LTUE Makerspace Kickoff Part 2

LTUE blog Article Written by Nick Mills

Edited by Bren Laken. Article concept inspired by Stephan Fassmann.

LTUE 2023 is a maker space for the mind. Straight up, that’s our goal and purpose.

How great it is to have all kinds of experts come together and lend their knowledge and expertise to help others. Each panel, each presentation, even each person (expert or student) is an active part of our makerspace for the mind. 

When you invite this combination of experts and students with varying experience from different backgrounds into the Provo Marriott Conference Center, the result is electrifying. Our ability and inner drive to learn, grow and create is enhanced by our LTUE vessel on this voyage of learning. We’ve all started from a limited background with limited experience and grown into what we are now. LTUE has helped many of us expand and share our skills. With this diverse makerspace of the mind, we can create all kinds of innovation. 

A makerspace can be less of a physical area and more of a mindset that encourages growth and creativity. It can also be viewed metaphorically as a sort of kitchen you can use to cook up something new. We know that all good kitchens contain appliances (stove, fridge, dishwasher, microwave), tools (utensils, knives, cups, plates, bowls), equipment (mixers, blenders, etc.), recipe books, spices etc. A kitchen is a great parallel to a  makerspace like the ones in many community and university libraries. 

We can extend this parallel to include our LTUE programming.  LTUE is a community of creators and facilitators. Each programming track can be considered as a parallel to the various parts of a community makerspace, and LTUE is a growing community of creators.

Many people refer to LTUE as a writers conference, but we are maturing and expanding. Each track has about 30 to 40 hours of panels, presentations or workshops. Each hour is filled with carefully planned topics and expertly chosen panelists, presenters and workshop leaders (guests). 

The programming and popularity for each of these tracks is starting to catch up with the Writing track. The Writing track is still the most popular, but we have great guests for all tracks. Many of our guests are well known experts from local, national, and in some cases international locations. They join us to help make everything we offer a veritable makerspace for the mind. Our track heads leverage the knowledge and experience of the experts to provide the most interesting and informative programming possible.

Between now and February 2023, each track head will write their own blog article to describe their track programming plans and to share their direction for LTUE 41. Check our blog site from time to time as we share our preparation for the 2023 symposium. As LTUE grows, we hope you’ll grow with us. 

See the LTUE About page to learn more about the LTUE programming tracks and the 2023 Symposium Committee.