Makerversity: in search of commerciality and long-term thinking
The core focus of Makerversity’s MVWorks programme is building makers’ businesses for the long term.
The MVWorks programme focusses on growth, strategy and entrepreneurship — and would-be participants were asked to explain their practice and to show clear plans for the future.
Ursula Davies, Managing Director of Makerversity, wants to make sure that those taking part in MVWorks are asked — and answer — the “big questions” about their work.
These questions aren’t inward-looking, and instead look outward and forward.
Helping participants answer them — by looking outside of their comfort zone and encouraging strategic, business-minded thinking — is what MVWorks hopes to achieve.
MVWork’s eagerness to question the status quo is echoed by the cohort.
Alex Smilansky, of Mayku — an MVWorks company aiming to make desktop maker machines for indie-manufacturers — is already asking some big questions about the intersection of arts, business and technology.
Alex is excited to pick up skills from all three disciplines:
“[Makyu] are running a business and there’s are some very clear constraints there. The thing I want to learn from MVWorks is [from] other makers, artists and designers who aren’t working in such a commercial space — and how that way of working can influence what we’re doing.”
The selected cohort are exploring a very broad spectrum of projects across many disciplines.
Makerversity produced the below video explaining their selection process, with subsequent thoughts from the selection panel — where art, music, design, and literature were all represented.
The MVWorks programme is carefully tailored to people seeking to articulate how their innovative work can be executed professionally, over the long term, to form a viable business.
Ursula explains in this audio interview how MVWorks fosters that mindset in their participants, and in the work they do:
Long-term thinking, ambition, and entrepreneurialism are valued at Makerversity — and the ability to communicate that vision, and how to make it work, is seen as a key factor in future business success.
