Irvine, CA, April 15, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This month Irvine, CA will play host to the inaugural make/SHIFT Makerspace Ecosystem Summit (make/SHIFT), presented by California Community Colleges Maker (CCC Maker), California Community Colleges Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy, and the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE). The Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property (Michelson IP) will welcome select summit leaders to an invitation-only dinner on Wednesday, April 24 at the EATS Kitchen & Bar, Hotel Irvine. This VIP program will serve as an opportunity for heads of community college makerspaces from across the state to build relationships with Michelson IP, share best practices, and learn how IP resources are empowering students, inventors, entrepreneurs and creators.

Make/SHIFT will take place over the course of three days and includes a series of keynote presentations, breakout sessions, and networking events centered around the theme of sparking innovation through campus makerspaces. Attendees will share emerging knowledge about teaching the maker and entrepreneurial mindsets sought by today’s employers. The conference will also give participants opportunities to workshop effective methods for building a more inclusive innovation culture, form productive partnerships, and prepare students for careers using proven entrepreneurial makerspace models.

Since 2018, Michelson IP and NACCE have partnered to promote the importance of IP education in catalyzing innovation and driving entrepreneurship. Through their partnership, they have distributed a vast IP education portfolio to teachers and students all around the country. These assets include interactive eBooks, video series, presentation materials and lesson plans covering patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other IP-related topics.

“The Michelson 20MM Foundation is a strong supporter of community colleges and a treasured partner with NACCE,” said Rebecca Corbin, President and CEO of NACCE. “Michelson invested generously in the development of modules of intellectual property curriculum that can be easily embedded into college courses across a wide range of disciplines including business, law, art, engineering, science, and many other fields of study. We look forward to the more than 220 make/SHIFT attendees learning about these valuable open source resources and taking them back to the classrooms in their communities.”

The team at Michelson IP is excited to introduce the CCC Maker community to its mission of protecting creative work at the April 24th dinner. Attendees can look forward to a convening that is engaging, insightful, and will serve as the perfect kick-off to an inspiring conference.

About The Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property (Michelson IP)
The Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property, an initiative of the Michelson 20MM Foundation, addresses critical gaps in intellectual property education to empower the next generation of inventors by providing high-quality instructional content. Its library of free educational resources includes an interactive textbook, undergraduate IP curriculum, animated videos, and a self-paced online course. Michelson 20MM was founded thanks to the generous support of renowned spinal surgeon Dr. Gary K. Michelson and his wife, Alya Michelson. To learn more, visit https://michelsonip.com/.

About NACCE
NACCE is an organization of educators, administrators, presidents and entrepreneurs focused on inciting entrepreneurship in their community and on their campus. NACCE has two main goals: 1. Empower the college to approach the business of running a community college with an entrepreneurial mindset, and 2. Grow the community college's role in supporting job creation and entrepreneurs in their local ecosystem.
For more information, visit http://www.nacce.com. Follow us on twitter at @NACCE, like us on Facebook, and join our LinkedIn group.

About CCC Maker
CCC Maker was started in 2016 with the goal of creating makerspaces across California community colleges, where non-traditional students collaborate with faculty and businesses via an adaptive curriculum that produces innovation-ready graduates. The initiative now counts over 40 colleges that are using the maker model to prepare students for success in STEM/STEAM careers. To learn more, visit https://cccmaker.com/.

About California Community Colleges Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy
The opportunity exists for community colleges to become essential catalysts in California’s economic recovery and jobs creation at the local, regional and state levels. Doing What MATTERS for jobs and the economy is a four-pronged framework to respond to the call of our nation, state, and regions to close the skills gap. To learn more, visit http://doingwhatmatters.cccco.edu/.