Oakland Fab City Innovation Center - our findings
As part of our 2019 programs, the Oakland Fab City team engaged in some comparative research to help vision an Oakland Fab City Innovation Center. We visited sites across the country, selecting regions which had Fab City affiliations, along with those which hosted what seemed to be really interesting manufacturing ecosystems. We included a range of educational sites and programs, education and support programs, property development and management companies, and found some common themes, and a range of ideas to inform development of facilities in Oakland.
The short story: there are lots of ways to skin a cat, and the healthiest cities we visited had a range of programs, spaces, and some amount of intentional coordination. The most productive sites had strong correlation with visionary and passionate leadership who took on really challenging problems.
We found a counter-narrative to one of the criticisms we’ve heard - Tech Shop and other makerspaces have come and gone, and haven’t worked. In this report are literally dozens of examples of programs which are working, and have a clear focus. Some are new and might not be able to find their footing, but many are well-developed, and have reached a scale which makes them likely to be footings of ongoing innovation in their respective communities.
We are committed to building this sort of innovation ecosystem here in Oakland.