A team of more than a dozen community partners is excited for Michigan's first Maker Week, and the Midwest's first StartUp Weekend: Maker Edition Oct. 6-12.
The first five days of the week are stacked with a lineup of tours, hands-on projects and guest speakers in areas that include food and drink, textiles and apparel, 3D printing, electronics and programming, and the intersection of 21st century jobs and maker skills.
Local business incubators, museums, schools and maker spaces open their doors to the public to host interactive activities, workshops, lectures and projects. Built with activities for families, college students and children of all ages, this week will help give Lansing DIY-ers, foodies and inventors access to the action and opportunity in their own backyard.
The weeklong event emphasizes learning-through-doing in a social, informal environment. Most demonstrations are peer-led, with a goal of shared learning for fun and self-fulfillment. The "maker movement" is both pro-technology and pro-DIY, and fits well in Lansing's unique culture at the intersection of higher education and manufacturing, with a nod to its rich history of both arts and entrepreneurship.
Lansing Maker Week culminates 6 p.m. Oct. 10 with Startup Weekend: Maker Edition. This is the fifth Startup Weekend in the US, and the first in Michigan and the Midwest - others have been held in Houston, Seattle, Raleigh and Atlanta.
Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate and empower individuals, teams and communities. Participants come to share ideas, form teams and launch a series of startups - all in 54 hours. It's an exciting, productive event with a track record of fostering successful, job-creating startup companies across the nation.