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When four experts on the \u201cdo-it-yourself economy\u201d gathered at Montclair State on Sept. 30, the event<\/a> included a discussion on the impact of gender on the maker and DIY communities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Grommet\u2019s co-founder and CEO, Jules Pieri, said the success of women in crowd-funding, a grass-roots method of raising money for a venture, is one of the most optimistic things she has seen in the maker movement. Pieri said women are behind 47 percent of the successful projects that are crowd-funded.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re acting on it,\u201d Pieri said about women, adding she has not seen as many barriers nor lack of participation in the maker area as she has in other tech areas.<\/p>\n The discussion was part of a Montclair Entrepreneurs Meetup<\/a> event presented by the university\u2019s Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship<\/a>. About 225 people attended. NPR\u2019s Marketplace Morning Host David Brancaccio was the keynote speaker and then moderator for a panel that included Pieri, Jeff Wald, co-founder and COO of Work Market, and Marc de Vinck, professor Practice in Creativity at Lehigh University.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very open community,\u201d said de Vinck about the maker arena. He noted that in the DIY economy, it\u2019s all about what you make, not who you are.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really takes that gender bias out,\u201d de Vinck said. \u201cI don\u2019t really care if you\u2019re male or female\u2026it\u2019s what you make.\u201d<\/p>\n Wald said that gender becomes irrelevant at his company, which pairs contract workers with high-level assignments at companies. Work Market uses an algorithm where employers rate how a freelancer did on an assignment, and that measure\u2014not gender\u2014becomes key in landing future work.<\/p>\n The panel was also asked what a professor could teach students about how to be good makers in the DIY economy.<\/p>\n Pieri said it is important for makers to assess a market before quitting a job or investing money.<\/p>\n Wald, who said he was answering about entrepreneurs instead of makers, said adaptability is key.<\/p>\n De Vinck talked about the importance of creativity. \u201cWe\u2019re all born creative and somewhere along the line we lose that creativity, and you can\u2019t be innovative without creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n View photos<\/a> shot by university photographer Mike Peters.<\/p>\n