In March of 1999, a small group of ShopBot owners and other folks curious about CNC met in Bill Young’s shop on the coast of Virginia for the first of what was to become “ShopBot Camps.” Although these informal gatherings of ShopBot owners were sponsored by ShopBot, they were never intended to be sales tools, but simply a gathering of folks with a similar interest… making things with a ShopBot.
Although each one was unique, they almost always included a couple of presentations by ShopBot luminaries on topics like what’s new at ShopBot and cool projects they had worked on or heard about. At the heart of the gatherings is always the attendees sharing what they had created or what they wanted to create. It was networking before networking was a thing!
The camps program has faded over the years but the interest and need never did. With that said, we want to breathe some new life into camps and are starting to collect names of people that are interested in hosting one in their area. The only real requirements are that you have some flavor of ShopBot, that you have room for 15-50 people, and that you might enjoy having strangers take over your shop for a day. We’ll spring for something tasty for breakfast and lunch, pay for renting whatever extra chairs etc. that you need, and will send someone to be ringmaster… maybe even Bill. As a bonus, it’s a good excuse to clean your shop up just a little!
If your shop won’t work for a camp (or you really just don’t want to clean it), but you’re still interested in being a host, maybe you know of a local business that might be a good venue: a restaurant with a big meeting room, a local makerspace, or a school with a ShopBot, to name a few. Get in touch and we’ll see what we can arrange. If this sounds like something that’s up your alley, get in touch with us at campshopbot@gmail.com with a few details, where you are, what you do, etc. and we’ll add you to the list.
If you’re not familiar with ShopBot Camps, you can find a pile of camp reports here on the ShopBot blog: http://www.shopbotblog.com/category/campshopbot/