PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Local Motors, Inc., the world’s leading open-source hardware innovation company, will be part of the first-ever White House Maker Faire, June 18, 2014.
In February 2014 the White House announced its intent to celebrate America’s students and entrepreneurs who are inventing the future at its first-ever Maker Faire. The event will take place at the White House on Wednesday, June 18th. It will feature “makers, innovators, and entrepreneurs of all ages who are using cutting-edge tools to bring their ideas to life.”
The White House Maker Faire will highlight the remarkable stories of “Makers that are driving the next era of American innovation, as well as commitments by leading organizations to help more students and entrepreneurs get involved in making things.”
Founded by US Marine and Iraq veteran Jay Rogers, Local Motors is helping to drive the Third Industrial Revolution by accelerating the pace at which ideas move from mind, to market. As a pioneer in crowd-sourced design and distributed micromanufacturing, Local Motors disrupts traditional product development practices by reaching out to the broader, global community of designers, engineers, enthusiasts and makers in order to deliver innovation literally, at the pace of conversation.
To further empower this community, Local Motors will open 100 new Microfactories over the next ten years. Microfactories feature Lab spaces that are open to innovators who are willing to share their projects. Each Lab is also a nexus where the community can pursue STEM education and empower a global community of producers of things, not just consumers of things.
Partnerships with local schools and universities, government labs and industry partners tied to each Microfactory provide the community with unprecedented access to both making capabilities and a platform for ideation, prototyping, low-volume production and marketing. Within five years, Local Motors Microfactories will be training over 1,000 students and will have offered over $1 million in prizes for new designs.
“We have been driving a culture of making things since I founded Local Motors in 2007,” said Jay Rogers. “With our global community of like-minded innovators, and with cutting-edge partners like DARPA, the US Army Rapid Equipping Force, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and GE – just to name a few – we are cultivating a community of makers who are delivering next-generation design and manufacturing process improvements today that will lead to a reinvigoration of an industrial-based economy.”
Click to Tweet: @LocalMotors leading a #NationOfMakers thru #CoCreation June 18 @WhiteHouse #makerfaire. #VehicleInnovation #3DPrinting #Mobifactory
Local Motors will exhibit its Mobifactory at the White House Maker Faire. Essentially a highly customized shipping container, Mobifactories are designed to be easily transported anywhere in the world to demonstrate both the making potential and scalability of Local Motors’ innovative approach to manufacturing.
The Company will share its Maker Faire exhibit with FirstBuild, an online and physical community – powered by Local Motors – that is dedicated to designing, engineering, building, and selling the next generation of major home appliances.
“Local Motors and FirstBuild’s presence at the White House Maker Faire is a great way to build awareness on the importance of corporations working with the maker community and startups so that we can all get better at making things. This open collaboration model is critical to pioneering new manufacturing methods that will help us get innovative products to market faster than ever before,” said Kevin Nolan, VP Technology for GE Appliances.
In addition to educating on FirstBuild’s current open innovation challenges, the Local Motors Mobifactory will also feature MakerBot Replicator2 3D printers printing actual Local Motors production components for vehicles including the Rally Fighter™ and the Racer, as well as a scale version of the Company’s planned 3D Printed prototype vehicle.
National Day of Making
To further celebrate a #NationOfMakers, Local Motors will host a special Day of Making event at their open-to-the-public LM Labs facility in Chandler, Arizona. Learn more about the Local Motors open Arduino Build Night at the Local Motors blog, and visit www.whitehouse.gov/makerfaire for more about the White House Maker Faire and other national Day of Making events.
About Local Motors
From bytes-to-bits, the Local Motors platform empowers anyone to design, build, and sell the world’s coolest machines. The platform combines global co-creation and local micro-manufacturing to bring hardware innovations to market at unprecedented speed. The Company stewards a global co-creation community made up of hobbyist innovators and professionals. This community is comprised of enthusiasts, designers, engineers, and makers. The Company operates a growing global network of microfactories, where innovators create amazing products and consumers come to marvel and shop. We make the coolest machines together.
Makers can learn more and join the Local Motors community at localmotors.com, and connect with us at facebook.com/localmotors or by following us on Twitter @localmotors.
