Nation of Makers comes to Chattanooga
This weekend, 600 leaders of the “maker” movement from around the country arrive for the Nation of Makers conference, or NOMCON.
Maker Faires are like public festivals of home-made stuff, from robots to arts and crafts, while NOMCON is a convention for people and organizations who support maker activities such as Maker Faires and maker spaces—essentially work spaces with shared access to tools and support.
Like the typical business convention, NOMCON will feature lots of networking and insider talk about how to do what these people do, only better. Things like social equity in maker spaces, crowdfunding for innovation, and getting more people engaged in making.
But NOMCON is way cooler than the average convention, featuring keynotes that range from quilting to synthetic biology, a presentation from Chattanooga’s Baylor School about biology-based making (fairly common nationwide but rare in Chattanooga), and a panel on how the maker culture has helped build Chattanooga’s startup scene.
Making in Action
“Making is inherent to all of us. From the dawn of time, we’ve all been able to create and make,” said Kate Warren, executive director of Art120, a Chattanooga nonprofit that makes art bikes and art cars, while teaching kids how to weld and make art. She leads the local logistics team for NOMCON.
Kate is showing me an example of making in action. We’re in Garage Bound, a welding and metal fabrication shop started by Michael Brandt. He’s part of a team that was brought together by NOMCON and Magic Wheelchair, a national nonprofit, to make a wheelchair costume for Amelia, a 17-year-old from Alabama.
The build team has gathered to fabricate the framework that will attach an interactive replica of the spaceship Milano from Guardians of the Galaxy to Amelia’s chair. Amelia will receive the finished chair Saturday afternoon at NOMCON.
In addition to Brandt, the team includes: Strat Parrott, a business owner who designed and fabricated the main body of the Milano; Elyse and Marty Farris, cosplayers who painted and assembled the body and wings of the ship; Ian Cole and Brady Fulton, national assistive technology experts provided by Magic Wheelchair, who are designing an interactive electronics panel that will create lighting and sound effects; and Christian Glenn, an engineering student and member of the ChattLab maker space, who is project manager.
“I think there are a lot of people who see the maker movement or attend a Maker Faire, and they’re like ‘I don’t make robots,’ but you don’t have to make a robot to be a maker,” said Kate. “You have an idea, you have a passion of something you want to make happen in the community or something you want to create, and that’s what a maker is.”
Making a Movement
Maker culture has been growing as a movement since the early 2000s—according to one estimate, the number of maker spaces increased from 100 to 1,400 worldwide from 2006 to 2016. But some bad news broke last Friday.
Maker Media, the parent company of Make magazine and Maker Faire, ceased operations and laid off all 22 of its employees. Nation of Makers is separate from Maker Media, and NOMCON is not affected by the shutdown.
The maker community is rallying with a GoFundMe page, and Oculus cofounder Palmer Luckey has expressed interest in funding the company. So maybe that maker spirit will be able to rebuild one of the movement’s cornerstones.
For more information about NOMCON, taking place this weekend at the Chattanooga Convention Center, visit NomCon.org