What events should Glowforge be at?

Craft & Hobby Association (CHA). They just wrapped up their annual convention in Anaheim last week, so you have a whole year to get ready! You would be competing with Cricuts, Big Shot die cutters, and the like. No lasers AFAIK.

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Scrap bookers/card makers. A colleagueā€™s late wife scrap booked and made cards. The automated tools they could buy blew both of us away. Then I received some cards from her and WOW you donā€™t find those in the Hallmark selection of the grocery store. As I recall one had a cut piece of wood inside it.

Actually, the ease of portability (or lack thereof) of the glowforge is important because serious scrap bookers go away with their scrap booking friends for a weekend. They would want to take their glowforge with them. A friend of mine had a bar with a house nearby that was frequently rented out to crafters. There were four women who would come in for a glass of wine or two every four months because theyā€™d rented the house and were doing their thing.

PAX East in Boston would be great! There is a large Board Gaming section/community that could greatly benefit from having the Glowforge to prototype there games. I mean, I know PAX Prime is in Seattle, but Glowforge should definitely go to PAX East. Iā€™m not just saying that because Iā€™m going to PAX East and want Glowforge to come. Iā€™m probably not biased at all. :grinning:

http://east.paxsite.com/

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The more I think about this, The more I love this ideaā€¦
Tandy would make a killing, Glowforge would be a BIG hit. Anyone that had designs and was there to offer leather help would be the Queen/King.

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Congratulations!
You have all just been hired as the Glowforge sales team!

I think the glowforge could do well at any of the large Signage trade shows. ISA Expo comes to mind.

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I use my lasers to make alot of pieces of my costuming as well as custom name badgesā€¦cons might be a good placeā€¦

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ASMC (Apple Specialists Marketing Corporation) They have 2 vendor fairs at each event. Next event is in the spring. Attendees are all Apple Resellers/Authorized repair centers. Might be a good place to look for authorized repair centers, and resellers. Vendors who have attended prior events include DrBott (We Miss them!) Makerbot, The Grommet, G-Technology, Moshi, OWC, and others. PM me for contact info if you would like.

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Besides materials conferences, hobby conferences, fan conventions, think educational venues such as the National Science Teachers Conferences.

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hey - donā€™t forget olā€™ Europe! After all itā€™s like a devoloping country for makers :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: LOTS of potential :grin:

Iā€™m not sure it would generate a lot of sales, but the NAMES model engineering show held in Detroit every April would probably generate a lot of traffic:

http://www.namesexposition.com/expo.htm

The show is a show case for folks that build and display working model steam and internal engines and there are usually several hundred model engineers displaying their models and several thousand attendees. CNC products are of interest to both builders and attendees so I suspect that Glowforge would gather some attention there.

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Itā€™s our Toronto, ON, Canada Maker faire. It takes place in the Toronto Reference Library. Iā€™ve been twice, always a great flow of people. Iā€™m always annoyed because it seems to be a lot of 3d printers. Itā€™s a really nice space, my best man rented the library for his wedding 2 years back.

Also you can meet me! Iā€™ll show where to get some great beaver tails and poutine. For the record Ottawa does have better beaver tails.

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I second that PAX prime and east might be good venues, and a few gaming conventions in the midwest too. Perhaps GF would like to partner up with some owners? I intend to sign up for some 2017 tables for a few gaming/comic cons a few states away.

Problem is, is that to get a table at these places you gotta put down close to a grand for a 10x10 booth, a year in advance. By now, registration for the 2016 year will already be closed, and I wouldnā€™t intend to register with only bring my intentions to make things. I will be there to those cons in 2017 making custom things and bringing along a lot of product with me.

Perhaps if we were to bring the GF with, to show it off, a staffer would come help advertise for it and subsidize the booth fees? Or otherwise send us a bonus for representing (like a materials bundle to cut up and to use, like some acrylic, leather, and plywood) and to use while showing it off. I know I would appreciate an acrylic sheet for extra use.

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@bailey- I think Glowforge is going to be a great tool for K-12 makerspaces in schools. How about the Future of Education Technology Conference? http://fetc.org/ Our school has a Glowforge on order and Iā€™ll most likely be presenting it at the conference next year (an unofficial Glowforge presentation based on my experiences with my K-5 classes). 10K+ attendees, itā€™s always in Orlando in January (how bad could that be?). Iā€™d be happy to make it an ā€œofficialā€ presentation, just let me know.

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Obviously, it is not a big venue, but www.knoxmakers.org extended an invitation to glowforge to talk at their location in Oak Ridge, TN or at their new expanded facility in Knoxville when it is complete.

I recommend Photoshop World! I saw another laser vendor there and that is where my interest in getting a laser cutter came from. Glowfordge would be a big hit!

AdobeMAX.

This fall it will be in SanDiego (had been in LA the last 3-4 years). 7000 or so creative types all in one conference. There was another laser cutter company there last October, and I talked to them at length about Glowforge and the price point relative to their $10,000+ system.

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Hey @dan I think the National Youth Science Camp would be an awesome place to demo the glowforge this summer. There are lots of eager campers there that would like to see what a fellow camper has achieved and many future purchase prospects, including the camp and STEM center. http://www.nysf.com/w/

Boy Iā€™d love to go back, too. Miss the rhododendrons.

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Meet you there. Thatā€™s only a long lunch drive for me. Rhododendrons all around my deck.

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