Joe Spanier is one of the co-founders of River City Labs -- a Peoria makerspace. He's also a co-founder of Midwest Maker Fest, a previous employee at Aleph Objects (the company that makes Lulzbot printers), and Caterpillar. Joe and I have a wide-ranging talk about tech in education, his enthusiasm for making and tinkering, and more. A note: The audio for this interview may be off in parts. The recording software that I use had some issues synching audio up, and so this was done manually. Enjoy!

Session 22 - Joe Spanier, River City Labs, Midwest Maker Fest, and more!

The contemporary landscape of innovation is increasingly shaped by centers fostering creativity, collaboration, and commercialization. The This Should Work* project will outline a framework for creating innovation centers within various organizational structures, including corporations, academic institutions, and cities. Outputs will include an academic paper, a multimedia podcast with interviews, and a toolkit for developing innovation centers. These centers are crucial for nurturing the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.