Friday, July 14th, 2017, was a unique opportunity for leaders across the maker ecosystem to work together in leveraging makerspaces, creative districts, small business and economic development initiatives to strengthen making across the Rocky Mountain Region. There was a fantastic panel of makerspace leaders from Grand Junction, Colorado Springs, and Manitou Springs talking about the economic impact of their spaces as well as special guests Jeff Branson of SparkFun Electronics and Dorothy Jones-Davis, Executive Director of the Nation of Makers. We will be editing the video on Maker Cities and sharing highlights soon. If you haven’t had a chance yet, read the Maker Cities e-book, a practical guide to reinventing our cities.
Following this opening session, we dove into the Bernie Lynch, Executive Director of Made Right Here, to talk about programs they are working on to grow makerspaces. Here is a TV piece with a synopsis of the program. We were able to dive deeper with Saturday’s workshop into the steps towards bringing this program to Colorado.
Saturday and Sunday was a gathering of the makerspace community to delve deeper into the workforce training program introduced by Bernie, and to dive into topics ch
Soldering SparkFun Rock-Paper-Scissors boards at the Summit
osen by the attendees such as:
- Building Community
- Collaboration & Intellectual Property
- Safety Training
- Makerspace Software
- Passport Program
- Marketing
- Maker Outreach
- Funding Sources
- Onboarding/Retention
- October Colorado Maker Month
Saturday we were at Library 21C and enjoyed a tour of their space as well as a workshop of soldering Rochambo boards donated by SparkFun. Sunday we were hosted at the Pikes Peak Makerspace where we enjoyed continuing the conversations and learning about their space. I must admit, one of my favorite conversations was about creative safety signs used in makerspaces.
A photo of a guy soldering with the line “if it smells like chicken you are doing it wrong.”
On a transformer “Not only will this kill you, it will hurt the whole time you are dying”
A classic “Do not look into laser with remaining eye”
“Don’t be a Dick” Everyone agreed that this is their number one rule! Balanced with the “Be Cool, Man” rule.
“Don’t be that person that makes us create a new rule”
Robot Garden Code of Conduct “Just be Excellent to Each Other”
Sign at the outdoor Adventure Playground “If you find a Mr Danger and bring it to the administration, you get something in return.” Of course, Katt immediately came up with the idea to team up with friends to create dangers to report.
There were multiple opportunities to network about makerspace busines during the Summit, but we also organized two evening events to get out and have some fun together. Friday evening was a fun dinner at Bingos – many of us enjoyed the bourbon and other spirits milkshakes. Unfortunately the weather did not enable us to fully appreciate the Art Walk with maker creatives hosted by the Colorado Springs Downtown Partnership. On Saturday evening we had a real treat as the Manitou Art Center hosted us in their space with a Barbeque Dinner – including s’more where we toasted marshmallows on a forge!
Thanks to the support of the Pikes Peak Library District, presenters volunteering their time, SparkFun Electronics, Pikes Peak MakerSpace and Colorado Maker Hub volunteers!
See you next year!
The Colorado Maker Hub Team
The post Exceptional Makerspace Summit Held in Colorado Springs appeared first on Colorado Maker Hub.
