On Thursday 17th we had a Meetup scheduled in Amsterdam. Together with our community members Eric, Rajesh, Willem-Jan, Victor and Monique we enjoyed the nice atmosphere in Restaurant Barça, located at the well known Marie Heinekenplein.
Eric and Rajesh had met each other already at the 3D MakersZone meetup in Haarlem which was held just a few hours before the Shapeways Meetup. Funny how small the 3D printing world can be!
Rajesh is working on a local educational project in Amsterdam called 3D Design Academy, where he teaches 3D design and 3D printing to people who currently live on social welfare payments. It’s a program that consists of four workshops, which aims on inspiring the participants to be creative and help them start their own 3D printed business to earn money and help them get out of the social welfare system.
Victor is an architecture student from Brazil, currently traveling through Europe. He promised he would definitely start with 3D designing when he returns to Brazil so we’re curious what he’s going to deliver!
Monique joined us a little later during the Meetup. She has her own shop on Shapeways and even designed her own 3D printer, the MOWI, which can print two colors simultaneously. Even though we only hosted a small group, we can say we heard really interesting stories and had a great evening.
We hope to be back in Amsterdam soon for more cool stories!
More updates about our travels next week. Stay tuned!
Ryan & Ruud
Hey Shapeways Meetup Guys!
Rajesh’s 3D Design Academy sounds very interesting to me. I founded DylanListed, a Dallas, Texas-based startup that is transforming the way that job seekers with disabilities who self-identify get trained for work, recruited and retained. [Specifically, we are building a unique national platform for the community.] I know about 3D printing technology and its potential because of my Mom and business partner. My question is simply this: We’d love to speak with Rajesh to learn more about the 3D Design Academy and to explore how its training program is/might be accessible to job seekers with disabilities who self-identify…i.e., job seekers who possess the requisite essential functional skills, with or without accommodation. I can be reached via e-mail. And, if you have partners in London, my Mom will be in London in early May and maybe could meet up.
Dear Dylan,
I am very pleased to hear about your project.
My e-mail is rajeshgharbharan@gmail.com.
I’d more then happy to share my experiences and working methods.
Let’s get in touch and share our thoughts.
Greetings from the Netherlands,
Rajesh (3D Design-Academy)
There’s certainly a great deal to know about this topic. I like all the points you have made.
I enjoyed meeting Rajesh when I reached out to him when I happened to be in Amsterdam for 24 hours (4/27/14), on route to Serbia (my Dad passed away 4/26). He agreed to meet. We met in a capacity of one entrepreneur networking with another. I found it very interesting how Rajesh pointed out that a good part of what he does in the 3D Design Academy is to try to foster a spirit of entrepreneurship in his students by focusing on confidence-building for the future entrepreneurs. I recognized this as the number one need especially for at-risk individuals. We know this from our developing work at DylanListed with one at risk population, namely job seekers with disabilities who self-identify. Notably, per a WSJ article 6/12/14 by James R. Hagerty, entitled FabLab Users Opt for Trinkets, 3D labs, of ‘fab labs” (in my first US home state of Ohio after immigrating to the US) are finding that entrepreneurship, intentioned by the fab labs, is proving to be elusive for various reasons. I think one of the reasons may be the lack of entrepreneurship training, and confidence building for entrepreneurship, that is needed to foster entrepreneurship. Rajesh so observed in his groundbreaking work with one at risk population in Amsterdam. Dylan and I wish you good progress, Rajesh.