Innovation Hub director Warwick Sabin wants to continue to partner with AMS on events like the Manufacturing Innovation Summit.
The Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub is expecting an even larger crowd than last year’s 3,000-plus for its second annual North Little Rock Mini Maker Faire.
The event is set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 7 in the downtown Argenta neighborhood. Admission is $10; tickets are available at makerfairenlr.com or at the door.
“It’s a very unique event,” Warwick Sabin, executive director of the Hub, said. “It’s the only event of its kind that includes so many different kinds of fun and educational activities around technology, arts, engineering and other forms of creative endeavor. And there are games and competitions.”
There will be “Power Tool Drag Racing.” Entrants will have to build vehicles powered only by power tools like chainsaws, drills, sanders and more. Those vehicles will be raced “all day long,” Sabin said, adding, “It’s just really fun and interesting to see how people come up with ingenious ways to build vehicles using power tools.”
There will also be “Robot Wars,” drone flying, beer-making demonstrations, do-it-yourself science and technology activities, alternative energy programs, bicycles, crafts, workshops, installations and local food.
According to a news release, Diamond Bear, Lost 40, Flyway and Stone’s Throw breweries will be participating in the “Beer World” activity.
This event is being held less than a month after North Little Rock was named one of 13 cities to attend the Etsy Maker Cities Summit by national online marketplace Etsy. Hundreds applied for the designation.
Mayor Joe Smith and the Hub’s director of marketing will attend the Etsy Maker Cities Summit in May in New York as a result.
The Hub is also four weeks into hosting its 13-week HubX-LifeSciences accelerator program for eight startups from around the world. It will conclude with a demo day at the end of June, Sabin said.
He said things are going well so far, as the companies are “intensely engaged” in the curriculum and working closely with Baptist Health and Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield.
Sabin called Hub-X LifeSciences, the first privately funded and industry-specific accelerator in the state, a “game changer.”
“It’s a tremendous step forward for economic development for our state as well as innovation in the health care industry, which is a critically important industry for central Arkansas,” he said.
The Hub is also accepting applications through April 30 for its HubX-Next Gen entrepreneurship boot camp for ages 16-18 that will be held June 13-Aug. 5.
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