Building Community - Protospace Edition

[Ben Reed]

Since some people (hacker & maker spaces) have asked, I've made a quick list for building notoriety for a hacker or maker space within a city.

• Branding - make sure to appear like a professional organization. Create a marketing plan along with a memorable logo and start putting it on everything.
  
• Web Presence - Everyone has teh Googles at their fingertips and will use it when they hear rumor of a hacker or maker space in their town. Whatever is first searchable will be their first impression of your space / group.
  
• Leave Your Space - This is key. We attend events all over Calgary all the time, ususally presenting projects we've done or offering citizens to tap into their creativity with hands-on demos. Festivals, presentations, expos, etc are all useful.
  
• Cross Pollinate - Invite in artists, financial analysts, teachers and everyone in between. In fact, reach out to local communities and groups that may have different interests - they immediately see the value of a hacker / maker space.
  
• Create Ownership - Once you have new people in your space, make sure they feel like they belong there. Too often, visitors are ignored because members are too busy with projects or don't want to talk. Be friendly if you want to grow.
  

Feel free to add your own tips here as well :)

[Shannon Hoover]

This is a decent article on doing things on the cheap: http://blog.makezine.com/2013/02/14/10-things-to-do-when-starting-a-fab-lab/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+makezineonline+%28MAKE%29

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