For two years we ran the Hardware Innovation Workshop in the Bay Area and New York, both just before Maker Faire. Our focus was on the emerging niche of Maker Pros, makers who matured a hardware product and wanted to go to market. Since then many emerging niches have surfaced so to recognize and embrace this we recast HIW as MakerCon.
While the name has changed and the focus has broadened, our core mission has remained the same. We want to be the pre-Maker Faire forum where leaders can interact. Each year we plan to shine a light on the important emerging themes of the maker movement, invite a myriad of experts to present, and provide ample opportunity to meet, interact with, and begin collaborations with people of like minds.
Themes that surfaced this year included Citizen Science, Bio Hacking, Micro Sensors, Maker Cities, Library Making, Quantified Self and much more. All the while our prior Maker Pro themes were prominently represented, including Bunnie Wuang’s reknown symposium entitled “Partnering to Get it Made”. To keep this within our two days we went to parallel tracks during which we had 99 speakers with many opportunities to network. Good stuff!
I’m proud to have co-founded, grown and co-chaired this event with Dale for three years.
Judging from the buzz throughout the two days, the migration was well received.
This new chapter called MakerCon holds the prospect of a bright future.
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