About
FAB23 Bhutan is the 19th edition of the international Fab Lab Conference and Symposium, the largest and most strategic digital fabrication event in the world. It provides a global forum for the ecosystem of makers, inventors, artists, academics, researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and creative people to connect, collaborate, and co-create pathways to our shared future—using technology as a platform to support that vision. Get inspired to design our future economies by visionaries and thought leaders from digital fabrication businesses, research institutions, academia, government, entrepreneurial endeavors, and community-based organizations.
Why join us in Bhutan?
✔ Take the lead in shaping trending technology fields such as 3D Printing, CAD design, robotics, laser machining, electronics design, computation, and more!
✔ Facilitate innovation across international borders to improve and sustain the world through shared projects.
✔ Collaborate with innovators worldwide to advance complex and impactful projects.
✔ Learn about the portfolio of education and training programs that support the development of digital fabrication expertise and innovative products and businesses across the world.
✔ Connect with leaders achieving breakthroughs in diverse fields toward a regenerative economy.
✔ Gain visibility across a global creative community.
Event Locations
A Kingdom, the Land of the Thunder Dragon, a majestic country, a growing economy, an innovation community...an adventure!
FAB23 Bhutan will be a distributed event across the country, with its main venue at Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck Super Fab lab (JNWSFL) in Thimphu.
The Fab Bhutan Challenge will take place in the main venue and across 4 different Fab Labs:
✔ DGI Fab Lab in Paro
✔ CNR Bio-FabLab in Punakha
✔ TTTRC Fablab in Sarpang
✔ Fablab CST Phuentsholing in Chukha
The Event Concept
FAB23 Bhutan is a unique event in which the Fab Lab Conference and the Fab City Summit will converge. The thematic focus is "Designing Resilient Futures," aiming to boost the transformation of the Kingdom's economy through the hybridization of local and global knowledge.
FAB23 Bhutan will be an immersive, 14-day, techno-social innovation conference that gathers, connects, and empowers local and global communities to imagine and design our future. The meeting provides a place and a platform for exchange and collaboration, fostering connections and partnerships that can shape a sustainable future.
Join us this summer from July 16-28, 2023.
The Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT and the Fab Foundation are facilitating local accessibility to tools for technology innovation and production. Through foundational research into machine design, machine fabrication, sustainable material production, and use, as well as education to use the tools and materials for sustainable and innovative solutions, they support the global Fab City Initiative and the global Fab Lab network by disseminating relevant knowledge and practices across the world.
Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), the commercial arm of the Royal Government of Bhutan, was established in 2007 upon issuance of a Royal Charter "to hold and manage the existing and future investments of the Royal Government for the long term benefit of the people of Bhutan". DHI, the largest and only government-owned holding company in Bhutan, has shares in 21 different companies operating in the manufacturing, energy, natural resources, financial, communication, aviation, trading and real estate sectors.
The Fab City global initiative is facilitating the connection between the maker movement and policymakers in order to build critical momentum toward the development of this new production paradigm, where food, energy, and products are made locally, using local infrastructure and materials. The knowledge and formulas created for this local production are then shared globally, thanks to the power of the internet.