Weekly Meeting: August 4th @ 7:00 P.M.

Just a Reminder that we will be holding our regular group meeting Tuesday August 4th @ 7:00 P.M. We will not be meeting at the coffee beanery this week. We will be holding our meeting this week in Matt’s Garage. Our meeting is open to anyone that would like to come. If you are interested in finding out more about our group and would like to be apart of it please join us!

Address:
515 Lloyd Ave. Royal Oak MI 48073 (map)

“TechShop” Movement Discussion Summary

Four individuals from i3 Detroit were able to attend a “TechShop” Movement discussion at the UofM Business Engagement Center on Tuesday evening.. We wanted to take a moment to share our thoughts and outlook from this discussion as we have had a lot of you asking for an update.

Tuesday was a giant leap for the Maker Movement in Detroit. Not only did we gather many local groups with similar interests (i3 Detroit, Detroit Industrial Arts League, a2geeks, Coffee House Coders, etc), entrepreneurs and universities, we had Make Magazine & TechShop all in the same room. The atmosphere was a mix of innovation and inspiration. It was exciting to get all the “M.B.A.s”, as Nate coined them, brainstorming and see their heads nodding during the presentations. With big names like Jim Newton, from TechShop & Dale Dougherty, from Make Magazine, it was just the ignition we needed to give the Movement in Detroit a starting platform that all of us have been trying so hard to do.

Do we think this is a replacement or a competition for i3 Detroit, absolutely not. Mark Hatch, TechShop COO, said that any growth to the industry segment is positive for both TechShop and those individual groups. This will bring more notoriety to the movement and empower people to think creatively about projects.

Some of the main points that we covered at the meeting were:

* TechShop and Maker Faire considering Detroit, but skeptical of the market/interest
* Interest is split between Ann Arbor and Metro Detroit
* Detroit is not Silicon Valley, but still has many makers
* Interest is present largely underground, and Detroit needs a way to foster communication within the creative community

The overall feeling from the i3 Detroit Members was that everyone genuinely wanted to hear about our experience with i3, and eager to work with us to help cultivate a pro-maker culture in Detroit.We feel that everyone agreed that great things would happen more often if disparate groups that don’t normally hang out together spent more time in each other’s territories. Over dinner, we discussed a number of help-for-startups opportunities provided by various groups.

We would like to Thank everyone from the UofM for putting this event on! We would also like to Thank Dale Dougherty from Make magazine as well as Jim Newton & Mark Hatch from the TechShop for taking the time to come and speak with all of us here in Michigan.

Meeting: July 28th 7:00pm

Just a Reminder that we will be holding our regular group meeting Tuesday July 28th @ 7:00 P.M. We will be meeting at The Coffee Beanery in Berkley off of Woodward Ave. Our meeting is open to anyone that would like to come. If you are interested in finding out more about our group and would like to be apart of it please join us!

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i3 Detroit’s First Build Party

We would like to Thank Everyone for coming out and having some BristleBot Fun! Here is a Video and some Photos of the Event. Keep checking the website for future events.

Video:

Photos:

i3 Detroit will be attending a “TechShop Movement” discussion at the UofM

i3 Detroit has been invited to what Associate Vice-Presidents Marvin Parnes
and Dan Atkins expect to be a very interesting opportunity to learn about
the “TechShop movement” and to consider a planning process for a Detroit TechShop
model that blends education, economic renewal,innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Phoenix Wang, advisor to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
Diana Rhoten, Director, Digital Media and Learning at the Social
Science Research Council,and Mark Hatch, COO of TechShop in Menlo Park,California
will be here to present and discuss TechShop and how it may be of value to Detroit.

We will make sure to provide further updates of the outcome of the event.
We would like to Thank Dug Song for making sure we were able to be involved.