“If you thought the internet was big, this is going to be bigger.”
–Mark Hatch, TechShop CEO on the Maker Movement

Brit + Co’s Re:Make event in San Francisco was all about the Maker Movement with a conference on Day 1 and community festival on Day 2.

Certain themes recurred throughout the day – storytelling, craftsmanship, being true to your style, creativity. I got to discuss it all over a lunch with speakers and other Brit + Co contributors, definitely a highlight!

Who is a maker?

“The maker movement is the next revolution in society. Welcome to the Revolution.”
–Mark Hatch, super quotable speaker

A maker is simply someone who enjoys making stuff, whether it’s food or furniture, rugs or robots, strawberry cocktails or Storm Trooper costumes. Yep. In fact, “Most Star Wars fans are makers,” according to Mashable Editor and How Star Wars Conquered the Universe author Chris Taylor. (We came to the same conclusion about the Comicon community.)

Makers may use traditional techniques (hand embroidery) or modern tech (3D printing) or some combination (the fan-built, Arduino-controlled R2D2, who accompanied Chris during his talk).

More and more people are are choosing the DIY route, and it’s starting to affect both culture and commerce. This is the Maker Movement.

Some call it a Revolution.

Express Yourself

Brit + Co put together a report on the Maker Movement. Their survey found that 8 out of 10 adults fit their definition of maker. During her opening keynote, Founder Brit Morin said that, while the Movement “skews female,” women don’t always see themselves as part of it. Instead, they think of it as something “male and techie.”

Women also tend to devalue their own skills and creativity. I see this at my CraftHack group all the time. Women will be working on these awesome projects but a lot of times just shrug them off.

I believe that everyone is creative. But, as adults (especially as women), we’re often afraid to express ourselves. Making something – however imperfect – helps us tap into the fearless self-expression we had as children. Practicing creativity opens the door to more creativity.

Makers Gonna (Re)Make

There were plenty of opportunities to be creative and make stuff at Re:Make. As soon as you walked in, you could take part in a giant collaborative paint-by-number (with paint from sponsor Lowe’s, of course!). We took Make Breaks for crafting cork vases and decorating cupcakes. The second day there were DIY stations scattered throughout the festival.

More conferences should include DIY projects! They’re great icebreakers and a great rest from information overload.

What made the Maker Movement happen now?

1. New ways to learn

Brit also noted that makers tend to be early adopters of technology. However, “only 17% are using tech for making.” Instead, they’re using it to learn how to make things by hand, find inspiration, share ideas, watch tutorials. “The Maker Movement is not just tech, it’s about traditional arts and crafts resurrecting in society.”

Mark Hatch observed that “we live in an era where you can pick up the skills to do almost anything in 90 days.”

The Michaels spokesperson echoed this later in the day. Their customers used to have deep knowledge of one craft. Now they usually have a broader range of skills, because it’s so much easier to learn via online platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. Information has become more accessible.

2. Conscientious consumers

“The maker movement is booming and retailers don’t even know it.”
–Bradford Shellhammer, Fab.com Founder and BackCountry.com CDO

As more consumers become makers, more people have started to care about how products are made and who made them. Makers are on both sides of the supply and demand equation, selling items they’ve made and purchasing artisan goods from others.

Jaime Derringer, Founder and Editor of Design Milk, noted, “The economy played a role in where we are. People started making things and taught themselves to run businesses.” Maybe they had more time because of a layoff. Maybe they wanted to save money and/or earn a little extra income.

In addition, the recession made us think a little harder about what we were buying and why. Did we really need mass quantities of cheap, disposable goods? Or could we get by with fewer, higher quality things made in more sustainable ways?

“Groupon trained consumers to look for discounts. That era is ending. Now there are more conscientious consumers.” AHAlife CEO Shauna Mei explained. “People care about stories, heritage, and who made the product.”

Steven Heintz, CTO of Quirky agreed. “People are bored with mass-produced products. They’re looking for something unique.”

Shake It Up

If all that info makes you feel like you could use a stiff drink, you’ll understand why the conference wrapped up with a cocktail party.

It was the kind of day with more awesomeness than your brain can contain and no way to chat with everyone you’d like to. I wish I could have a few Groundhog-Day-style do-overs, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

I was honored to be a part of Re:Make and so appreciate Brit + Co and Lowe’s bringing me out!

In the words of the Urbio spokesperson (whose name I didn’t catch):

“If you’re passionate about something, you have more tools now than ever to make it a reality. Go out and make something!”