Michaels ascends social summit with maker event

A Northern California mountaintop retreat was the perfect venue for the nation’s largest arts and crafts retailer to host the inaugural Michaels Makers Summit.

The recent event was intended to serve as a community-building event for the a group of approximately 50 DIY and lifestyle bloggers who comprise the Michaels Makers community.

"Our Michaels Makers Summit was the largest-ever craft retailer event of its kind. We brought the top DIY digital influencers together in an incredibly inspiring natural setting to further energize their creativity," said Michaels Executive Vice President of Marketing Steve Carlotti. "In our increasingly digital world, bringing these makers together face to face was powerful. We came here as individuals, but we left as a creative community."

Originally founded in 2014, the Michaels Maker program features bloggers who participate in monthly craft challenges and share inspiration and simple project ideas that anyone can make. To further promote creativity and increase engagement with customers, Michaels is offering for free the four classes that were taught at the Summit. The free online classes are taught by Michaels' education partner Creativebug and are available through August 22 on www.Michaels.com.

Attendees at the event shared what being a maker means to them in this video Michaels created.

Michaels operates North America's largest network of arts and crafts stores with 1,177 Michaels stores in 49 states and Canada and 118 Aaron Brothers stores.