1st Maker Space selected as a nominee for TechPoint’s Mira Awards honoring ‘The Best of Tech in Indiana’

From a record-breaking 211 total entries, 1st Maker Space was chosen by an independent judging panel to advance as Pandemic Pivot and Community Impact nominees

Winners will be announced Thursday, April 22, 2021 during a virtual live broadcast 

FISHERS, IN. (March 11, 2021) — TechPoint, the nonprofit, industry-led growth initiative for Indiana’s technology ecosystem, announced the nominees for its 22nd annual Mira Awards program presented by Salesforce. Fishers-based makerspace design company 1st Maker Space is one of ten nominees for the Pandemic Pivot Award. Additionally, Mary Rinehart, 1st Maker Space President & CEO, was nominated as one of ten nominees for the Community Impact Award.

The Mira Awards is the state’s largest and longest-running technology excellence and innovation recognition program, and the annual gala celebrates the “The Best of Tech in Indiana.” Last year, an estimated 5,000+ people watched the first-ever virtual live broadcast of TechPoint’s Mira Awards gala.

“It is such an honor to nominated for the Mira Awards both as a company and as an individual,” said Mary Rinehart, President and CEO of 1st Maker Space. “At 1st Maker Space we bring learning to life, and during 2020 our team rose above and accomplished this with STEM Take-Out Kits and virtual professional development experiences for educators. 1st Maker Space strives to create places and environments where hands-on learning is both encouraged and welcomed, both in a physical and virtual setting. We bring learning to life.”

WATCH VIDEO recap of the Mira Awards gala virtual live broadcast from 2020.

“The Mira Awards perennially celebrate remarkable growth and achievement by Hoosiers across our tech community. This year’s nominee stories also demonstrate inspirational and remarkable creativity, resilience, and persistence amidst the challenges of a pandemic,” said Mike Langellier, president and CEO of TechPoint. “We invite Hoosiers across the state to tune in the night of April 22nd to hear these stories and celebrate with us.”

In addition to the Pandemic Pivot and Community Impact Awards, honors are given for Tech Product of the Year, Innovation of the year, Service Partner of the year, Investor of the Year, Rising Entrepreneur Award, Tech Education Award, Exceptional Employer Award, Startup of the Year, Scale-up of the Year, and Large Enterprise of the Year.

Nominees were selected by 52 independent judges who evaluated and ranked the applications. In early March, nominees will present their cases and be interviewed by judging panels, after which the judges will select the winners following deliberations. The Judges include company founders, CEOs and presidents, CTOs, CIOs, and other community leaders and subject matter experts. 

Nominees include individuals, community organizations, investors, education institutions, cities, and tech employers with remarkable achievements in the prior year. In aggregate, the 53 company nominees that provided data employ more than 18,600 people in the state of Indiana and they represent nearly $8.54 billion in annual revenue. Also represented are newly launched startups and fast-growing scale-ups that achieved three-digit and even four-digit percentage revenue growth in calendar-year 2020. 

The 2021 Mira Awards nominee class is the most diverse in the program’s 22-year history with 36% of all nominees (44 entries total) being women, people of color, immigrants or more than one of these intersectional groups in an owner, founder or CEO/president role. 

In addition to the 13 adjudicated categories, two special industry recognition awards -- the TechPoint Trailblazer Award and the TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder Award — are selected by the TechPoint and TechPoint Foundation for Youth boards of directors. Both awards are announced prior to the Mira Awards gala in April.

ABOUT 1ST MAKER SPACE:

1st Maker Space designs, builds, and sustains makerspaces, STEM Labs, and innovation spaces to help educators bring joy back into teaching and learning. For more information, visit 1stmakerspace.com

ABOUT TECHPOINT:

TechPoint is the nonprofit, industry-led growth initiative for Indiana’s technology companies and overall tech ecosystem. The team is focused on attracting talent, accelerating scale-up companies, activating the community and amplifying stories of success. For more information, please visit www.techpoint.org.