I just returned from AAM's annual meeting. This conference is particularly interesting to me because it brings together a nice mix of professionals from a variety of museums, including science centers, libraries, historical museums, art museums, and small community-based museums. 

I recapped my experience using Storify, but some highlights were definitely the discussions around maker spaces and hacking the museum. I love that museums are increasingly moving in a direction towards involving communities in production-focused activities and this year in particular it seemed that some skeptics about this movement were being swayed. 

As described by Mozilla, a Maker Party is a place where people come together to do hands-on making. This past Saturday, Hive Chicago hosted Destination: Chicago, a Maker Party that involved over 15 organizations and brought in approximately 1,200 youth and families. Check out a good summary of the event. 

I took part with the Adler Planetarium's Youth Leadership Council, who planned and ran their own activity station that got people making new fashions from old fabrics and clothes. During the course of the 5-hour event,  we likely saw between 300-400 participants, including some that stayed for over an hour! 

A couple of thoughts on the Maker Party:

1) It was great having youth run their own activity! Although a couple of staff were there to help out, I overheard them making connections with participants and initiate a lot of great conversations. Maker parties could benefit from having more youth-led activities, or opportunities for people around the community to bring in an activity. 

2) We tried out digital badging during the Maker Party. Although not perfect, the mobile interface that ForAllBadges developed was extremely easy to use. I still find it challenging to explain to people what digital badges are in a way that I don't lose their attention or interrupt the flow of their engagement, but more on that later. 

Although I love the idea of Maker Parties, I also hope these types of events don't make "making" seem like a special thing that only happens at these types of events and overshadow the fact that so many people are constantly doing "making" at home or with friends. While at this event and a previous maker party, I heard a few comments from adults that they were taken back to their childhoods when their own parents or grandparents would do these same types of things. Looking forward, it would be great to find ways to validate those experiences, connect their own children with that history, and bring them into the community as contributors.