FabCafe Nagoya Opening Day @Online

Shigeru Kobayashi explores methods for people with diverse skills, perspectives, and experiences to collaborate on innovation using open source hardware and digital fabrication, and the appropriate rules for dealing with the intellectual property created in the process. He is the author of Prototyping Lab 2nd Edition and Idea Sketching. He is the general director of Ogaki Mini Maker Faire, a biennial maker movement festival held in Ogaki City, Gifu Prefecture, since 2010.

Born in 1980 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Graduated from Rikkyo University with a degree in Economics and completed the Graduate School of Business Administration at Keio University. After working at ORIX and Mizuho Bank, he joined OKB Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank in 2014, where he was Director of Nagoya Branch and General Manager of Aichi Corporate Sales. After serving as Director and Branch Manager of Nagoya Branch and General Manager of Aichi Corporate Sales Department, he was in charge of a regional trading company project as part of OKB’s future strategy.

Kotaro Iwaoka is the CEO of Hidakuma. In 2011, Kotaro joined the creative company Loftwork, Inc. with the idea of creating the world’s first cafe equipped with digital fabrication machines, “”FabCafe””. In 2012, he opened the first FabCafe in Tokyo, where he worked as the Creative and Operations Director. In 2015, Kotaro contributed to the launch of Hida no Mori de Kuma ga Odoru (“”Hidakuma””), a project aimed at promoting the woods and craftsmanship of Hida, Japan. In 2016 helped open FabCafe Hida and has served as the CEO of Hidakuma since 2019.

Mitsuhiro Suwa is the Co-Founder and President of the new-style creative agency Loftwork Inc. In 2000, with the aim of making a new infrastructure for creative talents, he started up the creative network “loftwork.com.” Using his own experience working as a creative director, he is developing “loftwork.com” into one of Japan’s greatest creative infrastructures. In recent years, he has put a lot of energy into giving seminars and lectures, and writing materials on the topic of the effective use of Web platforms.

He was born in San Diego, US, in 1971.
After graduating from Keio University’s Faculty of Policy Management (SFC,) he took part in the start-up of the FM radio station established by JapanTimes, “InterFM” (FM Inter-Wave Inc.) He contributed to the radio station as the first creative director. After　this creative task, he went to the US in 1997, and after majoring in Digital Arts at the School of Digital Arts, worked as a designer in New York. He established Loftwork Inc. in the year 2000.

She is a graduate of Waseda University’s School of Commerce and Boston University’s Graduate School of Journalism. After working for Kao, she founded Loftwork in 2000 and has worked on more than 200 projects a year, including web design, business design, community design, and spatial design. She operates communities and platforms such as FabCafe, a global digital manufacturing café; MTRL, which explores new possibilities for materials; and AWRD, which promotes co-creation with creators through online openings and judging.
She is also a member of the Good Design Award jury, a member of the Manufacturing Industry Subcommittee of the Industrial Structure Council of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, a member of the “Study Group for Industrial Competitiveness and Design”, and the chairman of “The Bear Dances in the Forest of Hida Co. She won “Woman of the Year 2017” (Nikkei WOMAN).

As Chief Operating Officer (COO), Tomohiro Yabashi leads Loftwork’s marketing department and recommends the best creative solutions to meet market and client demand. He supports Loftwork’s members in their efforts to improve the quality of project results for 160-180 companies per year while making steady improvements.