AWE Nites Queensland, with Immerse Australia, Actuator and QLD XR Hub

Last session we looked at game engines — where the tools are, what's changed, and what's coming. This time we're going one level up: what do you actually build in them?

Creating an immersive world in 2026 looks nothing like it did three years ago. AI has entered the pipeline at every stage — from generating assets and environments to populating worlds with spatial agents and responsive NPCs. Reality capture has matured to the point where the physical world can be scanned, reconstructed, and dropped into an experience in hours. And the question of who gets to build worlds — and how much craft is still required — is up for debate.

This meetup brings together builders, designers, and enterprise practitioners to take stock of where world-creation actually sits in 2026. We'll look at the full pipeline: ideation, asset generation, environment design, spatial audio, interoperability, and what happens when AI doesn't just help you build the world — it starts living inside it.

The framing question for the night, borrowed from AWE's 2026 theme I, Spatial: does AI make world-building more human, or does it hollow out the craft?

We’re here to advance the augmented reality and virtual reality industry in Queensland by connecting and empowering its community.
AWE Nite Queensland is a meetup organised in partnership with Immerse Australia, Actuator Digital, and Queensland XR Hub. We all combine to create interesting panel and networking events to further the interests of Immersive related industries.

The meetup is a place for developers, creators, investors, founders, corporate decision makers and curious folk to come together to celebrate and build on the vibrant XR community and activity in Queensland and across east Australia.

AWE Nite Queensland is part of AWE, the world's #1 XR event series, which has a reach of over 250,000 professionals all dedicated to the adoption and growth of XR as the next wave of computing. AWE produces conferences dedicated to XR (AR/VR/MR) in the USA, Europe, Asia and hosts AWE Nite meetup events in Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Berlin, Stuttgart, New Orleans, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and Helsinki.