Our History

The APMM’s first conference took place October 3-5, 1993 at the Hotel Sofitel at Redwood City, with Kelly Hand as the organization’s first president and Wendy Sommers as executive director. More than 350 Model Makers attended the first APMM Conference, far exceeding anyone’s expectations. The excitement level was electric among attendees, and the idea of continuing the fellowship and professional networking became solidified. Attendees came from as far away as New Zealand. Tours included Apple Computer, Satellite Models, Contour Inc., frogdesign, and Industrial Light & Magic. Participants were invited to fabricate and bring at least one letter of the alphabet for the Great Wall of Letters. The first annual student model competition was held, and prizes were awarded at a banquet featuring Michael Fulmer, the Curator of the Academy of Model Aeronautics. A few months later in the Spring of 1994, the first edition of the quarterly newsletter “Prototype” (Editor Stephen Pombo, then Wendy Sommers) was published and mailed out.

The Mark Plaza Hotel hosts the third annual conference from October 7-9, 1995. Tours included Kohler and the Harley Davidson factory. A desktop “BPM” 3d printer was demonstrated at the conference and that year the Stratasys Genisys and Z-Corp Z402 printers were introduced. The big anticipated movie was “Apollo 13”, with model makers who worked on it in attendance. The AEMS (American Engineering Model Society) officially merged with the APMM In the Spring of 1996 the “APMM internet mailing list” (aka the Bulletin Board) was inaugurated.

Back to the West coast for the fifth conference, which is held at the Crown Plaza Hotel on June 14-17, 1997. Tours included Digital Domain, Donald Pennigan Inc., Boss Films, and Santa Monica Pictures. Special Effects going digital was a huge topic, as was the upcoming “Titanic” movie, at least among those who got to see some of the ship models and film clips. Good thing DVD players were starting to show up for our movie-watching convenience. In the summer of 1997, Barbara Jones was elected President of the APMM, along with a new Board.

The second regional conference takes place on April 5-7, 1998 at the Driskill Hotel in Austin. There may have been talk of a member who was one of the first to bring a 3D printer (Z Corp’s Z-402) to a client’s office, set it up, and both slice and print a part the client provided on a floppy!

Grand Rapids’ elegant Amway Grand Plaza Hotel is the location of the eighth conference on October 1-3, 1999. Tours included Steelcase, Johnson Controls Interiors, Herman Miller, Clarion Technologies and Formed Solutions. It’s possible a few people had gone to see Star Wars Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace earlier that year. BlackBerries, Stratasys Thermojets and SawStops began to show up.

The APMM’s 2001 Conference was the most challenging to date for the organization. As many attendees were en route to California, the tragic events of September 11th unfolded. Many travelers were stranded in airports across the country, some unable to get to California and worse yet – unable to return home. Fewer than 50% of attendees were able to get to Pasadena. The conference took place on September 14-17, 2001. Despite the trying times, and general feeling of disquiet among those who assembled at the Doubletree Hotel in Pasadena, conference organizers decided to continue with the event in the spirit of perseverance and in the interest of those who were able to be there. One highlight of the sometimes emotional event was John Brock, sales representative for Robert McNeel & Associates, performing “Amazing Grace” on his bagpipes, which he fortuitously, although unintentionally, had brought to the event. Many workshops had to be cancelled because presenters were unable to get to Pasadena with the airport shutdown resulting from the attacks. Tours to TRW Space and Electronics, Mattel, Gentle Giant Studios, Pacific Miniatures, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, the Art Center College of Design, CTEK, BJB Enterprises, and Walt Disney Imagineering continued, with heightened security. In early 2002 the APMM rolled out two new logos (the previous 2D logo, arranged into a 3D cube, and 4 shapes with the letters APMM in them), a new website and an updated newsletter layout.

Back to one of our most popular locations: Southern California! The 12th conference took place at the Westin SouthCoast Plaza Hotel on October 23-27, 2003. Tours included Oakley, Herbst Lazar Bell, Roland DGA, CTEK, Prototype Concepts, C&D Aerospace, Crown City Plating, Gentle Giant Studios, Walt Disney Imagineering, and Art Center College of Design. A highlight of the Industry Expo event was the belt sander races - two belt sanders, outfitted like race cars, are positioned on one end of the track and set in screeching, sanding motion at the same time to see which reaches the end of the track first. Noisy, messy, and lots of fun! This conference was held around Halloween so it took on a related “scary” theme, but in reality, brush fires raged a few miles away from the conference headquarters, showering ash on nearby Costa Mesa. Some attendees had trouble leaving town after the conference due to airport delays associated with the fires. The latest paper edition of “The Leading Edge” in our archives was published in the Fall of 2003. There is no mention of it being the last issue, and there is no mention of the Electronic Newsletter (ENL) replacing it.

The Grosvenor Resort Hotel, one of Disney’s chain of hotels, was the headquarters for the 14th conference, held on January 19-23, 2006. Tours visited the Disney Institute’s Behind-the-Scenes at DisneyWorld, the Kennedy Space Center, Mydea Technologies, and Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not Art Department. It was a busy year for Objet, Z-Corp and 3D Systems, who released the Eden 500V, the 310 Plus and the Viper Pro SLA machines, respectively. Stratsys began selling their FDM and Polyjet parts online. RepRap introduced the first “at home” 3D printer. EOS released the first 3D printer that laser-sinters metal.

The Hyatt Regency Cambridge Massachusetts was the location of the APMM's 16th conference, which was held for four days from March 26 - 29, 2010. Tours took us behind-the-scenes at DEKA Research & Development Corporation (Inventor and Entrepreneur Dean Kamen) and Manchester's SEE Science Center, Hasbro World Headquarters and Development Center and the Rhode Island School of Design, Continuum design house and Bose Corporation, and Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Boston City Scale Model, and the MIT Museum. One of the revolutions we experienced is how many people are gaining the means of production. Our speaker, Neil Gershenfeld of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, talked about opening Fab Labs around the world and many members contributed to building a RepRap 3D printer at the conference. A 3D printer explosion was imminent, as the patents for FDM technology had expired the previous year. The first Makerbot 3D printers came out that year as well, followed by Cupcake and Thing-O-Matic printers. “Coraline” is the first major movie featuring 3D printed characters. A new Board of Directors, with Terry Wellman of St. Charles Model Works in Illinois, as President, was elected during the conference, bringing an increased vitality to the organization.

Attendees celebrated the APMM's 18th gathering and 21st year as an organization with an exciting gathering from March 6 - 10, 2014. This year's theme centered on all the tools, skills, abilities, and practice that makes a model maker unique and the profession one of the most interesting in the world! Tours went to Easton Bell Sports, Tesla Motors Factory, California College of the Arts, AutoDesk and Limelab PCH, Studio RED, Specialized Bicycle Components, IDEO, Stanford d.school and Stanford's Product Realization Lab. There was also an excursion to the local branch of TechShop. 3D Systems launched a $399 3D scanner, possibly to entice us to visit their location in South Carolina. The 2014 conference featured the first use of Twitter to provide updates by a number of members. Peter Mack of Steelcase was elected to his first of two 2-year terms as APMM President in 2014, along with a new Board of Directors.

It was in 1999 that we were last in Grand Rapids, so everyone was eager to revisit one of our favorite locations. We gathered from March 16-19, 2018 to explore the many ways that model making has changed and the industry has grown in the past 19 years. Model making continues to be on the leading edge of innovation! Tours visited Steelcase, Herman Miller, Amway, Yanfeng Automotive Interiors, World Class Prototypes, Meyer May House, Gerald R Ford Museum, Kendall College of Art and Design, and Tiara Yachts. Fun and giant electric arcs were enjoyed by those who visited The Geek Group, a makerspace and STEM education facility in Grand Rapids. A new Board of Directors including President Jill Kenik of Acropolis Studios Model Works was elected and efforts to revamp many aspects of the APMM’s identity were undertaken. During the Summer of 2018, a New Logo was unveiled and Forums replaced the MILE, which was maintained for emergencies. A few months later, t-shirts with the new logo went on sale through the website. By the end of 2018, APMM members were using a redesigned and updated website.

Using the same four-day schedule that our Conferences are known for, we were in for a wild ride that meant our organization would never be the same again. We experienced tours from the East Coast to the West Coast of the US, and across the world to Nagpur, India. Our Keynote Speaker was none other than Jeff Hoefer (now with Google) who was a founding member of the APMM. Jeff's early passion for the interests of the professional model maker and his experiences in the early days of film and special effects left a lasting impact on our field. Our Featured Model Maker Chris Stanley talked with us about his career in model making, his present work with the Bainbridge Area Resource Network makerspace, and why he's so excited about Arduino. Workshops ranged from mind-bending to metal-bending, from electrifying to electroplating! The flow from YouTube premiered videos by our workshop presenters to the Zoom HQ hangout was seamless and made for easy transitions and great conversations. It was almost like being there.

In March 2023, for the first time in five years, the APMM threw a real, live conference - this time in Dayton Ohio! Our theme was "Ideas Take Flight" and, keeping with that theme, a highlight was visiting the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base Museum AND getting an exclusive tour of their aircraft restoration shop. Other tours included NBBJ's Architecture studio, the Product Development shops at Aerosport Additive, Priority Designs and 3D Color, and the University of Cincinnati's 1819 Innovation Hub (jammed full of 3D printers and other high tech despite the name.) Our Keynote Speaker Professor Gerry Michaud talked about UC's Design program - which has actually produced a number of professional model makers, too. We celebrated the 30th anniversary of the APMM with a panel of the past Presidents and had an excellent selection of workshops on skill, career, and business building. Our variety of Vendors gave a few demo workshops as well, and valuable prizes were handed out. Later in the year, we had to make the hard decision to say good-bye to Executive Director Samanthi Martinez. The all-volunteer Board of Directors kept the organization moving along though, holding our 50th mid-week Model Maker Meetup that autumn. We began the process of launching a new website, to make connectivity among our members easier and refresh the APMM's internet presence. Finally, we began recruiting speakers, presenters and tour hosts for our third VCON in 2024.