Maker City Summit goes big with 30 featured guests in 12,000 square feet
This year’s Maker City Summit, scheduled for Sept. 16-18, will take place in a big, new space that is already well-known as a harbor for creatives and the people who support them.
Since its opening in January 2022, Maker Exchange at 710 Clinch Ave. — part of the downtown Marriott/Tennessean complex — has offered Maker support in a unique retail setting. Included in the 12,000-square-foot space are a restaurant, bar, lounge, den, coffee shop, and a gallery/retail experience/event space called the Curio, which features local artists in a continuous rotation curated by Dogwood Arts.
After two years of remote and hybrid main event + small group limited sessions, the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center is ready to expand the Summit on all fronts. This year, instead of the usual three keynote speakers, there will be 30 featured guests speaking, leading, feeding and just generally inspiring creative small business owners/operators across the board.
Photographer Aaron Ingram says that his passion is really a combination of his skill with a camera and his love for people. His uncluttered, highly individualized portraits have the ring of truth — and that makes him the ideal person to offer individual headshots to creatives gathered at the Summit, many of whom just haven’t had the time or resources to take care of that very important detail.
It was his idea.
“I’ve been working with Apple,” he says, “doing event or lifestyle photography. I’ve been able to travel, do conferences.” Ingram has accompanied company executives — including head honcho Tim Cook himself — to cities such as Paris and London in order to capture in photographs the passion and vibrancy of the Apple brand and the community around it.
“I love learning people’s stories, and I love portraits.” With the Summit approaching in September, he thought, what better way to help out the makers of The Maker City than to offer to photograph them?
“I’m honored to be a part of this. Growing up in Knoxville and seeing how much it’s changed — you feel a lot of pride with your town when you see all your colleagues starting businesses. I’m excited to take portraits of my fellow makers. I can’t wait to see what they do and what comes about!”
Lindsay Brine founded Lindsay Brine Design after her time as creative director at integrated marketing agency DesignSensory. “It’s a fun field to be in,” she said. “I’ve been able to dip into different industries, a diverse set of clients. It’s really about trying to figure out how to tell stories.”
Part of the original design/marketing team for Knoxville’s 2016 rebranding as “The Maker City,” Brine has spearheaded tourism campaigns for towns such as McMinnville, Tennessee; Wilson, Arkansas; and Augusta, Georgia, and done integrated promotions for UT’s Tennessee Fund, The National Medal of Honor Heritage Center in Chattanooga and Knoxville’s high-end body piercing boutique Born This Way, among others.
At the Summit, Brine will present “Your Brand. It Needs To Move.”
“Branding is one of the disciplines in design that I just love. I’m very passionate about it. The misconception is you create a logo and you’re done. But it has to grow, evolve, move forward, change and adapt. I’ll talk about broadening our perspective on what a brand actually is, how to push it forward, and what successful brands do to ensure that.”
With a BFA in graphic design from UT, Brine continues to expand her knowledge. She’s currently a remote student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, pursuing her MFA in Business Innovation for Service Design. The program works to apply design thinking at organizational levels.
Bailey Foster opened the doors of the Real Good Kitchen in early January 2021. Since then, her full-service shared commercial kitchen and food business incubator in East Knoxville has welcomed 40+ member businesses, with a focus on accessibility and diverse capabilities, talents and traditions.
Foster will present: “The Basics of Starting a Food Business — Everything You Need To Know, and Why a Food Truck Is Not Always the Best Option.”
“I hope to provide some insights and advice gleaned from our work with lots of folks starting and growing their businesses. I often tell people, whether they ask me or not, that they should not start food trucks, at least not until they know what they're doing. So that will be part of my pitch too — how to start a food business without a truck. I promise it can be done, and you'll thank me later!”
Foster and some of her gang will also provide delicious food. “I'm thrilled that Real Good Kitchen has the opportunity to be more involved with the Maker City Summit this year. Food entrepreneurship is alive and well in The Maker City, and we're excited to showcase the amazing businesses working in our Kitchen. We will be feeding Summit participants, which is exactly what we all love to do.”
These three outstanding entrepreneurs will join 27 others including the “star in the crown,” Andy J. Pizza, known nationwide as an illustrator and host of the Creative Pep Talk podcast. For a full list of presenters and topics, and to buy tickets — the price of which will include follow up one-on-one sessions — visit themakercity.org.
The Maker City is the greater Knoxville-area community of makers, artists, creatives, and small-scale manufacturers and supporting entities. Led by the Mayor’s Maker Council, we facilitate collaborative partnerships, programming, and opportunities in an effort to create a sustainable creative community. For more info, visit us at http://themakercity.org/.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Maker City Summit goes big in 2022 with new space, 30 speakers
