UMA’s Design Jam event establishes a strategy for connecting designers, makers, and engineers to legacy manufacturers and policymakers, thus opening up new markets, new scalable businesses, new product concepts, and new relationships. The Design Jam very intentionally goes beyond a simple introduction and unites groups that don’t naturally work together — and who have preconceived notions of how the other operates — into a collaborative and supportive environment. UMA’s intention is to foster the change necessary to bring disparate but reliant communities together — and it starts with getting disconnected people to spend more time talking to one another.

These events, at their core, are about building community and bringing unlikely partners together. This includes manufacturers interfacing with designers; students with industry; communities of color with manufacturers; economic development practitioners with designers; and everyone in between. The manufacturing sector historically, and continues to be today, a key source of employment for the middle class and workers without a college degree, which makes up approximately 65 percent of the workforce. Increased opportunities combined with a more connected manufacturing ecosystem leads to a resilient, nimble, and equitable economy and engine for innovation. The net effect is more, better paying jobs with career paths for all communities. At UMA, we work to harness moments like these to connect communities to each other and to new opportunities in manufacturing, helping illuminate the power and promise the sector holds.