First Ever White House Maker Faire Unites #NationOfMakers
It's been a great week for the Maker movement. On Tuesday, President Obama visited a TechShop location in Pittsburgh on where he spoke about his agenda for economic development and lauded facilities like TechShop for spurring innovation in manufacturing by providing high-tech resource sharing, and homegrown R&D facilitation to communities across the country.
Yesterday, the White House hosted its first annual Maker Faire where tinkerers, builders, entrepreneurs, inventors and creators converged in our nation's capital to celebrate the Maker Movement. President Obama proclaimed June 18, 2014 a National Day of Making, saying, "I call upon all Americans to observe this day with programs, ceremonies, and activities that encourage a new generation of makers and manufacturers to share their talents and hone their skills." Read the Presidential Proclamation here (or watch the full video below). Learn more about the 2014 White House Maker Faire participants and festivities here.
Want to know more about efforts to #BringTechShopToLA or learn about joining the #NationOfMakers movement? Join us for a twitter party discussion next Thursday, June 26th from 1-2pm. No need to fly to the east coast - this is a virtual event so you can tweet in from anywhere. Info available here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wHorfRvvcE
President Obama Visits TechShop, Pittsburgh; Joins the Maker Movement!
Yesterday, President Obama visited a TechShop location in Pittsburgh's Bakery Square neighborhood where he spoke about innovation in manufacturing and the importance of high-tech resource sharing. These are all things that TechShop is delivering to communities across the country and why we're so thrilled about the movement to bring a TechShop facility to LA.
Read The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's coverage of the Prez's high-tech visit here.
Digital Journal Covers TechShop LA Town Hall
We are always thrilled to get great coverage of our events, like this first hand account of last week's TechShop LA town hall meeting by Digital Journal writer and hacker space advocate Matt Terndrup: Fabrication Studio TechShop is coming to Los Angeles, California http://youtu.be/T6-pktRt4bI
Near the center of this DIY maker movement, where just about anyone can build something for cheap, is a chain of member-based workshops called TechShop. This company was founded by previous Mythbusters advisor Jim Newton and part-time computer science professor Ridge McGhee. Jim’s vision was to establish a place where people can learn new skills while having access to industrial tools. In October 2006, they set up their 1st shop in Menlo Park, California. Over the next few years, TechShop grew into a vibrant, creative community of artists, makers, engineers, startup enthusiasts, and everyone in-between.
TechShop Los Angeles Town Hall: Tech & Innovation in LA Twitter Recap
Earlier this week, TechShop CEO Mark Hatch returned to Maker City LA at The REEF to lead a discussion about the state of LA's tech and innovation landscape with special guests Ava Bromberg (The REEF SVP), Michelle Garakian (Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti) and Brent Bushnell (CEO of Two Bit Circus). Local tech innovators, maker community members, entrepreneurs and potential investors came out to join the conversation and to support TechShop's efforts to open a 9th outpost at The REEF, in downtown LA.
Check out these choice tweets from the event:
What is @techshop? A place for community to partake in the #makermovement -@MarkHatch pic.twitter.com/z0J6VObgYN
— Consensus Inc. (@ConsensusLive) May 22, 2014
We can inspire a whole generation to think about what's possible: to do, make, create @techshop town hall #bringtechshoptola
— Maker City LA (@MakerCityLA) May 22, 2014
Michelle Garakian of @LAMayorsOffice starts tonight's tech panel by sharing the Mayor's vision of tech as the bridge for the middle class
— Consensus Inc. (@ConsensusLive) May 22, 2014
Er, are you team #SiliconBeach or Team #techLA? Competition much? Between Manufacturing/Contemporary Art/Digital Media LA is a star!
— Consensus Inc. (@ConsensusLive) May 22, 2014
We have heritage industries that are phasing out in LA, our innovation capital funders need to step up & invest in LA.
— Consensus Inc. (@ConsensusLive) May 22, 2014
Yay new acronyms! Remember STEM? How about STEAM? Science Tech Engineering ARTS and Mathematics.
— Consensus Inc. (@ConsensusLive) May 22, 2014
FACT: LA graduates more engineers than anywhere in the country. Let's give them a reason to stay here. #techLA #makercityla
— Consensus Inc. (@ConsensusLive) May 22, 2014
How do we spark cross-pollination in LA? Events, physical rallying points, these things are critical...
— Maker City LA (@MakerCityLA) May 22, 2014
.@techshop coming to @MakerCityLA will be such a game changer! Imagine making space , machinery and tools accessible to the people
— Consensus Inc. (@ConsensusLive) May 22, 2014
That's a wrap! Thx to @MakerCityLA & @techshop for bringing this discussion together. Here's to keeping the convo going to spur more action!
— Consensus Inc. (@ConsensusLive) May 22, 2014
In March, TechShop announced plans to open in downtown Los Angeles at The REEF. For more information on investing and/or joining the campaign to bring TechShop to Los Angeles, go tohttp://invest.techshop.ws/los-angeles.
Big thanks to new Maker City LA community member Consensus Inc. for live tweeting this event!