This weekend I’ll have the pleasure of meeting up with Maker Faire Producers from all over the world at the 2nd annual Maker Faire Producer’s Summit. This event brings together the folks who are the most passionate about Maker Faire, the ones who run the local events and rally the local communities of makers. The ideas that get shared here will reach out, like ripples in a pond, to effect hundreds of thousands of makers this year.
While the main event on Saturday and Sunday is for people who run local Maker Faires, Friday is open and free to the public! If you happen to be near the Miami Dade College and want to mingle with the most passionate group of maker-activists I’ve ever met, sign up and come over!
What the heck do the Maker Faire Producers even talk about at this event?
Well, there’s actually a lot. Even with two days, we’ll all leave feeling like there simply wasn’t enough time to share everything and learn everything. Each person brings a unique point of view, unique set of experiences, and unique approach to planning and running a Maker Faire. Topics range from “How to Promote” to “How not to burn down your city”. Just take a peek at this tentative schedule of talks:
| Saturday 8:30 |
BREAKFAST |
| 9 | PLENARY: Morning Welcome & Introductions |
| 10:00 | PLENARY: “State of the State” & 2017 Plan |
| 11:00 | PLENARY: “Getting to the Next Level” |
| 12:15 | LUNCH |
| 1:00 | BREAKOUT: Education & School Maker Faires (k-12) |
| 1:00 | BREAKOUT: Marketing Plan Checklist |
| 1:00 | BREAKOUT: Maker Relations as Customer Service |
| 1:00 | BREAKOUT: Partnering with Museums & Libraries |
| 1:00 | BREAKOUT: OPEN |
| TRANSITION | |
| 2:15 | BREAKOUT: Finding Makers |
| 2:15 | BREAKOUT: Compliance & Public Safety |
| 2:15 | BREAKOUTS: Mapping Maker Social Impact |
| 2:15 | BREAKOUT: OPEN |
| 2:15 | BREAKOUT: Strategic Partnerships for Strategic Growth |
| 3:30 | BREAK |
| 3:45 | BREAKOUT: Making Headlines – Telling Stories about Makers |
| 3:45 | BREAKOUT: Building Self-Directed Teams |
| 3:45 | BREAKOUT: Sales – Soup to Nuts |
| 3:45 | BREAKOUTS: Working with Community Colleges & Higher Ed |
| 3:45 | BREAKOUT: OPEN |
| 3:45 | BREAKOUT: OPEN |
| TRANSITION | |
| 5:00 | PLENARY: Innovation & Change Makers panel (Pathways to Maker Pro — and Making it Show Content) |
| 6:00 | END – DEPART FOR MOONLIGHTER / |
| 7:15 | DINNER / RECEPTION / SWAG SWAP! |
| Sunday | |
| 8:30 | BREAKFAST |
| 9:30 | PLENARY PANEL: Working with Makerspaces |
| TRANSITION | |
| 10:30 | BREAKOUT: Servicing and Working with Sponsors |
| 10:30 | BREAKOUT: Brainstorming on Maker Faire Regions & More Distributed MF Network Leadership |
| 10:30 | BREAKOUT: Making Maker Faire Entertaining: Ritual, Surprise, Music, Play |
| 10:30 | BREAKOUT: How to Use the Maker Faire WordPress Theme |
| 10:30 | BREAKOUT: Corporate Maker Faires |
| 10:30 | BREAKOUT: OPEN |
| 11:30 | BREAK |
| 11:45 | BREAKOUT: Content Budget: Maker Reimbursements & Project Grant Processes for Makerspaces |
| 11:45 | BREAKOUT: Merch and Swag – Making Your Faire Persist |
| 11:45 | BREAKOUT: Optimizing the Gate Experience (Ticketing, Layouts, Data Collection, Anticipation, Flow) |
| 11:45 | BREAKOUT: OPEN |
| 11:45 | BREAKOUT: OPEN |
| 12:45 | CLOSING PLENARY |
| 1:00 | LUNCH & GOODBYE! |
| 2-4 PM | Optional Meetings with Maker Faire Team |
I attended this event last year and honestly wasn’t expecting much. I’m a maker and primarily interested in actually making things, physical things. This event is focused on the “making” of a social event. What I found was that i was blown away by the contagious passion of these people. Makers who attend a Maker Faire are often passionate, but the producers show a whole different level of passion, often devoting huge chunks of their life just to assuring that the events happen in their home towns.
I was humbled and inspired, and I begged to attend this year’s event so that I could learn from these driven and intelligent people. Watch next week, I’ll bring a recap video from the event with some tips for those of you that can’t make it.
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