The National Week of Making is here!
The 2016 National Week of Making kicks off this Friday, June 17th and runs through Thursday, June 23rd. Join us in celebrating makers of all kinds and making of all kinds.
At Betty Brinn Children’s Museum our Be A Maker space will be featuring their Urban Gardening and Animation Experiments during the Week of Making.
Our friends (and co-hosts of Maker Faire Milwaukee) at Milwaukee Makerspace will be opening their doors for their weekly meeting on Tuesday, June 21st at 7pm. Drop in and find out more about the space and the makers who use it.
And finally, our own Carrie Wettstein and Pete Prodoehl will be headed to the National Maker Faire happening in Washington D.C. this coming weekend. Carrie will attend the President’s National Week of Making kick-off event at the White House on Friday and Pete will be speaking on a panel at the National Maker Faire. The gathering will unite select individuals from around the country who are leading efforts to empower, support and inspire makers.
What will you be doing for the National Week of Making?
Preparing for the Nerdy Derby
After our recent visit to the Madison Mini Maker Faire to run the Nerdy Derby event, we realized we’re going to need a lot more wheels in the 100 days we have remaining until Maker Faire Milwaukee! We’ve been running multiple 3D printers to make as many as we can.
Luckily our friends at Coex in Appleton make great filament, and they were kind enough to donate some spools to us so we could keep the printers busy. (Thanks, Coex!)
Adrian, our Nerdy Derby Champion has been busy drilling out the wheels so they have consistently sized holes. (He’s got a lot more drilling to do before September 24th!)
The Call for Makers so far…
Our Call for Makers has been open for three weeks now, and we’ve received over 50 submissions from all kinds of Makers excited to share what they do this September. When people apply we ask for their location, and we’re happy to see that people are coming from all over the place, not just the Greater Milwaukee Area.
Besides Madison, Chicago, and other (fairly) close locations, we’ve got a few Makers coming quite a distance! We’re looking forward to welcoming Makers from Indiana, Kansas, North Dakota, and even New York!
(We may have to come up with an award for the Maker who travels the farthest distance to get to Maker Faire Milwaukee.)
If you haven’t applied yet, do it now! Our Call for Makers will close on August 1st, 2016.
The Call for Makers is Now OPEN!
The Call for Makers is now OPEN! If you’re a Maker, we want YOU to share what you do! Visit the Call for Makers page and apply if you are a Maker/Exhibitor, a Commercial Maker, or interested in leading a Workshop or being a Speaker. (We’re also looking for teams to take part in the Power Racing Series!)
We’ll be accepting applications until August 1st, 2016, so don’t delay! If you have any questions about participating at Maker Faire Milwaukee, please get in touch with the team at makers@makerfairemilwaukee.com
Nerdy Derby in Madison
In preparation for Nerdy Derby 2016 at Maker Faire Milwaukee a group of volunteers consisting of the Maker Faire Planning Group, employees of Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, employees of American Science & Surplus, members of Milwaukee Makerspace (and a few new friends) took a road trip to the MadisonMini Maker Faire and ran a Nerdy Derby event that consisted of building over 500 cars in 8 hours!
We managed to run out of nails around mid-day, which facilitated a hardware store run, and a quick trip to The Bodgery for a drill, but we just kept going!
The kids had a blast… and so did the adults! Not just the ones checking out the Faire, but everyone who volunteered to run the Derby seemed to be smiling and having a good time helping kids learn how to get hands-on and build cars they could race, and then take home.
It was great to send over 500 kids home with cars that they made. For some kids it may have been the first time they got to swing a hammer or use a hot glue gun. Basic maker skills so many of us take for granted.
Here’s the crazy crew who kept things running smooth all day. Thanks to all of the folks who volunteered their time and expertise!
Want to see more? Check out some of the photos over on Flickr!
Madison Mini Maker Faire
If you’re in Madison this weekend check out the Madison Mini Maker Faire happening on Saturday, May 14th, 2016. It’s their first event and looks like it should be a great start for Madison’s entrance into the Maker Faire family.
The crew from Milwaukee Makerspace and Betty Brinn Children’s Museum (the co-hosts of Maker Faire Milwaukee) will be there running a scaled-down version of the Nerdy Derby activity that’s been part of our event for the last few years.
If you’re there on Saturday stop by and say “Hi” to our crew and build a miniature race car!
The Call for Makers is Coming!
We’re just a few weeks away from the Call for Makers, where we’ll open up the application process to makers, speakers, workshop leaders, Power Racing teams, cosplayers, and anyone else who wants to gather up the awesome things they’ve been creating and share them at Maker Faire Milwaukee.
If you haven’t applied before, the application form will walk you through a series of questions to determine what your needs are. Things like how much space, and how much power you’ll need (if any) and if your exhibit has fire, we’ll need to know about that too.
If you’re worried that you’ll forget about the Call for Makers, just sign up for our Email List. There’s a tiny form in the sidebar of the website. Just enter your email address and click ‘Sign Up’!
National Week of Making
What better way to kick off the summer than with a Week of Making! The White House will be celebrating the National Week of Making June 17th through the 23rd, 2016 and they are inviting libraries, museums, rec centers, schools, universities and community spaces to support and grow the number of citizen-makers.
Here’s a snippet from President Obama’s National Week of Making Proclamation:
“Makers and builders and doers — of all ages and backgrounds — have pushed our country forward, developing creative solutions to important challenges and proving that ordinary Americans are capable of achieving the extraordinary when they have access to the resources they need.”
How can you get involved? Share your latest project, or a maker event you attend. Inspire others to be creative and try new things. If you post anything online about your making activities, use the hashtags #NationOfMakers and #WeekofMaking
Learn more about the National Week of Making, and help spread the Maker Movement in your community!
Maker Faire Planning Continues…
With just over 150 days until Maker Faire Milwaukee we’re back to our regularly scheduled planning meetings. We’ll be meeting this Wednesday, April 20th, 2016 at Milwaukee Makerspace. Join us at 7pm to discuss Maker Faire and various ways we can improve things this time around.
Not sure what you can offer? Come anyway! We’ve got lots of volunteer opportunities, and we’re always looking for people with good ideas, or just to provide feedback on what we have planned.
(If you’re a Facebook user, let us know you’re coming on our event page!)
Maker Faires can impact businesses
For many involved in Maker Faires, they are about seeing and experiencing amazing things, and getting excited and inspired. Maker Faires are a lot of fun! But there’s another side, which involves the business community.
At the Westport Mini Maker Faire local businesses have found that Maker Faires are a great place to showcase new products, find new customers, and connect with suppliers, distributors, partners, and investors. (Check out the article The unexpected business impact of Maker Faire for more on the successes they’ve seen.)
Here in Milwaukee, there are a number of opportunities for businesses to get involved with Maker Faire. At the highest level, sponsoring Maker Faire Milwaukee helps us to continue to put on the largest FREE Maker Faire in the United States. Interested in sponsoring? Find out more!
If sponsoring the event is beyond what your business can do, we’ve got other opportunities for involvement. Get in touch with us via email at sponsors@makerfairemilwaukee.com to discuss.