MOUNT VERNON — On Wednesday, Jan. 31, Knox Labs will host an all-day Appreciative Inquiry Summit to ask community leaders, residents, and professionals what they would like to see in a Knox County “makerspace.”
Co-hosted with Mount Vernon Nazarene University and Kenyon College, the summit will feature keynote addresses by community leaders, demonstrations of machines in a mobile “Fab Lab”, and opportunities for community members to ask questions and share their ideas on what a makerspace could look like in downtown Mount Vernon.
The summit will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (a catered lunch will be provided at no charge to participants) at MVNU’s Ariel Arena – Foster Hall. Attendance is free, and all community members who desire to learn about makerspaces and to contribute to the development of a makerspace in Knox County are welcome to attend.
Online registration is available via a link on the Knox County Chamber of Commerce website’s events page www.knoxchamber.com/events.
Facilitating the summit will be representatives from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-affiliated Fab Foundation (http://fabfoundation.org/). The Fab Foundation consulting team, led by a Kenyon College alumna who is nationally recognized as a makerspace expert, will assess the needs and desires of Knox County residents to determine the equipment, programs, and curriculum to be offered by the makerspace to the community.
Community input will be used to craft a business plan and strategic vision to guide the Knox Labs Board and its volunteers in creating a maker movement within Knox County. Knox Labs’ partnership with MVNU – Engineering will also help guide decisions on the equipment and programming offered in the downtown makerspace.
Knox Labs contracted with the Fab Foundation to assess Knox County’s needs and desires for a makerspace. The Fab Foundation is uniquely poised to offer these services due to their extensive work developing Fab Labs around the world.
The Fab Foundations’s services are funded through a grant Knox Labs received last summer from the US Dept. of Agriculture to pay for developing a strategic plan for a makerspace to occupy the main floor of the former JC Penney’s building at 104 South Main Street in downtown Mount Vernon (now the MVNU – Engineering building, scheduled to open fall 2018).
The Appreciative Inquiry Summit will be Knox Labs’ main forum to engage community members in order to discover their vision for what a successful, vibrant makerspace could offer Knox County. This summit offers the Knox County community a unique and valuable opportunity to learn about makerspaces and to contribute to the vision and direction of developing a makerspace in downtown Mount Vernon.
What are makerspaces? Makerspaces are work-shop focused co-working centers that function with dues-paying members. Members benefit from shared equipment and space, with access to programmable prototyping tools, milling machines, 3-D printers, laser cutters, and other equipment too big or expensive for a household garage or basement. Makerspace members benefit from the stimulation, collaboration, encouragement, and competition of fellow participants as well as from economies-of- scale through shared equipment and space.
What is Knox Labs? Knox Labs, Inc. was created in 2016 as the brainchild of three local “makers,” educators, and information technology entrepreneurs, Mark Furman, Nate Thomas, and Ryan Bailey. The organization has evolved substantially with the recruitment of a complete Board of Directors and an established governance structure.
The Board has representation from MVNU – Engineering, Kenyon College, senior leaders at local manufacturers, educators, experienced non-profit administrators, and the passionate makers. The mission of Knox Labs is to provide an innovative, collaborative environment that inspires community members to discover, develop, and share their potential as makers.
