Cities are the future of mankind, with 60% of the world population expected to live there by 2030. In these cities, makers could be the key to innovation, as local agent with expertise and community power to change things. This is, in a nutshell, the basis of the Institute For The Future (IFTF) project MakerCities. While in Shenzhen for the Maker Faire, the team delighted us with a series of 11 short speeches from as many cities represented by one of their makers. Of course, you can't expect Beirut to sound exactly the same than Kathmandu or Singapore, but still, it's pretty interesting to compare how all these tech activists are organizing their communities and try to hack the city for the better. So you will find here the review of ALL the speakers we've had the opportunity to listen to and discuss with in Shenzhen, representing, in addition to the above cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, San Francisco, London, New York, Hong Kong and Yogyakarta in Indonesia. The concept of "making" is clearly an umbrella for a lot of different things. People talked about democracy, about immigrants mixing in urban areas, about creativity and arts. They also talked about data, life sciences and different generations, youths or the elderly. If you want to know more about the project, just connect to MakerCities.net, designed as an open-source platform where you can also push content about how your own city is a maker city in its own way, small or big, arty or techy, as we suspect that makers, maybe more than the usual software engineer, is one of the keys to reactivate participation in political and local life with a meaning.

1. Maker Cities
11 case studies from Europe, Asia, Middle-East and America
As seen at IFTF meet-up in Shenzhen
April 2014

2. Maker Cities, an open-source project
• Exploring how cities and makers make the future happen
• Powered by the Institute For The Future (Palo Alto)
• Participative: say how your city is a maker city!

3. Shenzhen, world capital city of the Makers
• 30 years ago, barely a village, now, a city of 15m immigrants
• “Get a life, come to Shenzhen”: real people making things
• Challenge: makers need to adapt from B2B to B2C
• The maker you must know: Eric Pan, head of SeeedStudio

4. Shanghai, home of China’s 1st hackerspace
• 50% Shanghai population is immigrant too (China, overseas)
• Home of Xin Che Jiang, China’s very 1st hackerspace
• The maker you must know about: David Li, founder of Xin Che Jian

5. Beijing, where education & gov shape the Makers
• Government capital of China: higher education, special forces
• Beijing makerspace is government owned
• Success Story: Microduino ($134k on Kickstarter)
• The maker you must know about: Justin Wang, co-founder of Beijing
Makerspace

6. Tel Aviv: parties, crazy military and Makers
• 1M population: everybody knows each other, strong network
• City of “crazy parties and militaries”
• “One hackathon per night” thanks tons of events (GeekCon, Kinnernet…)
• TAMI: Tel-Aviv Makers International, a wiki lots of info and bigger makerspace there
• The maker you should know about: Yariv Bash, co-founder of Space IL

7. San Francisco: Tech & cultural capital of makers
• Small city with big culture: 1960s, Burning Man, Universities
• Makers more apt to innovate in civic life than city government (ex: Smart Muni App: 2
days of hack to have a decent transportation app)
• A lot of people build stuff: BioCurious, Techshop makerspace
• The maker you should know about: Eri Gentry, founder of Biocurious

8. Lebanon: makerspace as the only openspace
• Melting pot of cultures but still very divided city
• Lamba Labs: only openspace in town, where cultures, arts & sciences mix in
making new stuff
• Lebanon Election Data, Hayda Ray2na => hack civic life
• The maker you should know about: Bassam Jalgha, hackerspace pionneer

9. London, home of top design & creativity makers
• Capital city of design (John Ive, Paul Smith, Aston Martin…)
• Top “creative disruption” city: punk, acid…
• Strong in branding & retail: Virgin, Harrod’s, Net a Porter
• The maker you should know about: Tim Whitwell, Digital Mission China

10. New York: where makers are community media
• Since the 70s, NY makers create media, arts centers: Paper Tiger TV, Downtown
Community Network, Harvestwork Digital Media Arts Center…
• New makerspaces in New York: Alpha One Labs, Sustainable South Bronx,
Collab, Genspace, School for Poetic Computation
• The maker you should know about: Marianne Petit, NYU Shanghai

11. Kathmandu: makers re-gives relevance to tradition
• A city of temples, ceremonials, handicrafts… how to make it relevant in the
21st century?
• Makers create skateboard with traditional woods (Arniko), lifestyle
accessories with modernized religious design
• The maker you should know about: Sakar Pudasaini, founder of Karkhana
maker space in Kathmandu

12. Hong Kong: hacking the constraints of the den-city
• A city with skyrocketing rental prices and ever-smaller spaces
• Hacking the city with urban farming on rooftops & hydroponics
• Makers transforms old industrial estates into new flats
• The maker you should know about: Jason Li, designer & maker in HK

13. Yogyakarta: more than maker city, a DIY country
• A lot to solve, no gov. support => DIY & makers to innovate
• LifePatch: a mix of arts & life sciences to educate people to make
• HackteriaLab 2014 event + HONFablab for women makers of Indonesia
• The maker you should know about: Denisa Kera, part of Hackteria

14. Singapore: too much rules don’t scare makers
• Top-down innovation and “kiasu” (fear of losing) make community-driven
innovation harder in Singapore
• Mini Maker Faire in 2012, opening of 4 makerspaces (Silicon Straits, Sustainable
Living Labs, Mettle Works and Home 2 Fix)
• The maker you should know: William Hooi, former teacher, now maker master

15. Our project
An exploration of startup ecosystems across the world

16. Innovation has no place in a global world, it’s everywhere
Innovation ecosystems can learn from one another
Local context matters and should be a source for innovators
This is why…
We’re on a world tour of innovation ecosystems!
We believe…

17. A world tour of innovation: 2013-2014
SUPPORT US! Travel & time of exploration isn’t free 
 Custom reports on emerging markets & trends
 Workshops, talks on innovation trends
 Connection to key local players for VCs, brands, tech communities

18. Thanks!
Martin Pasquier, for Innovation is Everywhere
martin@innovationiseverywhere.com