Last week, the Maker Faire Shenzhen 2023 has announced its grand comeback. Themed at “Where Are The Makers?”, this year’s event is scheduled for November 11th-12th, 2023. After the first announcement being made, we have received lots of inquiries from our enthusiastic community partners. Thank you all~ Today, let’s go through this year’s theme together.
“Where Are The Makers?” is, first of all, a question.
In the era of uncertainty, the constant emergence of new formats, technologies, and scenarios has created a strong but fragmented demand for innovation. Balancing innovation and sustainability, as well as integrating emerging technologies into industrial innovation, are the challenges you guys faced in your continuous pursuit of creation. Through the question-based theme of “Where Are The Makers?”, we hope to engage you in discussing topics such as innovation, co-creation, and openness.
Starting from our own mission and values, we aim to explore the future direction of makers and the possibilities for commercialization. Though this question does not have a definitive answer, we do hope that through this event, we can communicate and share with every one of you, finding more ideas and directions together.
Secondly, “Where Are The Makers?” is also an exclamatory sentence.
The maker movement originated in the early 21st century has deeply influenced people with its concepts of encouraging innovation, autonomy, sharing, and collaboration. The popularization of digital manufacturing, open-source hardware, software, and other tools has broken down the barriers of traditional innovation, allowing more people to participate in the ranks of creation and invention, becoming makers. Today, the maker movement has swept the world, and on the path of embracing innovation, some have given up while others continue.
Through the theme of “Where Are The Makers?”, we aim to focus on the makers who continue to innovate in various industries, exploring the specific scenarios where your innovations are implemented. We also seek to examine how you respond to the challenges brought about by emerging technologies and market changes, as well as your efforts and stories in promoting digitization transformation. Through such a focus, we hope to inspire more people to pursue continuous innovation, better understand the value and significance of the maker movement, and promote the sustainable development of it.
As a large gathering for communication and collaboration in the maker community, the Maker Faire Shenzhen will continue to bring together various maker heroes this year, presenting “Where Are The Makers?” through inclusive and diverse activities. Currently, we are busy with the preparation for the Call for Makers registration and will synchronize with you as soon as it’s ready. Stay tuned~
Need one more reason to visit us in Shenzhen? Well, here is a good one!
In the celebration of its 15th anniversary, our parent company Seeed Studio is sponsoring a travel grant of $1000 for 10 community members who shared the stories that we love the most. Sounds interesting? Share your story with us and get the chance to win a $1000 travel grant to visit us in person during Maker Faire Shenzhen 2023, as well as a free booth for to showcase your amazing projects! Find out more detials here.
- Deadline for submission: September 30, 2023
- Winner announcement in early October, 2023
Maker Faire Shenzhen 2023
November 11-12, 2023 (Weekend)
WHERE ARE THE MAKERS?
Over the past 12 years, the development trajectory of Maker Faire Shenzhen can be seen as a microcosm of the development of maker culture in China.
- 2012: “Gathering Small Wisdom, Journeying through the Great Future” – This was the first Mini Maker Faire in China, with less than 1000 attendees, and was more like a gathering within a small circle. But we saw the infinite possibilities emerging from the maker community.
- 2013: The slogan was absent, and the maker community was still small. In the OCT Creative Park, there were cross-disciplinary exchanges among different creative communities, silently laying the foundation for cultural output.
- 2014: “Innovate with China” – the event was upgraded to the Featured level for the first time, with a significant increase in scale compared to previous years, and the beginning of professional independent forums. This year, makers began to enter the public’s view.
- 2015: “Everyone is a Maker, what are you waiting for?” – This year’s Shenzhen International Maker Week became one of the largest Maker Faires in the world. This year, the concept of “maker” was elevated to a national level, and the trend of “mass innovation, mass entrepreneurship” swept across the country.
- 2016: “My World, My Creation” – As the sub-venue of the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week, the event was held for the first time in the commercial center area, experiencing unpredictable weather from typhoons to scorching heat. Many makers succeeded in your entrepreneurial endeavors this year, but it seemed like there were even more failures. The hype around entrepreneurship shifted towards rationality.
- 2017: “Makers, Go Pro” – The event took place at the university campus for the first time, focusing on Maker Pros and providing a platform for diverse innovators and makers to showcase themselves, presenting more possibilities for the growth path of makers to the entire community.
- 2018: “Co-making in the City” – The main venue of Shenzhen International Maker Week, where individuals and groups with shared visions and values gathered to showcase stories, projects, and explorations of collaboration among different communities and people.
- 2019: ” To the Heart of Community, To the Cluster of Industry” – The event was upgraded to the Maker Faire Shenzhen, attempting to attract professional audiences and focusing on pragmatic aspects such as solving the needs of industrial upgrading and co-developin. It aims to build a platform for innovation and industry dialogue and collaboration.
