We went to York, PA to attend Blueprint York, a conference hosted be VentureBeat, intended to bring together Silicon Valley type investors with ecosystem builders intent on creating new forms of economic opportunity in York. This was a follow on to the highly successful conference held in Reno in 2018. The York, PA event had all the ingredients one might want in a conference. A welcoming local community which understood…
WeWork – which seems to be rebranding itself as the ever-so precious “We” – has expanded from its roots as a coworking space provider to an innovative presence in various market sectors, including housing, fitness, early childhood education, and — through its acquisitions of Meetup and Flatiron School — social gatherings and tech training. Now the global company, whose newly framed mission is “to elevate the world’s consciousness,” has launched…
Recently, we were asked by Johannesburg Inner City Partnership (JICP) on behalf of the Makers Valley Collective to partner with them on a unique proposal for Creative Placemaking. The proposal was solicited by the U.S. Consulate in Johannesburg and asked for local organizations on the ground to propose work supporting inclusive growth in South Africa: promote conscientious urban revitalization in low-income urban neighborhoods through “creative placemaking” that integrates community-based arts…
Allegany County is located in upstate New York. This is a small county with a population of not quite 50,000, one with significant assets. A highly skilled population, especially as compared to other rural areas, with a concentration of tradespeople and advanced manufacturing competence The presence of both advanced manufacturing and science-based businesses as well as lower-tech “craft” businesses such as artists and small-scale agriculture Deeply affordable – both in…
The Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA) is one of our key strategic partners. The way we think of them is as the modern incarnation of a trade association. Their membership consists of ~500 private and public sector players involved in urban manufacturing across about 150 cities and towns in the United States. Today, most trade associations spend most of their time, money, and energy lobbying at the federal or state level. What…
We are excited to have worked with the Nation of Makers to pull together this program, which provides microgrants of $500-1000 to Maker advocates. The objective of the program – which is supported by funding NOM received from Cognizant – is to encourage local Maker advocates to pull together the people and organizations that make up the local ecosystem around Making into a Town Hall. The overarching goal is to…
There is a growing body of thought that the recent U.S. election was as much about robots and automation as anything else. That the reason many metro areas that voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012 flipped to Trump in 2016 came down to fear and anxiety. Fear and anxiety that the robots are coming to replace the few manufacturing and other middle-skilled jobs that still exist inside heartland cities…
