Grand Rapids exporting "geek expertise" thanks to The Geek Group

Grand Rapids has a long history of exporting technology, furniture, and automotive products throughout the world. Now it can add "geeks" to its latest list of exports.

The Geek Group has announced that a new chapter has opened in the SoDo District of downtown Seattle, WA. The SoDo MakerSpace will be just the second official chapter of the Geek Group. The Geek Group of Western Massachusetts opened six months ago in Springfield, MA.   

Josh Spencer, director of development at The Geek Group, describes the expansion as a "test franchise" which is the direct result of ongoing demand in communities from throughout the world that want an organization with the same values and creativity as the Grand Rapids-based The Geek Group.

Spencer says the success of The Geek Group is very appealing to other communities and that by working through a franchise model, new groups would be able to access "the largest group of makers in the world," a claim which he says based on their global membership of over 25,000 scientists, inventors, engineers, artists, tinkerers, and general geeks in over 140 countries. 

Spencer also says that by working through The Geek Group, new maker organizations can avoid growing pains by using their proprietary operating system, which can help groups with development, inventory control, point-of-sale, programming, membership, content management, and operations.   

In the short- to mid-term, Spencer says The Geek Group will be using the experiences from their first two chapters to help them learn and craft a scalable franchise program that will allow more cities to establish their own chapters. He says they anticipate adding a couple of more cities in the next year followed by a careful, growth-oriented expansion, saying that it is important to "to maintain our authenticity" and it is critical that "all Geek Groups keeps an eye on our core mission."

To learn more about The Geek Group, you can visit their site here.

Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor.