Maker Faire is best known as a geek-fest. Think science fair on steroids meets craft show on steroids. It is this weekend at the San Mateo Fairgrounds in Silicon Valley.
In addition to being one of the most interesting, fun and unique events around, there is also a small business side to Maker Faire. Mike Cassidy does a great job of capturing this in his San Jose Mercury News article Maker Faire Mixes Business with Wackiness.
After describing the growing number of small business makers, Mike asks if this is a good thing:
"Would the Faire — known for motorized cupcakes, life-size "Mousetrap" games and robot death matches — be sanitized, Disney-fied and made just plain boring?"
His answer:
"My short answer: Not anytime soon. In fact, after talking to organizers, exhibitors and those who study such things (yes, there are those who study such things), I'm convinced that this growing current of business-building is a good thing."
We're proud to be folks who study such things. We spent last Maker Faire trying to better understand the trends driving the DIY movement and the growth of hobby businesses. You can see our results in the Intuit Future of Small Business research brief Today's Hobbyists are Tomorrow's Hobbypreneurs.
We'll be back at Maker Faire this weekend doing more research (hey, someone has to).
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Posted by: Business Electricity | May 23, 2010 at 10:29 PM