Maker Assembly Manchester

Maker Assembly is a gathering of people interested in making*. We bring people together to have a critical conversation about cultures of making: their meaning, politics, history and future. We encourage everyone to participate by combining short talks with contributions from the attendees. It is peer-to-peer, informal and conversational. We're organising this event in conjunction with the Crafts Council's Make:Shift conference.

Schedule

9:30 - Arrival and registration

10:00 - Welcome Address by Maker Assembly co-organisers Liz Corbin and Marc Barto

10:10 - Welcome to MadLab by Asa Calow and Rachael Turner

10:15 – Learning from International Making Cultures
Chaired by Liz Corbin

The session will hear from representatives of making cultures in Paris, Shenzhen and Cape Town. As an assembly, we will explore the uniqueness of each culture as well as those challenges and ambitions which we commonly share.

- Justyna Swat – Strategic designer and architect, designing for social impact and co-founder POC 21 (France)
- Craig Dunlop – Maker, founder of Workshop, (South Africa)
- David Li - founder of Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab (China)

11:45 – Coffee break

12:00 – Making and Humanitarian Relief

Talk and activity by Laura James

What roles can making play within responses to humanitarian challenges? How can the use of digital platforms enable individuals and communities to organise themselves globally in order to collectively work on solutions? How can we avoid the pitfalls of hackathons and make sure that what we design is needed and can be adapted by users locally? How can we share knowledge and learn from the experience of others, such as Humanitarian Makers and Field Ready’s global network? 

13.15 – Lunch & chats

Lunchtime Activity: The Incomplete and Crowdsourced History of UK Maker Culture

14:45 - Making and Manufacturing

Chaired by James Tooze

Technological advancements and cultural shifts are reshaping the way we make and manufacture things on a national and global scale. This session aims to explore making and manufacturing at all levels, including; informal production by individuals for individuals, collaborative production by hyper-local communities, (re)distributed and networked manufacturing, and finally, new business models for local/global production chains. 

- Ruth Claxton – artist and half of MakeWorks Birmingham 
- Adrian McEwen – founder of MCQN Ltd., co-founder of DoES Liverpool
- Paul Sohi – Product designer for Autodesk 
- Alon Meron – Tutor in Design Products, Royal College of Art

16:00 - Coffee Break

16:15 - Keynote address 

Laura Billings – Project Lead on The Open Works project and Author of Designed to Scale.
Keynote Address title: The role of making in wider civic infrastructure

16:45 - Crowdsourced closing remarks

17:00 - To the pub

Venue

We'll be holding Maker Assembly in Manchester Digital Laboratory (MadLab), a grassroots innovation organisation based in Manchester UK focusing on science and technology, arts and culture.

Tickets

Thanks to support from the Comino Foundation, ticket prices are heavily subsidised. Your ticket also includes a communal lunch and refreshments during the day.

About Maker Assembly

If you'd like to find out about previous Maker Assemblies, check out our first event in London, and the second event run by friends in Belfast and recently our third event in Sheffield. 

Maker Assembly is a community-run event, produced by Andrew Sleigh, Irini Papadimitriou, Liz Corbin, Marc Barto and Tom Lynch. We are supported by Lighthouse and the V&A, and with funding from Comino Foundation.

We want everyone who attends our event to enjoy the day, feel able to express their views and welcome. As such we expect all attendees to follow The Ada Initiative Code of Conduct.

Follow us on twitter: @MakerAssemblyUK, join the conversation using #MakerAssembly

* What do we mean by "making"? We're talking about people who craft, design, manufacture, tinker with, engineer, fabricate, and repair physical things. Art, craft, electronics, textiles, products, robots. Hi-tech and low-tech, amateur and professional, young and old, with digital tools or by hand. Historical perspectives, what's happening here and now, and how things might change in the future. We aim to be diverse and inclusive. If what you make, or how you see yourself, is a little bit on the fringes, you're doubly welcome. 

Credit photo: Photos by Dan Sumption.