Jamboree

The Eighth-Annual ShopBot Jamboree
Durham, NC, April 23-24, 2010

The eighth-annual ShopBot Jamboree returned to Durham, North Carolina on April 23-24 with a focus on starting, running and growing a successful business using CNC – or digital – fabrication.

Approximately 200 fabricators, manufacturers, do it yourselfers, sign makers, cabinet makers, artists, craftspeople and entrepreneurs from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds joined speakers, vendors and ShopBot staff for three days of training, application demonstrations, show & tell, presentations and networking with fellow ShopBot enthusiasts.

Attendees from as far away as New Zealand came together to discover the ins and outs of ShopBot Tools’ Personal Robotic Systems and to learn from ShopBot Staff, CNC professionals, entrepreneurs, software representatives and each other the ways in which ShopBots can help them make the things they want to make, but also how to make their CNC-based hobbies or businesses more enjoyable or more lucrative. Additionally, we live-streamed the entire Jamboree on the Video Tutorials and Training Documents Page so that anyone interested but unable to attend could participate virtually.

The Highlights of the ShopBot Jamboree included:
• Jeffrey McGrew & Jillian Northrup of Oakland, California’s Because We Can who demonstrated effective avenues for marketing one’s small business.
• Robert Bridges of Machipongo, Virginia who discussed his Shelter 2.0 project for delivering emergency housing to disaster-stricken parts of the world as well as new methods for framing wooden structures.
• Christopher Gergen, professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and co-author of Life Entrepreneurs, talked about the attributes that make successful entrepreneurs.
• Sarah Evans of Boone, North Carolina’s Appalachian Signs & Design gave a humorous presentation about her experiences of starting her own sign business, offered some nuts-and-bolts advice on how she prices and delivers her services, and even explained some of her materials and processes.
• James Booth of Vector Art 3D demonstrated how easy it can be to enhance the beauty of woodworking projects with value-added, ready-made 3D designs.
• Brian Moran and Tony McKenzie of Birmingham, England’s Vectric software - which recently won the UK's Queen’s Award for Enterprise - demonstrated their design software.
• Thermwood’s Dennis Englert discussed the recent collaboration between Thermwood and ShopBot that allows the eCabinet Systems software package to be run on a ShopBot CNC
• ShopBot's new small-format digital fabrication system, Tyro, was officially launched to the delight of Jamboree attendees
• Ponoko founder David Ten Have discussed distributed manufacturing and how the ShopBot/Ponoko project 100kGarages is helping fabricators take part in the next wave of industry.

MAKER FAIRE BONUS:

As an added bonus, the inaugural Maker Faire NC Presented by ShopBot moved into the ShopBot Jamboree space on Sunday, April 25. Based on the popular Maker Faire events produced by Make magazine, Maker Faire NC is a family-friendly expo celebrating arts, crafts, science and the do-it-yourself movement. 50 exhibitors and 3,000 attendees shared their love of making things and capped off a very successful weekend for ShopBot, its customers and potential customers and the Durham, NC community.

Special thanks to the following ShopBot partners for their commitment as Jamboree sponsors:
ArtCAM
Bishop-Wisecarver
Centurion Tools
EMCO
Extreme How-To Magazine
Fastenal
Freeman Manufacturing & Supply Company
Machine Control
Onsrud
Oriental Motor
USA Dutch
Vectric
VectorArt3D
WidgetWorks Unlimited
Woodworkers Supply
YRC

Remember, for up-to-the-minute news and alerts, follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/ShopBot.

Photos from the ShopBot Jamboree and Maker Faire NC can be found on the ShopBot Flickr Page.