The 1-1/2 day event kicks off with a VC panel, "Pitch Your Prototype," and "Getting Started, case studies of maker pros with early stage products. The Innovation Showcase follows, a unique opportunity to casually engage with over two dozen makers who have their cutting-edge products and devices on display. Creating an almost magical atmosphere where hardware innovation and creative genius generates spirited ideation, the Innovation Showcase is not to be missed.
Wednesday was an all-star lineup with over 30 speakers representing leading entrepreneurs and thought leaders at the forefront of the maker movement. Investors, industrial designers, product development teams - anyone looking for insight into the early stage companies with the potential to change the global business landscape - should attend.
5. • Resource lock
• Tyranny of scale
• Users are sold, not
inspired
A broken paradigm
• Deep, variable use
• Digital = fluidity
• Tools, not products
What’s wrong Emerging opportunities
- 2 years ago, started experimenting with 3d printed toys. - As a product developer, I wanted to know - Is it really possible to create high-quality, printed toys. Not novelties, but real working toys? - What advantage does additive manufacturing provide? - What is the REALITY of product-on-demand and what is hype? - Meet Mo- core item and test bed that we’ve been building a new proto-business around. - a DIY play system that lets users design, build and customize their own toys. We call it ModiBot
Builder - grew up in the 70’s, before content completely drove toy sales- toys had to be fun - gravitated toward toys featuring interchangeability. - owned nearly every building system you can think of - stack of unfinished model kits- no value, their design was locked and when I added glue, they stayed that way forever. Independent character designer & storyteller - Started career during independent explosion in comics. - Self publishing revolution that is similar to the maker movement of today. Professional- - Head of design for pop-culture mega-brands - developed insights about what people love and why - fortunate to work on several building-based brands - like model kits, the job lost its luster as when the system kept pushing toward predictable solutions Free agent - Started Dynamo DevLabs as a concept lab to develop new ways of speaking to kids through toys and story. - The goal was to consult AND self publish - over time self-publishing became less and less of the focus. What we found is that all our mass-market skills didn’t make much sense without access to corporate resources. We had to retool for more self-sufficiency if we were going to bring our own ideas to life.
Using Shapeways as a foundation, we started building an interchangeable system of parts (400 and growing) that let users design, build and customize their own toys. - uses a combination of 20 different universal connectors. - designed to be a free form builder - helps users bring their own ideas to life. - As far as products go, this fairly conventional, there are thousands of building toys, especially using ball connectors. - What makes modibot important isn’t necessarily WHAT we’ve built, but WHY...
The processes for manufacturing and distributing products might be the most waste-filled system on the planet. Most mass-market producers are terrible at aligning with real wishes and insights- When we look at the system, what we see is a string of bad decision driven by context and ritual, not reality. Resource lock, end of the line for that resource- its dead. its spent. Scale- product-based system incentives are structured in a way that you actually increase scale to reduce risk- value is stored as product- at mass retail you have 4-6 weeks to prove yourself or you’re off the shelf - Sold- current system is HEAVY on persuasion costs, Current system talk a lot about features, but rarely provides huge benefits. Seth Godin quote- Advertising is an apology for a bad product. Variable use- ‘living’ ecosystem of variable use parts- each new part adds value to the old- dynamics- Fluidity- with digital delivery, value is stored as bits and printed on demand- hedge against your effort- Tools- people want to create, more intrinsic value, value of tools is self evident tools multiply value- sampling, not sensation-- when you combine these hi waste, hi churn activities with corporations increased efficiencies leading to layoffs of huge chunks of the professional population, you can see the who product paradigm is rife for disruption. The important thing here is like myself, huge chunks of the population will need to completely retool themselves for the next economy or be left behind.
What are we finding in our exploration? 3d printing is not a replacement for conventional. Right tool for the right job- Hardware (actually firmware)/software. When you layer existing print technologies, user insights and proximity of 3d printers, some patterns emerge- but also the notion of how to connect with specific user types where they already are shopping and/and building community. Print marketplaces- personalization-artisans hobbyists- given the nature of our toys we prefer SLS polymide over ABS or , Conventional molding- niche toy enthusiasts/builders, desktop fabricators and their families find consumer by lifestyle
Building custom characters, giving as personalized gifts, stop motion armatures, tinker platform, poseable mannikin for drawing. People are custom dying and marker coloring parts, modifying accessories for new applications and publishing online.
Right now, we’re a conventional product built and delivered through unconventional means. Over the next 6 months, we’ll be exploring better ways to deliver products that utilize the benefits of 3d printing from a design standpoint, expand into new products that can still use our free-build and customization approach. We just started an html 5 web app for custom assembling figures in prep for ordering. users will have the chance to play with the parts prior to purchase Hobbyist- boutique-appeal long tail dynamics- overlap between digital natives/gamers, neo-makers (families), toy/building enthusiasts
Challenges- Maturity- we’re on the frontier, still -, Commercial confidence- transparency, toxicity Safety and Liability laws Consumer appeal- overcoming the ‘less-than’ factor
