Thanks for the shout out from Pete Prodoehl of Rasterweb at Milwaukee Makerspace! There are some good shots of Matt and Michael’s Miraculous Midwest MakerBot Tour.

I particularly like the face Matt makes when focusing on a bot.

Is your hackerspace or makerspace on our radar? Whether or not you have a MakerBot, we want to know what you’re up to! Get in touch.

Michael and I have successfully reached the Twin Cities from Madison, WI, in our 10-gallon-tank rental car, learning a little bit about Wisconsin history at each and every rest stop. Tonight we have the pleasure of co-hosting TWO Twin Cities maker meetups to share our pair of MakerBot Replicators: one at the relatively new makerspace The Mill and the other at the hackerspace Hack Factory with TC Maker. If you’d like to learn more about these great places, check out this great piece that came out today in the Twin Cities StarTribune detailing them and the maker movement that has very much exploded in this community.

THE MILL: 6pm-8pm

2300 Kennedy Street NE, Suite #130
Minneapolis, MN 55413
(651) 592.3372
http://www.mnmill.org/

HACK FACTORY: 8:30pm-11pm

3119 E. 26th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406
http://www.tcmaker.org/blog/hack-factory/

There are MakerBot Operators in both spaces that we can’t wait to spend time with. The two places cater to a different slice of the very makery and inspiring community here, so I’m very much looking forward to the two-event night despite the road weariness and confusion about reality that comes from waking up in a different motel every day for a week.

I’ve been dreaming of visiting Minneapolis for years — and have a few friends here who I’m hoping will help me locate the ideal Capture Your Town challenge sites for the Minneapolis Maker MUG to tackle. (Anyone up for a CaptureSession tomorrow in the Twin Cities?) Also, I’ve been told by many American poets (95% of which are published or funded by some foundation, publisher or org in the  Twin Cities area) that this is one of America’s most cosmopolitan communities. Take that provincial New York City (with the demise of funding for individual artists and poets)!

The enterprising will join Michael and me to both events — and perhaps to a late night CaptureSession should we find a suitably lit public art piece to #capture! At any rate, as our evening shifts from entertaining to hacking, feel free to dive in to the Capture Your Town processing and uploading that we will be doing to share back the spoils of our rather intense-but-awesome tour.

This past weekend, Michael Curry and I verified that “everything is up to date in Kansas City” spending time at Hammerspace and Maker Faire Kansas City with the KC Fabricators MUG  and a bunch of the CCCKC crew. Well, we also got a chance to spend time with members of hackerspaces and makerspaces from all over the region, and have now embarked on a mini-tour to visit the home bases of handful of these great folks.

We are particularly aiming to connect with local MakerBot User Groups (MUGs) to introduce the Capture Your Town project — sharing tips and tricks from the field to help each group level up quickly and start sharing things they love about their towns on Thingiverse. Check the slideshow above for the latest snaps from our journey — and read below for chances to meet up with us on our travels this week!

ChiMUG CaptureSession — Chicago, IL — Monday, June 25th, 10am-1pm

Michael and I will be joining Mike Moceri, Tom Burtonwood, and other members of ChiMUG to hit the Art Institute of Chicago Museum and/or The Field Museum to perform some Chicago-focused Capture Your Town. This visit will be fast and furious: definitely an exciting day, all before lunchtime!

Milwaukee Makerspace — Milwaukee, WI — Monday, June 25th, 7pm-11pm

After completing the CaptureSession, Michael and I will head 2hrs north up to Milwaukee to spend an evening with the Milwaukee Makerspace crew sharing the MakerBot Replicators and printed objects we are bringing, and checking out this awesome space and community.

Sector67 — Madison, WI — Tuesday, June 26th, 6pm-8pm

Now, I’ve been excited about attending Sector67 for a couple of months now, after seeing images of Nathan Davis’s MakerBot/Arduino music project. We have heard that there are some awesome MakerBot Operators at this space and I certainly had a good time hanging out with members of this space in Kansas City. When they weren’t elbow (wrist?) deep into repairing their Power Racing Series vehicle, that is.

The Mill — Minneapolis, MN — Wednesday, June 27th, 6pm-8pm

Our first stop in Minneapolis is The Mill, a new educational industrial arts/maker space. The rumor on the streets of Maker Faire KC are that a gaggle of educators will be racing over to join us at The Mill for The Replicator demo as well as to learn about MakerBot’s curriculum resources and opportunities for the classroom. Also, there are a bunch of MakerBot Operators who orbit around this space: I’m looking forward to meeting them!

Hack Factory — Minneapolis, MN — Wednesday, June 27th, 8:30pm-11pm

After hanging out at The Mill, join us for “hacker hours” (i.e. late!) with Twin Cities Maker @ the Hack Factory for BBQ, beer, and all sorts of project show-and-tell and socializing. TC Maker has had MakerBots since the early days so I am looking forward to checking out what sort of 3D printing activity is going on here — and to see who’s running their MakerBots lately!