Dear Makers of The Maker City: congratulations! You made it through!
You made it through lockdown, masking, not masking, social distancing, having your suppliers shut down, having your brick-and-mortar shut down, having craft fairs, solo and collaborative shows, meet & greets, First Fridays, popup events, Maker Meet-ins and anything involving more than one single solitary individual — wrapped in three layers of plastic and boiled just in case — shut down!! AH!
You pivoted. You Zoomed, Facetimed, Lunchpooled, upped your online presence. You put your stuff on the Holiday Monday Marketplace and in the Holiday Gift Guide. You took your lumps, and you kept the faith.
You’re still here.
And it’s all because of the fact that you’re a Maker. You don’t even know what “inside the box” means, unless you’re creating a diorama or something else that goes … inside a box.
The Maker City Summit is most definitely still here, too.
Photos by Mirtography
This year it’s gone hybrid because that’s the cool thing to do in this “still-not-completely-out-of-the-woods” time we’re all navigating. The Main Event happens on Sunday, September 19, at Jackson Terminal.
In the week leading up to it, however, Summit registrants have direct access to some of the most motivated and inspiring mentors and professionals around, because this year’s Summit also includes weekday Deep Dive Sessions. We’re talking in-person, mind you. But safe, with limited capacity. Which means that if you want in — and who wouldn’t? — you’d better click the link down at the bottom of the page, pronto.
MONDAY, September 13
LOCATION: Central Cinema, 6pm - 8pm
SPEAKER: Perri duGard Owens, duGard Communications
TOPIC: Marketing for Growth
TICKET CAPACITY: 50
Got great ideas? Good at organization and planning? How about strategy? Do you know the best way to put yourself out there, and can you measure the impact your various marketing campaigns are having? Chances are you didn’t answer “yes” to all of those.
Perri duGard Owens, President and CEO of Nashville-based duGard Communications, will guide you to all the yeses. Matching strategy with positive impact and Return on Investment (ROI) is her overriding passion, and she’s led countless companies to success for 20 years.
This self-described “late bloomer” can help you and your business bloom, too.
TUESDAY, September 14
LOCATION: The Change Center, 6pm - 8pm
SPEAKER: Sarah Loebner, Towns Toffee
TOPIC: Sales channels. What’s your next step?
TICKET CAPACITY: 20
Sarah Loebner’s love of toffee began in childhood, when her school teacher dad brought home a little white box full of toffee made and sold by the school’s custodian and his wife to raise money for their holiday gift shopping. When the couple were no longer able to continue, Sarah and her mom Cindy vowed to develop the recipe in honor of the family that had shared the delicious gift with them.
Under the name Tennessee Toffee Co., the company’s first product was Original Milk Chocolate Toffee. Now, from its brick-and-mortar location in Sweetwater and online, Towns Toffee offers a full gallery of flavors.
Sarah Loebner built the whole thing because she knows that markets, websites, and wholesale are just a few options, and that not all sales channels are created equal. She’ll tell you the mistakes she made, and the opportunities she intentionally left behind, and why.
Sarah Loebner can save you a lot of time.
WEDNESDAY, September 15
LOCATION: Mighty Mud Studios, 6pm - 8pm
SPEAKER: Nick DeFord, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
TOPIC: The Art of Teaching Art Workshops
TICKET CAPACITY: 25
Making and selling are not the only options open to creatives. Now that people are starting to meet in actual three-dimensional settings, workshops are again a possibility.
Nick DeFord, program director at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, has a boatload of arts degrees, regularly exhibits his fiber and mixed media work, is a published author, a board member for the National Basketry Organization and Tennessee Craft and a highly-sought juror/reviewer. Pre-pandemic, he was a resident at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida. He also does a whole lot of other incredible stuff, and one of the things he’s best at is running, managing and teaching workshops.
Now he’s ready to show Knoxville Makers how to do the same successfully — in person and online.
THURSDAY, September 16
LOCATION: F32 Photo, 6pm - 8pm
SPEAKER: Bruce Cole, Bruce Cole Photography
TOPIC: Product Photography Basics
TICKET CAPACITY: 20
Bruce Cole will be the first to admit that his business is basically organizing and hand-crafting pixels. Photos are what sell products and services online, and Bruce Cole is really, really good at photos.
For over 25 years he’s been working for commercial and editorial clients including Hilton, DLR Group, NASA, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, The San Diego Zoo, HGTV, the DIY Network, TED, Intel, Food Network, and a host of architectural and design firms, fine artists, museums and foundations. Striving always to speak to the aesthetic and technical needs of his clients, he also knows how to bring everything in on-time and in-budget.
Bruce Cole can teach you -- he’s also a lecturer in photography at the UT School of Art -- how to perk up your pix, stop the scroll, and strut your stuff --all by increasing your proficiency in the realm he knows best.
FRIDAY, September 17
LOCATION: Knoxville Arts and Fine Crafts Center, 6pm - 8pm
SPEAKERS: Adrienne Webster, Adrienne Webster Accounting and HASEEB Qureshi, Morehous Legal Group, PLLC
TOPIC: Business of Making: Accounting and Legal
Ah, the business — as in dollars and cents — of making. And reading all the tiny little print, and keeping it all legal. Every Maker’s favorite topics.
Not.
How about cracking open the door a little bit? C’mon — it’ll be okay, we promise.
Adrienne Webster, who owns A.O.W. Accounting, works with and cares deeply about small local businesses. She guided many of them through the pandemic. She understands and supports entrepreneurship, and she knows all about those pesky numbers.
Haseeb Qureshi, also known as HQ, is a Tennessee licensed attorney and technical founder with roots in music and design. Currently an attorney and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Morehous Legal Group, where he counsels and advises numerous businesses, he is also the CEO of Audiohand, a music technology startup specializing in crowdsourcing audio.
Haseeb and Adrienne have optimized their already-considerable gifts in service to others, like everyone else listed above.
And you can be in the same room with them, listening and asking questions, finding out lots that you didn’t even know you needed to know.
Remember: spaces are very limited. So register for The 2021 Maker City Summit and start nailing down your choices!
Go here. Do it now. Themakercity.org/summit
By the way, all sessions will be recorded and available to registrants after the Summit. Thanks to LTW Mortgage for making these recordings possible!