Knowledge Center Vestmannaeyjar (KCV) runs the Fab Lab in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. KCV has been offering personalized support to local and European emerging talents, providing them with access to tools, knowledge, and expertise in digital fabrication and project strategy for a year. This included an intensive maker-to-market bootcamp where participants had the opportunity to learn from experts and use advanced tools in fields such as business development, communication, and supply-chain management. The support provided was tailored to each participant’s needs and included both financial and in-kind assistance to help them build a community around their projects, expand internationally, and create new revenue streams.

KCV placed a special emphasis on supporting projects and creators that made significant contributions to the open source and distributed design field, as well as those that could help achieve long-term goals such as the Green New Deal with practical solutions to environmental challenges. The participants were selected by a jury of professionals from the distributed design network who evaluated the potential and relevance of all candidates based on how distributable, reproducible, and ecosocial their projects were.

After the selection, a first round of diagnosis interviews took place to identify the specific needs that could be addressed in the bootcamp and throughout the year-long support. KCV launched an open call for emerging creatives in July 2022, and announced the selected participants (6 emerging talents, with at least two from other European countries). 

In November 2022, KCV organized a bootcamp to provide the emerging creatives with personalized support in digital fabrication and overall project strategy.  In the bootcamp, the participants learned about the Ideology of Distributed Design, Business Model Canvas, using different tools for design, prototyping, and project management. They also learned to use digital fabrication tools, machines and procedures to work on their prototypes and develop their products further.

President of Iceland, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson visited Fab Lab Vestmannaeyjar after the bootcamp and listened to a presentation about the Distributed Design project, met some of the creatives and saw the outcomes of the bootcamp.

Story by Innovation Centre Iceland