This Week in NYC3DP

Itinerant Techie-Visionaries Gypsy Making With “Instant” Hacking Labs, Tinker Dens & DigiFaberies To Empower Explorers In The Art/Sci Of Workshopping The Future On The Block & In The Nabes.

In covering 3DP here in the City, I had already met two of the four founders of The Makery—in contexts different from their street-level Pop-Up MakerSpace initiative. About which I only subsequently learned…and quickly came to admire as co-conspirators in our 3DP “make something (awesome) happen” space.

Here are the four founders of The Makery, profiled for your better understanding (because these folks are doing significant things in our segment and you should know them):

Jaymes Dec was one of our expert confabbers at our “3DP & Kids” Roundtable in September—as part of 3DP Media’s NY3DP Summits. (See my Vlog coverage of 3DP & Kids—complete with a video of the entire session—HERE.) LREI’s Elisabeth Irwin High School in the Village hosted us. Little Red’s Saber Khan was our Local Champion—and Roundtable Moderator—and he recruited Jaymes to our dynamite panel of ed-tech gurus. Jaymes is also Technology Integrator, FabLab Administrator at Marymount School of New York. (Marymount is the home to the only officially sanctioned “FabLab” in New York City {of four in New York State}.)

Jon Santiago is a guru of all things Maker and was there at the Creation of the Fab Lab movement. He was a student at MIT and part of the Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) when the Center more or less invented Fab Labbery in 2007. For more on Fab Labs,  you can find a very-rich Fab Lab FAQ HERE. Jon and I have been dialoguing about mobile makeries for the last few months. Besides his co-founder role at The Makery, he is also a principal in HTINK. This organization is “an educational services cooperative (based on the Mondragon model) focused on spreading technical learning and creative problem solving skills to as many people as possible.”

Hsing Wei was The Makery founder in place—and empowering!—at another of that org’s pop-ups on the Lower East Side. I caught up with her during this more-or-less week-long Makery session on First Street  in the LES on Saturday, 7 December. This Vlog contains an interview I video’d with Hsing about The Makery’s initiatives HERE. This 12-minute exchange is a terrific profile of the organization: Hsing is well spoken and well-versed in the philosophy and practice of “making” as political, economic and social action. Here is Hsing’s The Makery profile: “Hsing Wei is an interaction designer, convener, and tinkerist. She enjoys developing technology-enriched experiences that solve problems, connect communities, and enable novel ways of interacting with the world. After wandering the halls of Penn, MIT, and Harvard, she has been on the start up team of various creative games and digital learning initiatives, such as Quest to Learn and EDesign Lab, which seek to integrate emerging digital contexts, center on students as creators, and extend learning outside of classroom walls.”

And, I have yet to meet Corbett Beder, the fourth The Makery founder. But, here’s his The Makery profile: “Corbett was the Senior Director of R&D at Vision Education & Media, an academic enrichment organization that provided after school programs and curriculum development in science and technology. For the past eight years, his projects have included teaching digital video, game design, and LEGO Robotics throughout the New York and New Jersey area. He has worked as a consultant for the NYC DOE on a number of innovative technology programs.” 

As you can see, these innovators and pro-active “soft-agitators” at The Makery are good folks to know. They’re making much of (3DP) importance happen…

C’mon Back!

LAND

3DP Is More About Atoms Than Bits AND Is Thus THE Potential Engine Of Re-Industrialization—And Middle-Class Jobs—In New York: To Assure 3DP Empowers Startup Formation & Early-Stager Development Effectiveness, Our Producer ‘Preneurs Need The Help Of Accounting, Legal & Funding-Industry Professionals…

Panelists Rob Piechota (left), Director, SBDC, NYC College of Technology, and Chuck Sockett, Partner, UHY LLP, exchange before the Panel begins at Brooklyn Law’s Subotnick Center.

How do you market to your target audiences and expand your client-capture when you’re players in the business-service professions? When you’re considered practitioners of staid—but VERY necessary—services? When your potential “buyers” are typically young, unconventional, techreative and self-confident to a (hubristic) fault? When there is not much sizzle on your steak?

UHY—a mid-sized New York City accounting firm—has figured it out.

You borrow some of the tech world’s tricks. You go freemium and present powerful knowledge in an accessible, easy-going forum—about the law, accountancy and funding by professional firms that specialize in these important formation and operational services. Free knowledge brings your targets to you, educates them, inspires them, connects them…and then wines, dines and mixes-up them and you—informally—to start building relationships.

‘Cause making relationships is KEY to every mode of doing successful business.

Confreres Gather for UHY’s “Expanding Your Business…” Panel Discussion at Brooklyn Law School’s Subotnick Center on the evening of 3 December 2013.

I had the pleasure of attending UHY’s model (see injunctions above) event last night at the Brooklyn Law School. And, I managed to video the entire session for your availability and time-shifted use. Enjoy free access here to PART 1, PART 2 & PART 3—approximately one hour and forty-five minutes in total of high-level, professional topic-experts delivering how-to for entrepreneurs, startuppers and early-stage enterprisers.

The title of this UHY-sponsored and hosted event was “Expanding Your Business: What Early Stage Companies Need to Know.”

Panelist Ryan Ziegler, Partner at Edison Ventures, exchanges with audience-member D.K. Smith, Managing Director of the Brooklyn Innovation Center.

UHY’s goal was to give early stage companies the opportunity to listen and share information with deep subject-matter experts. There was no formal presentation—other than the brief intros of the individual panel participants.

Moderator Jonathan Askin did a marvelous job of fostering robust discussion and give-and-take with and between professionals within the accounting, legal and funding industries AND the very assertive and engaged audience of approximately 50.

UHY’s Elite Rubin—Director of Marketing of UHY LLP—was Mistress of Ceremonies (as well as skilled impresario of this professionally framed event overall).

Panelist Charles Torres, Partner, Lowenstein Sandler LLC, confers with Maegan Fuller, Brooklyn Law ’14 & BLIP Member.

Besides UHY, other sponsors included the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, US Small Business Administration (SBA), Brooklyn Law School, BOC Network and Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation.

Here were our Panel Participants:

Jonathan Askin – Professor, Brooklyn Law School (and Moderator)

Charles Torres – Partner, Lowenstein Sandler LLC

Rob Piechota – Director, NYC College of Technology

Ryan Ziegler – Partner, Edison Ventures

Chuck Sockett – Partner, UHY LLP

George Crane – Senior Manager and Valuations Specialist, UHY Advisors NY, Inc.

This in-person event was an outstanding example of how the well-organized—and delivered—knowledge of business entrepreneurship and enterprise can present value to target audiences. AND, begin to build relationships between business-service professionals and the startup-business people who need their services.

Well-counseled entrepreneurs are much more likely to succeed. And—for our 3DP-driven enterprisers in particular—much more likely to create good-paying jobs in our brand-new re-industrialization segment.

Confreres Gather for UHY’s “Expanding Your Business…” Panel Discussion at Brooklyn Law School’s Subotnick Center on the evening of 3 December 2013.

Access and study this rich event-video series—via our links on this Vlog intro. On offer here is priceless knowledge—and it’s free to those who would be (business) wise—thanks to UHY, its fellow sponsors and panel participants…

C’mon Back!

LAND