SAVANNAH, GA -- The Creative Coast is proud to announce TechShop CEO Mark Hatch as one of the Keynote Speakers at Geekend 2014, the innovative pilgrimage bringing together cutting-edge tech and creative visionaries for a series of stimulating speakers, panels, workshops, networking, and amazing after parties November 13 – 15 throughout Savannah, Georgia.
Hatch is a recognized leader in the global maker movement and CEO of TechShop, a membership-based, do-it-yourself workshop and prototyping studio that provides makers, tinkerers, students, academics, and entrepreneurs of all ages and skill levels affordable, open access to a wide range of tools, equipment, resources, and workspace to share ideas, create new products, businesses and jobs, and learn new skills.
Under Hatch's leadership, TechShop revenue grew 20-fold in five years and multiple new locations have opened across the U.S. It has provided members the tools and support they need to launch dozens of companies and create thousands of new jobs in the process. Successful businesses like Square and DODOcase created their prototypes at TechShop.
In 2013, his book, The Maker Movement Manifesto, was released by McGraw-Hill Education. He has been recognized by San Francisco Business Times as one of “Bay Area’s Most Admired CEOs” and by Popular Mechanics as one of “25 movers and makers who are reinventing the American Dream."
Hatch will discuss the impact of the maker movement revolution, sharing compelling and surprising stories of successes large and small. As noted in Time Magazine, there are approximately 135 million U.S. adults who are makers, and the overall market for various maker services hit $2.2 billion in 2012. That number is expected to reach $6 billion by 2017 and $8.41 billion by 2020.
“The maker movement has aptly been described as the umbrella term for independent inventors and designers,” says Charisse Bennett, Geekend organizer. “Seeing the growing interest in the maker movement in Savannah, we set one major theme of Geekend to be ‘Do.Build.Make.’ Other themes include ‘Design.Ideation’ and ‘Community.Impact.’”
Hatch joins previously-announced True Ventures founder John Burke as one of the keynote speakers at Geekend 2014.
Registration to Geekend is $225, including access to speakers and workshops, lunches and admission to all receptions. For more information and registration, log ontowww.geek-end.com.
About The Creative Coast
The Creative Coast is a non-profit organization that exists to nurture the members of the Savannah community engaged in creative or innovative endeavors and to cultivate an environment in which they can thrive.
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