element14 takes home Makey award for "best education/outreach program" at World Maker Faire New York

LONDON, Oct. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- element14, the first collaborative community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts and a part of global electronics distributor Premier Farnell [LON:PFL], has won the 2012 Makey Award for the "Best Education/Outreach Program," awarded at this year's World Maker Faire New York.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110216/CG49295LOGO)

Beating competition from Intel, NASA and Autodesk with an overwhelming majority of the votes, element14 was recognized for its work in providing education and support to the growing 'maker' community through its forums, tutorials and videos. Drawing a crowd of makers from across the globe at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, N.Y., on Sept. 29, the award ceremony was hosted by MAKE contributing editor, Matt Richardson, MAKE editorial director, Gareth Branwyn, and makezine.com contributor, Gillian BenAry. 

"It's fantastic to be honored with a Makey Award," said Dianne Kibbey, global head of community at element14. "Against such tough competition, we have proven that the concept of 'community' is more than just a marketing idea, with daily examples of engineers that are blazing a trail by utilizing the platform to source solutions and innovate in their design processes via peer-to-peer collaboration. And our metrics prove it; not only do we have over 120,000 registered users representing 130 countries, our participation rates have increased 40 percent in the last 6 months—a really stellar level of engagement."

element14 community members, friends and supporters also walked away with Maker accolades this year. Eben Upton's Raspberry Pi won for the "Most Hackable Gadget" while mod guru and host of element14's "The Ben Heck Show," Ben Heck, received a Maker Editor's Choice for his PrinterBotGo mod. In addition, community expert Jeri Ellsworth walked away with this year's prestigious Maker Hero Award for her relentless dedication to hacking, making and driving innovation.

"We congratulate all of this year's Makey recipients and commend the technology contributions and support from each individual towards the maker movement," continued Dianne.  "Committed to supporting the ongoing exchange of ideas, the element14 community is also being considered for another prestigious award – the Groundswell award from Forrester research – and we encourage people to visit and vote online to show support."

More information about element14 and its resources available to design engineers, makers and hobbyists is available online. 

Editor's Note: A hi-res image of the award is available at http://mkt-element-14.com/files/janice/Makey.jpg

About element14
Launched in June 2009, element14 is the first information portal, collaborative community and electronics store specifically built for electronic design engineers. The community recently unveiled its element14 knode, a unique automated platform that enables engineers to quickly research, design, develop and prototype in a single, intelligent environment. element14 is an innovative offering from Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl), FTSE 250, a leader in multi-channel electronics distribution trading throughout Europe (Farnell), the Americas (Newark) and Asia Pacific (element14). The company had group sales of £990.8m and underlying profits of £93.3m last year.

About Premier Farnell
Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl) is a global leader in high service distribution of technology products and solutions for electronic system design, maintenance and repair. Its differentiated proposition includes 29 local language transactional websites, and the critically important element14 Community for design engineers – an industry first (www.element14.com). With sales last year of £990.8m and underlying profits of £93.3m the Group distributes its comprehensive portfolio of products and services throughout Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, supported by a global supply chain of over 3,500 suppliers and an inventory profile developed to anticipate and meet its customers' needs.

While global in scope, Premier Farnell recognises the individual needs of each market and has continued to internationalise its model accordingly. It trades locally as Farnell in Europe, Newark/element14 in North America and Mexico and Farnell Newark in Brazil. Across Asia Pacific the business trades as element14.

For news updates from Premier Farnell visit:

Premier Farnell News Centre – www.premierfarnell.com/premier_farnell/publicrelations/
Twitter - @element14news
Facebook – /element14page
Or contact:
Email: [email protected]

Americas Contact:
Janice Fleisher, Communications Americas
Tel: 773 907 5941    E-mail:[email protected]

SOURCE element14