey! 

At the same time in 2024/2025, Northampton Film Festival was running a British Film Institute Academy for 16-19yrs, the University of Northampton’s Saturday Club for Film and Screen, and making a film with young people on local litter heroes from Castle Academy, commissioned by West Northamptonshire Council.

All of those activities were run in exactly the same way, but should we be treating primary school children like a professional film crew? 

This talk is delivered by Becky Carrier, Director of Northampton Film Festival. 

Pedro Santos is the Digital Lead in Adult Social Care at West Northants Council.

His current pilot project is trialling a web app that records client meetings between social workers. It then translates them into a predefined assessment template document. This allows for much closer focus on the clients in these meetings.

Pedro will talk through and demonstrate the technology and share the results of the trial and some of the amazing feedback from staff using it.

This session focusses on the role data can play in helping to predict people who are at risk of becoming homeless in the near future. It will also look at how alerting authorities of this can give them time to put interventions in place to prevent it happening.

Tom Davies is a Director at Xantura, a company which has spent 15 years developing AI models to apply against big data to reveal stories and insights that can lead to improving peoples lives.

Tom will talk about Xantura's work in this space in Maidstone and now in West Northants.

This talk will explore Northampton College’s innovative Digital Skills Development Programme, designed to enhance the digital fluency of Level 1 and Entry students.

Aligned with the National Digital Skills Framework and SEMLEP priorities, the programme addresses key digital skills gaps in the South East Midlands through targeted implementation and collaboration.

The session will provide insights into the research behind the initiative, highlight successful strategies for embedding digital skills in education. 

Presenter: Valentina Mennino, Learning Facilitator at Northampton College 

Nicola Holland, assistant head teacher of Billing Brook School, will talk about their use of VR to support students with independent travel.

She will also share how VR can help reduce anxiety in different settings.

Find out about Nicola’s ambitions to turn Billing Brook into an innovation hub, trialling new technologies to help inspire the whole county to start using XR technology.  

Whether you're an educator, industry professional, or student this session offers valuable insights into the future of creative tech and its impact on student innovation. 

Welcoming back Steph Lee-Vae from Northampton College for a third year, this is always a “must not miss” session on innovation in teaching. 

The session will feature: 

• Live demonstrations of creative open source tools

• Student project highlights

• Discussions on how these tools are empowering the next generation of creative professionals. 

This project builds on a pilot project using virtual reality (VR) to help young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to overcome travel-related anxieties.

Three local schools have used VR equipment and cameras to explore the theme of travel independence. This has been complemented by a parallel theme at UON based on students undertaking field trips. 

Between them they have created a resource bank of experiences and training materials to enable schools to deliver tailored interventions that build independence, confidence, and self-regulation in travel scenarios.

This initiative enhances community engagement, and accessibility, while reducing reliance on one-to-one support and improving long-term wellbeing for SEND pupils and the wider student population. 

Discover how AI is transforming marketing from a simple productivity tool into a powerful force multiplier for your expertise and creativity.

This session explores how marketers at any experience level can leverage AI for deeper research, more impactful content creation, and strategic insights, all while maintaining authenticity and control.

You'll leave with practical frameworks and immediate action steps to implement AI-enhanced workflows that go beyond basic prompts and generate a real competitive advantage for you and your organisation. 

Join the friendly folks from The Marketing Meetup Northampton, a community created for local marketers, by local marketers.

This session offers a dedicated networking opportunity in a safe, sales pitch-free environment, allowing you to forge valuable connections, spark genuine collaborations and discover more about TMM.

Join the friendly folks from The Marketing Meetup Northampton, a community created for local marketers, by local marketers.

This session offers a dedicated networking opportunity in a safe, sales pitch-free environment, allowing you to forge valuable connections, spark genuine collaborations and discover more about TMM.