Assessing your Make Works Region

Supporting you to self assess the potential and scope of your region

Make Works started because we wanted to make local manufacturing more accessible. To get more of an understanding of our history as an organisation and what we are about, you can read the Make Works Story: how everything started on our About page, and the reasons why our existing regions started in their area on their About pages.

If you want or see a need to make manufacturing more accessible where you live and / or work, and believe you are represented in the Who can set up a Make Works region?, then we suggest working through this checklist of questions / actions, noting down your answers / thoughts, to further determine the potential and scope of your Make Works.

Does your region need Make Works?

• Make a list of manufacturers you know of in the area What's the scale / breadth?

• Speak to artists, designers and makers and ask them 'How do you find places to get work made?' Is there a demand?

• Set yourself a challenge to see if it is possible to get something made in your region What and who was involved? How easy was it? What was missing?

• Are there other listings of makers, manufacturers, factories, suppliers in your area? If so, how accessible is the information? What is the relevance / quality of the information to your intended users?

What does your Make Works region look like?

• What is the area you want to cover? e.g. city, region, country

• Are there existing / ‘coming soon’ Make Works regions geographically near to the one you want to set up?

• What is the motivation for your region? e.g. heritage, skills development / retention, economy, sustainability, innovation

• Are there partners / funders who will support / resource your region?

• What resources do you have in place and / or need to set up and run your region?

• What finance (cash, in kind, grants) do you have in place and / or need to set up and run your region?

How will you run and build your Make Works region?

• Make some initial goals and timelines How many manufacturers do you want to visit in the first year? When do you want to launch?

• Are there phases to the delivery and development of your Make Works region that fit with your motivation, intended users, factories, partners / funders, etc.?

• What are the existing and potential opportunities to build a community around your Make Works?

• What will your Make Works region team look like in 2, 5, 10 years time? What are the skills, abilities, etc. you will need in the future?

If you would like to discuss your answers to or thoughts on the above with regard to setting up your Make Works, then send an email explaining who you are and why you’d love to start your region to Alessandra Schmidt, Head of Make Works, hosted by Fab Lab Barcelona: [e-mail].