Please join the City of Somerville and the Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA) for the UMA's national conference in Somerville.

UMA is a coalition of over 500 members across 150 cities working to keep people making and manufacturing in urban centers across the country. UMA members are a mix of local governments, community development non-profits, workforce development organizations, thought-leaders, and urban makers/manufacturers. They support their members through their Gatherings, original policy research, toolkits, and storytelling.

And now, they’re bringing one of their National Gatherings to Somerville in May. The theme for this event is Making, Scaling and Inclusion.

As businesses scale-up in cities, UMA recognizes that there is an urgent need to leverage that growth to advance equity. From examining how maker spaces and academic institutions can work within their local communities to build talent pipelines to accelerator programs that support the growth of minority and women entrepreneurs to creating more connectedness with local job-seekers, they need your perspective on how you’re keeping making and manufacturing inclusive and alive in cities.

With less than a month until the event, we hope you’ll consider joining them. Take a look at the evolving agenda (and register!) here. Their events are interactive, with manufacturing tours, breakout discussion groups, and ample networking time.