Dr Lucy Rogers, of Robot Wars fame and founder of the Guild of Makers, has been in touch. Next Friday (16th March), the Guild is holding their launch event at Autodesk in Birmingham. If any of you consider yourselves ‘Makers’, this is a great event to go to, and a great initiative to get involved with.

If you’d like to attend, you can get tickets from WebCollect. The good news is that due to donations and sponsorship, there are 5 tickets to the event available for free if you’re unable to afford it but wish to attend. To find out if any are still available, DM Dr Lucy Rogers on Twitter.

More about the Guild of Makers

If you’ve not heard of the Guild, or need a refresher, keep on reading! 🙂

The Guild has the following mission:

To promote growth of the Maker Industry by celebrating & encouraging excellence & by supporting professional Makers and those aspiring to be.

It’s aims are as follows:

• Promote and celebrate excellence in Makers to industry and the public
• Bring together skilled Makers who:
  • share ideas
  • share values
  • share ideals
  • are willing to help other by being open, supportive, positive and constructive at all time
  • are willing to learn from others

The Guild of Makers is a membership organisation and offers:

• Networking face-to-face with people who share the same values and  aims of professionalism and excellence
• Networking virtually with people who share the same values and aims of professionalism and excellence
• Support and guidance from other Makers
• Reduced charges for advice, services and/or goods from Maker-friendly companies
• Personalised web pages within the Guild website for full commercial sponsors
• Discount on Guild of Makers events as advised when events are publicised.
• Opportunity to appear in Show and Tell sessions at events and within online elements of the Guild
• Electronic newsletter with a focus on inspirational and innovative makers
• Directory of Makers – a page per member:
  • Links to member’s websites and social media accounts
  • Sharing of members and Guild photographs and video
• (tbc) Accreditation by peers, helping individuals to gain contracts in industry
• (tbc) A brokerage to match individual Makers with industries with requirements
• (tbc) A voice for the Maker Industry

More about the launch event

Speakers at the launch event will be as follows:

• Andy Stanford-Clark, CTO UK and Ireland, IBM,
• Pete Wood, Head Technology Evangelist, RS Components
• Rebecca Steiner, School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University

The event also sports workshops in the afternoon and you can find more info about those here.

So, once again, if you’d like to get tickets, visit WebCollect or DM Dr Lucy Rogers about those 5 free tickets.