I spent the day at the Re:Make Conference, volunteering part of the time as a cupcake lady. It was very inspiring to be surrounded by a community of makers and other attendees ranging from entrepreneurs, bloggers, techies, social media gurus, etc and yet, are all people who support innovation and creativity. Though I wouldn't ever call myself a maker, I thrive from having some sort of creative outlet and sometimes find myself in a creative rut when I can't seem to be inspired by anything. I gravitate towards cooking, drawing, photography, and even writing on this blog to charge my creative energy and even though no one might ever taste or see my creations, these are activities that I find personally fulfilling.
My favorite conversation of the day was a panel made up of Brit Morin (Brit+Co), Bradford Shellhammer (Fab.com), Craig Dalton (DODOcase), and Zach Kaplan (Inventables). They talked about how ideas are now being prototyped at home to become mainstream endeavors. Bradford Shellhammer and Craig Dalton gave particularly great advice on how to think strategically about delivering not just products, but great user experiences as well via online and offline community building and the power of social media to do so. Everyone has an audience so fans are the ones who can really make a splash in getting a brand's name out there.
