Sometimes I shy away from writing about instances of MakerBot being honored for this or that. There are a lot of those things, and I figure readers of this blog probably understand that our products are cool. On Friday we participated in something that I do want you to know about, though, since you are, by virtue of the act of just reading this blog, part of it.

MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis accepted a Disruptive Innovation Award from the Tribeca Film Festival, specifically for “creating an entire ecosystem for desktop 3D printing.” What is an ecosystem without all the flora and fauna? The people who own our 3D printers, or interact with the world of personal fabrication in other ways – by spending weekends in hackerspaces or uploading design ideas to Thingiverse or commenting on others’ ideas and creations – are the people who breathe life into this ecosystem. So our hat’s off to you.

Now let me tell you about Justin Bieber. Read the rest of this entry »

Did the blog seem slow yesterday? Oh that’s only because we were being visited by TEDx celebrity Thomas Suarez, the 12-year-old mobile app developer who gifted the world with Bustin Jieber, a Justin Bieber whack-a-mole.

The Biebs has apparently seen the app and finds it funny. Such a stand up guy, and it’s no surprise he and Thomas are being honored by the Tribeca Film Festival at its Third Annual Disruptive Innovation Awards. Also among the honorees is MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis, who is being recognized for his leadership in developing a cutting-edge, open source 3D printing ecosystem. Here’s the video of Thomas’ TEDx talk about learning to make apps.

 
Here’s a nice little coincidence: Thomas, on top of being a highly motivated innovator and impressive speaker – and a great kid – is a big fan of MakerBot. While in New York for the awards at Tribeca, Thomas stopped by our headquarters. I thought he was doing us a favor in gracing us with his presence, since we were all huge fans even before the Tribeca announcement, but the admiration was definitely mutual.

At every pass through different parts of the office, Thomas pointed out different things to us that only a real enthusiast could know. When one of our technical staff breezed by, Thomas stopped him: “Hey! You’re the guy that did the…” We tried to prompt him with why he recognized Sam, but our suggestions were actually not right. “No, it was the ReplicatorG video!” And he was right.

In the BotCave, Thomas pointed things out to his dad who told me his son was the 3D printing expert in the family. Incidentally, the senior Mr. Suarez was looked over for a VP post in Thomas’ company Carrot Corp., but ended up accepting a Manager position instead. I have the business cards on my desk to prove this relationship. Over lunch with Bre, Thomas tried to gently explain a few finer points to some of our non-technical staff. “Do you know what Skeinforge is?” he asked politely. We do know, but that’s exactly how a skilled tech evangelist speaks to someone he’s just met about something he thinks is really cool.

The Suarez family also recently acquired a MakerBot Replicator. We have been following his tweets and Thingiverse activity, just waiting to see what he cooked up for the Tribeca event. He brought us a sneak peek, and I’ll share pictures of it on this blog just as soon as he’s made his appearance tomorrow.

Good luck, Thomas!