Welcome to the first New York Maker Summit!
The goal of the New York State Maker Summit is to bring makers, makerspaces, maker events, educators, politicians, manufacturers, industry leaders, museums, libraries, and anyone who is passionate about the Maker Movement together to learn about each other, talk about partnerships & the problems that we all run into, and discuss how to grow the movement within the state.
We're working on an exciting day full of events for you.
9am-6pm, Desmond Hotels Albany
Multiple tracks featuring multiple panels will be offered throughout the day to cover a wide spectrum of topics within the maker movement. Schedule may change leading up to the event.
Andrew Coy, who served in President Obama's White House, Office of Science and Technology Policy as the Senior Advisor for Making.
How to Run Your Own Maker Events - King Street 8
Events celebrating making like Maker Faires & Regional Burning Man Events can be found everywhere across the state. The panel discussion will introduce you to these events, how they’re organized, how they started, problems that they all face, and where to find them in New York.
Manufacturing & the Maker Movement - Fort Orange 9
Within the last few years, the Maker Movement has been referred to as the next Industrial Revolution. New tools and technologies have led to faster prototypes, small-scale manufacturing, new training methods, and a new ethos within the manufacturing industry. Our panel of industry leaders will discuss how they have seen making change their industries and what changes they think the movement will bring in the future.
Museums & Making - Fort Orange 7
Maker programs and makerspaces are popping up in museums all across the state. The panel discussion will revolve around making in content, programs, events, camps, and exhibit creation at museums.
Early Maker Education (Panel & Workshop) - Townhall
Making can be found within K-12 classrooms in the form of lesson plans, experiments, group projects, and more. Learn from our panel of educators how they have implemented making within early education.
Dell - A Space for Making in Every School - Lodge
TBA
Lunch will be provided for all attendees.
Young Makers - King Street 8
Current young makers will share the projects that they’ve been working, some of their experiences within the maker movement, and what their plans are for the future.
Maker to Market - Securing Funding, Prototyping, Pushing to Market - Fort Orange 9
Makers often want to take their projects or hobbies and turn them into their full-time job, but don’t know where to start. Learn how makers can create prototypes, securing funding, and push their product to market to become professional makers.
Libraries and Makerspaces - Lodge
Libraries have been used as a hub for communities for centuries. New York State libraries have led the way as they’ve embraced the maker movement through creating their own spaces for communities to come together and make. Learn from library maker leaders on how they created their own spaces, the difficulties that they’ve run into, projects and programs that they run, and the public’s reaction to the addition of makerspaces to libraries.
How to Make a School Maker Event - Townhall
Our panel of educators who have run their own maker events within their schools will share their stories, discuss their hurdles, outcomes of their events, and tips on how to run one at your school.
Makers & Makerspaces: Where to Find Them - Fort Orange 7
What is a Makerspace and where can you find them? The panel will discuss how they define makerspaces, what you can find in their makerspaces, the programs that they have held, favorite projects that makers have worked on, and their plans for the future.
Diversity in Making - King Street Ballroom
As the maker movement has been growing, we have to take a moment to look back at ourselves and see if all perspectives are included. The panel will include organizations and individuals that are actively working on making sure the maker world is inclusive to everyone.
Universities & Making: Spaces, Programs, & Personal Experiences - King Street 8
Universities makerspaces and programs have been seen as the main location for cross-disciplinary projects for students, staff, and professors alike. Current college students and staff will discuss the spaces on their campuses, some of the projects that they have seen, and ways that universities have been embracing the maker movement.
Journey to School Makerspaces: Funding, Space, Etc (Panel & Workshop) - Townhall
More and more schools are diving into launching their own makerspaces. Panelists will discuss how did they decide where to place one in their school, what tools you can find in their spaces, how their spaces are funded, and advice on how to convince schools to start their own.
Building Communities with Makerspaces, Manufactures, and Marketplaces - Fort Orange 9
Within New York State, making has led to new communities being built around products and the exchange of ideas. Learn from leaders of these communities how making has revived formerly run-down neighborhoods, expand arts communities, and launch new marketplaces.
Makerspace Problems and Solutions (Open Discussion) - Fort Orange 7
An open discussion between attending makerspaces on problems that spaces have run into and solutions that other spaces have found.
Eduporium: MakerEd - Lessons for Teachers - Lodge
The ongoing Maker Revolution boosts age-neutral creativity and inventiveness, enriching Makerspaces with innovative technology. Since evolving from hobbyist spaces within the community to Maker Education with school libraries and classrooms joining the movement, MakerEd has vast implications for 21st century education. Resonating with children’s natural tendency to tactile learning and powered by a pedagogical approach of experiential education, MakerEd strengthens student-centered teaching practices, increases engagement in learning, and provides an outlet for kids to join the vibrant global community of problem solvers. In this presentation, we will establish criteria to evaluate the educational value of various Maker products, look at different ways to incorporate MakerEd into classrooms with a focus on Mobile Makerspaces, and explore some cases of MakerEd programs that produce promising results.
Maker Cities: Elected Officials, Economic Development, and the Maker Movement - King Street Ballroom
The Maker Movement has helped boost economic development through creative entrepreneurship, workforce training, advanced manufacturing centers, and early access to modern production tools at an earlier age. Our panel of elected officials and industry leaders will be discussing the impact the movement has had on economic development and policy within New York State.
Journey to School Makerspaces: Project Ideas, Outcomes & Influences of Maker Movement - Townhall
Now that schools have created their own makerspaces, how are they being used? Panelists will discuss how their spaces are used, project ideas that have crashed and burned, outcomes of students making in the classroom, and what influences their maker activities.
Tailor-Made Innovation Spaces (Workshop) - King Street 8
As Makerspace veterans can attest, buying a 3D printer doesn't mean there's a Makerspace - and vice versa. Participants in this interactive presentation will learn how to hone in on their key stakeholders, define educational goals and outcomes, and design a Makerspace to support those goals. Don't settle for a cookie-cutter Makerspace; tailor-make the space to your community's needs.
We have a wide range of Makers, Educators, Politicians, Manufacturers, Industry Leaders, Museums, Makerspace & Maker Event Organizers speaking at the summit!
Andrew Coy is a driven problem-solver with experience at the intersection of nonprofit, government, and technology. Most recently he served in President Obama's White House, Office of Science and Technology Policy as the Senior Advisor for Making. In this capacity, he led initiatives including National Week of Making, Nation of Makers, the Kid Science Advisors Campaign, and supported numerous other efforts including the WH Science Fair, WH Water Summit, WH Frontiers Conference, and South by South Lawn. Through his service, he has directly interacted and actively learned from the interests, ideas, commitments, and collaborations of thousands of different individuals and organizations. His work has led to a variety collaborations, joint efforts, and collective actions by providing design thinking and strategic frameworks for new initiatives as he worked explicitly to advocate for the tech community to become more intentionally inclusive, deliberatively diverse, and strategically situated to grow the number and depth of opportunities for all.
Prior to serving President Obama in the White House, he was the Executive Director of the Digital Harbor Foundation, where he led efforts to save the closed-down South Baltimore Rec Center by reopening it as the Digital Harbor Foundation Tech Center, a youth-centered makerspace located in Baltimore, Maryland that provides after-school program, summer camps, field trips, family make nights, educator training workshops, and numerous other community-making opportunities. In 2017, he launched Initial Velocity (initialvelocity.co) to share best practices from his experiences working on the dozens of initiatives, ventures, projects, and startups he has undertaken or worked on throughout his career, to now help others launch their ideas with his added insight, skill set, understanding, and passion.
We're kicking off our first event with around 50 speakers split over a huge range of topics. More speakers will be posted leading up to the event. Here's a taste of some of the incredible people speaking at the summit:
| Mario the Magician | Mario “the Maker Magician” Marchese |
| Xanthe Matychak | Assistant Director at REV Hardware Accelerator |
| Chad Putman | Deputy City Clerk for the City of Schenectady |
| Ilyssa Meyer | Etsy Advocacy, Manager of Public Policy and Research. |
| Lisa Blank | Director of STEM Programs for Watertown City School District |
| Silda Wall Spitzer | Founder and CEO of New York Makers |
| Audra Herman | Marketplace Director of New York Makers |
| Congressman Paul D. Tonko | New York’s 20th Congressional District |
| Lauren Hubbard | Founding President of the Maritime Explorium |
| Tracy Gray | Tech & Education Entrepreneur |
| KathyCeceri | Crafts for Learning |
| Jacob Vennie-Vollrath | Adirondack North Country Association |
| Giorgio LoBianco | Pioneer Middle School Makers Club Co-Founder & Advisor |
| David Held | Dir. of Technology at Poughkeepsie Day School |
| Lori Stahl-Van Brackle | NY Department of Education |
| Beth Bornick | FuzeHub |
| William Brigham | Small Business Development Center |
| Adine Viscusi | Casa Visco |
| Jesse Harrington Au | Autodesk |
| David Wells | New York Hall of Science |
| Jaimee Lindvay | AdaSpace President |
| Brenda McKenzie | Pioneer Middle School Makers Club Co-Founder & Advisor |
| David Brenner | Thimble.io CTO |
| Mike Buffalin | The Construct @ RIT |
| Leah Kraus | Fayetteville Free Library Fab Lab |
| Dirk Swart | Co-founder of Wicked Device LLC |
| Victor Aprea | Co-founder of Wicked Device LLC |
| Daryl Lee | SUNY Polytechnic Institute / Mohawk Valley Mini Maker Faire |
| Jeff Betts | Ecovative |
| Annette Wong | Buffalo Lab |
| Michael Giannattasio | SALT Makerspace |
| Jason Peppers | Rochester Makerspace |
| Elliot Wells | Ithaca Generator |
| Maria Muhlbauer | Pioneer Middle School Makers Club Co-Founder & Advisor |
| Ben Parnas | Student at RIT |
| Kim Oakes | Ripley Elementary |
| Bonnie Sanborn | Cornell University Center for Regional Economic Advancement |
| Christine Stockslader | School Librarian at Lancaster Middle School |
| Leah Hamilton | Phelps Library and STEAM Lab Makerspace |
| Cecilia Frittelli | Beekman Street Art District |
| Paul Rubeo | Wappingers Central Schools |
| Susan Rivers | The Shirt Factory |
| Douglas Borzynski | Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School |
| Lisa Moosbrugger | Lima Primary School Principal |
| Jana Rogers | Jefferson Lewis BOCES |
| Marcy Grenier | Jefferson Lewis BOCES |
| Tim Jones | Stissing Design |
| Amanda Ervin | Union College |
| Susan Sherwood | Center for Technology & Innovation |
| Calvin Uzelmeier | Rochester Museum and Science Center |
| Andrea Buckvold | abcdexperiments |
| Janella Watson | New York Hall of Science |
| Deena Salzman | POrtal Burn |
| Nick Tanzi | Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library |
| Micaela Hall | Adirondack Museum |
| Kathryn Wieczorek | The Corning Museum of Glass |
| Dr. Elavarasi Joseph | BioPalette |
| Scott Van Campen | Staten Island MakerSpace |
| Genny Pond | SUNY Jefferson |
| Sheila McIntyre | Ballston Spa Central School District |
| Hawthorne Valley Farm | |
| Iliana Villegas | PS96 School for the Arts |
| Rose Scordo | Rosies Robots |
| Aaron E. Richardson | SUNY Jefferson |
| Stephen Gilman | MakerState |
| Darlynne Overbaugh | Ithaca's Wizarding Weekend |
| Irina Tuule | Eduporium |
We're happy to be bringing the state's Maker Movement together just outside the heart of Downtown Albany at the beautiful Desmond Hotels Albany.
The Maker Movement in Capitol Region is bursting with energy. From makerspaces like the Tech Valley Center of Gravity and BioPalette - the Capital Region's Biology Maker Space Meetup, to maker staring events including The Enchanted City and the Troy Mini Maker Faire.
Need a hotel room? We have a block of rooms reserved for you at the venue, The Desmond Hotel & Conference Center, for $131/night. To book the hotel, please use this link, or feel free to call (518) 640-6178 and book your reservation using the following code: 12M9ET.
We like to thank NYSCATE for hosting the New York State Maker Summit and all of their support.
We're currently looking for sponsors to help support the summit. If you're interested in supporting the event, please check out our sponsorship packet.
Have any questions about the New York Maker Summit?
Please email the organizers and we'll get in touch!
Additionally, we invite you to sign up to the New York State Maker Network email list to recieve news about the the maker movement within the state.
Keep the conversation going on Slack:
We could use a handful of folks to help us out the day of the summit. If you're interested, please fill out our volunteer form.