Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Sabrina Merlo: MakerCon New York 2014”.
I don’t think i know everybody in science, but i do think there are some mini maker faire producers in the audience. Westport is here san diego is here who else other cities ottawa hi? I haven’t seen you yet anyone else, madison, hey there madison um. Well, so i i i could talk about maker faire, but given the context, i’ve been doing, this talk in a few different places, um and variations, and and really to me, i’m completely down with this angle around leveraging platforms for helping to cultivate and nurture maker community And the maker movement and where you live, you know about maker faire. We started in 2006 in the bay area as a result of an interest from dale and the editors of make magazine to create a place for makers to come to meet each other, to show what they’ve been making and to share what they’ve learned. I think you all know that it’s grown into quite a phenomenon um, it’s an early make when, when, when brie used to work for make actually or before that, based on the fundamental values around open source hardware really this year, so so 2006 maker faire bay area, The first mini maker faire started, i think, in 0 9, the licensing program didn’t really start till 2011 or 2010 um, and this past year in 2013, we we reached 100 fairs around the world.
It’S really amazing to see what’s happening internationally, not just in the u.s. Last year, europe had grown from five fares to 20 in just one year, and then, of course, we had this happen, which is a great validation for what all of you are doing everywhere. Right um, it’s a wonderful talking about leverage like this is a this. Was this was tremendous when you go to speak to the people in your community about making a maker faire – and this is a depiction of the growth and what’s important about this? Is that while we have these monster events in the bay area in new york, our flagship events uh? What is really important is what’s happening outside of bay area in new york, so the the blue is our flagship fares.
Barrier new york green is our featured fares, which are larger scale, 10, 000 and above fairs, like detroit kansas city this year, shenzhen rome is one they’re also licensed this year. We actually 2014 will have had 12 of those going from 5 to 12., but you’ll see also the red, and that’s where we’re seeing this exponential growth is, is in this um, the more the local applications of the of the brand and what the brand means um. This is a great quote from our friends at the bilbao mini maker faire, who really do have a maker city, vision and agenda, and this is a direct quote because of you guys in the maker faire brand, we were able to get a grant from the government. If it hadn’t been the maker faire brand and what’s associated with it um, they would have thought it was.
They would have had to fought more for for legitimacy um. The mission of maker faire was is to actually deliver attention in some way and to create awareness around people that were previously sort of had no show people doing things in their garage or in their basement or in their kitchen, for their own reasons, for their own Passions but perhaps never thought before there was an audience for what they made, and this is an example of one from calgary who literally was making these sculptures in a basement, and the calgary mini maker faire producer got wind of it. Um showed it he’s now been in all over the place. Popular science.
We had him at maker faire bay area this year in a world of opportunity, has has opened up from this basic premise of providing um, providing an opportunity for these folks to get a little bit of attention and recognition, um and accolade for their work. Other outcomes. Besides, just kind of the makers taking just taking the fare as sort of an opportunity to show off and to get some get some applause and i’m not sure why it’s formatted so oddly but um what you’re not seeing there is just in our attendee survey, results Or combined or survey results after we look at all of the results from all of the mini maker faires. We’Re definitely seeing that the attendees are taking note of the makers going home looking at their websites telling of their friends.
So so that goal around maker faire. Giving makers more audience um more opportunities is happening um and then, in terms of of growth, we’re seeing about a 20 growth from year to year across the fair. So that’s an average. Some might stop.
Some are going at 100 or more in terms of growth, but this is the base average from 2012 to 2013.. We’Ll have new numbers in a few months. The other thing that happens as a result of maker faires in your community is that makers become more productive. We all respond to deadlines, so the makers when they have a deadline, it’s show time you have to they, you push you work together, the productivity goes up, and so we’re actually seeing certain regions where there are multiple fares and it’s it’s growing exponentially in the sense That people have three deadlines a year where they had none before um interdisciplinary collaboration. So this was a project at portland between a beekeeper and a coder. They met through like a meet-up that was sort of associated with the maker faire and did a really cool project, around b habits and sensors.
That kind of interdisciplinary conversation and potential collaborations is one of the outcomes of of bringing all of these traditionally siloed disciplines into one place. That is a maker faire maker spaces, so we’re seeing if there wasn’t a maker space before the fair, there’s a makerspace. Shortly after the fair, it’s it’s uh um, it’s the snowball effect maker spaces and making an education.
It’S additionally like it’s, it’s fuel for what is going on and it and it just somehow it’s sort of like dumping, an extra couple gallons of gasoline on a simmering fire and what happens after affair. And then you know the implications are now. You know we’re seeing with things like the white house and with the mayor’s challenge.
It’S also institutional. It’S becoming we’re seeing things on a policy level. You guys have heard a lot of these um stories over the weekend here. Mit is coming back on sunday to speak on the main stage in at nice eye to share the results of their first year of allowing applicants to submit a maker portfolio as part of the application process, so that people who make things can actually show them off.
To admissions officers at mit instead of just being evaluated by testing and grades, that’s that’s pretty phenomenal, so i’m very excited to hear what they have to say what their findings were, but that kind of change is um is, is part of this trajectory and um. You know they they, they have been part of our community and i think uh. Some of the influence of this community has was a part of that and and then finally we’re having a maker faire producers meeting tomorrow that dale talked about earlier this morning, we have been, we gather as producers on the friday before maker faire bay area and maker Faire new york every year and in at the bay area we did have peter come and do his maker city talk or an earlier version of it to the producers. Um we’re we’re we’re trying to help folks think both tactically about how to nurture a healthy event.
For their city, make it make it financially feasible, make it a fantastic experience for attendees, but at the same time, you’re doing that you can lay the groundwork for a more strategic play around the maker city, where you live those same folks that might be able to Fund a an incubator might also be able to provide some funds potentially to get your fare going. Um – and this is these – ideas are happening around the world, so um i just i just want to just finish with just a notion that um this community is about doing it together, maker faire. It is this, it’s it’s the trojan horse to me. It brings together people for the party and that horse gets through the gates and then other things happen.
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