While Marc-Olivier has to take care of a surprise breakdown of the caravan’s transmission, Phonesavanh and Guillaume hoped in a taxi towards Longueuil for a meeting in a Fab Lab that was inaugurated the day before, at the education centre for adults Lemoyne-d’Iberville. There, we will meet the whole Fab Lab team, and Geneviève Moisan, who’s implicated in the launch of a textile Fab Lab in Montreal, and Frédéric Dardure from Trotec Canada.

What becomes possible?

  • A Fab Lab encourage inter-structure : a school could achieve a project while getting help from different Fab Labs.
  • Conversations regarding education.
  • Integrative projects that diminishes the language barrier.
  • Get to know better our country, bring both Canada closer together.
  • Sharing knowledge about tools and machines.
  • Have “travelling” workshops and people who teach them.
  • Learn about the profession of other people through the flow of people throughout the network.
  • Get to know who’s who.
  • Budget issues:
    • Is it possible to have a “mobile” budget?
    • A shared budget to facilitate travel?
    • How to get private financing interested?
    • Important investment for the whole country?
  • Informing society the importance of Fab Labs (civil society, businesses…)
  • Help companies based on their concerns.
  • Multiply the exchanges, ex.: invite a resident, ask for a technology that is needed, stimulating cash flow. Those meetings can also encourage new ideas.
  • Sites to discover information and how to operate and manage a Fab Lab.
  • The inter-structure would also help to know who are interested in Fab Labs.
  • Get the appropriate help to launch a Fab Lab, based on its context.
  • Learn about the capacity of other Fab Labs.
  • Start the discussion on open innovation at a larger scale; invite universities to talk publicly about the openness phenomena.
  • Develop research and innovation paths between universities and research centers.
  • Organize events together! (could this be a Fab Labs fest in Montreal?)
  • Organize year-round technical support for the workshops.
  • Put forth everyone’s contribution outside of school, their city.
  • Better understand what is in the network…