MEET OUR SPEAKERS

No APMM Conference is complete without the distinguished speakers we select to energize, offer inspiration and perspective.

2021 is no different - two longtime makers and innovators will be featured during our mid-day general session. We hope you'll join us as we hear from our very special speakers:

                                                                       Jeff Hoefer, KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Jeff's career spans almost four decades in working with some of the top design firms and companies in Silicon Valley.  Graduating with an art degree, Jeff’s career started as a model maker in 1980 at Atari, moved into master surfacing and rendering in the early '90s working at Lunar Design, then joining the Apple ID group. He became head of Hardware Design at Google and currently is the head of the Digital Imaging Team for Google Brand and Hardware. 

Jeff's experiences over these years have taught him the high value and power of visualization, starting at the early stages of product development, and how to leverage those assets through to packaging and marketing of products. "My career has been heavily influenced by my model making experiences and the value of concepting and creating for designers and consumers over the years," Jeff says. He is a very special speaker this year, as he is one of the founding members of the APMM!

Chris Stanley, FEATURED MODEL MAKER

Chris built his first model as a high school senior. Though he'd carefully researched and planned the project, it ended up taking three times the original estimate. He vowed never to make another model for money. Despite this early pronouncement, Chris went on to work at some of the finest and most pioneering shops in the industry: Scale Models Unlimited, GVO in Palo Alto, and at the Art Institute of Seattle, where he guided, taught and mentored a great number of students who are working, thriving, and contributing to the advancement of the very profession he embraced (and almost abandoned) as a teenager.

Chris is a resident of the Seattle area and is currently actively participating in the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN) where the organization "uses craft as a magnet to bring together people who would not normally know one another or have opportunities to collaborate."

At each and every Conference, our speakers aren't just lofty-minded innovators or industry leaders (though they often have been!), they are real makers who understand the value of the process of making. Because makers gonna make.

Contact [email protected] if you have questions about our virtual event that have not been answered here.