Durham's ShopBot Tools Named a "Company to Watch"

Our friends at ShopBot Tools, makers of the ShopBot CNC system and Maker Faire:NC sponsor, made it onto the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's list of "North Carolina Companies to Watch."

"The main thing about them is that they're here. They're locally run and they're not branches of other larger companies. They're basically North Carolina born and bred," Rose said. "It's a broad portrait of the kinds of entrepreneurs that are creating jobs and value in North Carolina."

Great job! Keep being awesome!

Source: The Herald-Sun

Meetup to Organize Triangle Hackerspace

A meetup group has formed in the Triangle area that intends to start a hackerspace.  The kickoff meeting for the project will be on Fri Aug 6 @ 6:45 PM in Durham.

From their site:

This is a group formed to discuss the formation of a hackerspace in the triangle. Everyone is welcome to come to our meetings and get involved at the ground level.

Our goal is to form a hackerspace that is representative of an interdisciplinary community for learning, teaching, and creating. Instead of starting with a defined range of projects or programming, we want to create a hackerspace that is driven by its members. Hackerspaces, at any stage of their development, promote people to be hackers in the broadest sense: to learn all they can about the fields that interest them, explore their bounds, and create new and interesting ways to apply that knowledge. Here is what you need to know:

- EVERYONE is welcome. No exceptions.

- A hackerspace will be whatever its members and the community make it. That's why YOU should get involved. The more diverse, the better.

- We are leaning towards a member-driven community with sponsorship opportunities for local businesses

- The proposed location is Downtown Durham. The location is currently flexible.

Reminder: 3rd Triangle PechaKucha Night is TONIGHT!

PechaKucha Nights are local idea-sharing events in the 20 x 20 format: speakers present 20 slides for 20 seconds per slide. Slides advance automatically to keep things moving forward at a rapid pace. Anyone can present, but meaningful PechaKucha presentations are the ones that uncover the unexpected -- unexpected talent, unexpected ideas. The key to a great presentation is to present something you feel passionate about. Many people use PechaKucha Night to present their latest creative projects or work.

Date & Time: June 17th, 2010, at 7:30 pm (doors open at 6:30)
Location: Relevance, 200 North Mangum Street, Suite 204, Durham, NC, 27701
Register: www.pknraleigh.com

Check out our previous post about this exciting event to see their list of speakers and get more information.

Third Triangle PechaKucha Night is June 17th

Lets get this out of the way right off the bat: PechaKucha is properly pronounced 'peh-CHAK-cha' and is Japanese for 'chatter' or the sound of conversation.

PechaKucha Nights are local idea-sharing events in the 20 x 20 format: speakers present 20 slides for 20 seconds per slide. Slides advance automatically to keep things moving forward at a rapid pace. Anyone can present, but meaningful PechaKucha presentations are the ones that uncover the unexpected -- unexpected talent, unexpected ideas. The key to a great presentation is to present something you feel passionate about. Many people use PechaKucha Night to present their latest creative projects or work.

• Jimmy Chalmers: The Hive Mind: Lessons from Honey Bees
• Justin Gehtland: Doing Well by Doing Good and Embracing your Fear of Failure
• Alex Gibson: My Crush on Gina Bianchini: Bad Ideas and High Profits
• Doug Hughes: Under Pressure? Dealing With Life’s Stressors
• Michael Stewart-Isaacs: Entrepreganda: Emerging Our Country from Recession to Progression
• Nathania Johnson: We Don’t Need No Education: Why the Worst Students are the Brightest Thinkers
• Gabrielle Kaasa: Love, Life and Friendship: 10 Lessons From My 99 Year Old Great-Grandma
• Steven Keith: Epiphany Farming
• Teri Saylor: Advancing Civil Rights in Raleigh: The Face of Modern Activism
• Richard Spangler: The Black Man as Leader, as Told By a White Guy From Connecticut
• Mbelu Walton: Heart of Lightness: Paying it Forward in the Congo
• Dan Wilson: So You Wanna Start a Business

These events are fluid and social. Lonerider will be serving free beer all night and there will be light snacks.  This is one event not to miss!

Date & Time: June 17th, 2010, at 7:30 pm (doors open at 6:30)
Location: Relevance, 200 North Mangum Street, Suite 204, Durham, NC, 27701
Register: www.pknraleigh.com

“The beauty of Pecha Kucha Night lies in the tension between the chaos of a full-blown party and the politeness of an art school crit, with the snappy pace holding it all together.”

Pecha Kucha Nights and Beer: a Sober Guide to Better Presentations

TechShop RDU Grand Opening Celebration

Our friend and sponsor of Maker Faire:NC 2010, TechShop RDU, is having their grand opening celebration tomorrow (6/5/2010).  All day Saturday they'll be doing machine demonstrations, tours, big discounts on memberships, and serving food.  They suggest that you bring friends, neighbors, family members, coworkers, etc.

TechShop RDU is the same company as TechShop Durham.  The former location didn't quite suit their needs so they moved recently and freshened the name.  It's still the same group of nice makers, hackers, and enthusiasts just in a better building!

Here is our tentative schedule:
10:00 - Open for business
11:00 - First group tour
12:00 - 1:00 - Burgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, sodas, water served
12:00 - Second group tour
1:00 - Third group tour
2:00 - Saw Stop demo
2:30 - Fourth group tour
3:30 - Open house closes
3:30 - 6:00 Business as usual
6:00 - Machines unplugged
6:00 - 9:00 - Members-only party w/ Burgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, sodas, water, BEER served
9:45 - Cleanup
10:00 - TSRDU closes for the day

The new location is 5905 Triangle Drive in Raleigh located off of Highway 70 near Fred Anderson Toyota and The Angus Barn.  Contact them at (919) 782-2344 or via Twitter.

View Larger Map