The annual international meeting of FabLabs, FAB9, was held in Japan this year in Yokohama. FabLabs from all over the world came together to meet each other, to exchange knowledge, participate in special workshops and events, listen to lectures and present their research results.
Hiro Tanaka and his dream organizing team had outfitted a super FabLab for the event and crafted an incredible week of learning and making. Of course, founder Neil Gershenfeld was present at the conference. New labs presented themselves (like FabLab Parimaribo from Surinam) and the graduates of the most recent Fab Academy were announced.
From Fablab Amsterdam, Alex Schaub participated in the conference programme and presented our Makers Guild to the audience, that makes the connection between biotech, craftmanship and digital fabrication. A record number of 200 participants gathered in Japan. According to some calculationg there might be more than 400 FabLabs in the world now, but the organisation itseld estimates this about 200. The next FAB conference will be held in Barcelona.
