As you might know Shapeways currently has an exhibit at Dutch Design Week. 
We’re a part of Virtual Making, a showcase of the possibilities of rapid manufacturing.TNO a dutch research institute that does a lot of research and consulting in 3d printing is one of our partners. Another partner is Free Form Fab, an initiative to create a fab lab in the cities of Eindhoven and Tilburg.
A fab lab is a place where people can come to in order to use machinery such as a lasercutters, CNC machines, milling machines and 3d printers to make their own inventions, creations and products(something that we definately are excited about at Shapeways!).
Yet another partner is Design Solutions, a Solidworks re-seller. Solidworks by the way is a great 3d design package that works well with Shapeways. Our other partners are the designers: Wouter Scheublin, Design Drift, Studio Thol, Kocx and Peli Design.
The virtual making stand is made up of large styrofoam blocks and houses a 3d printer, a lot of awesome designs and a bank of computers where lectures and workshops are given. 25,000 people came to Dutch Design Week last year and we’re enjoying talking to all the visitors this year.
It is of course hard man a stand for a week for us but when talking to all the designers, students and other visitors out there it is definately worthwhile. We’ve really found that a lot of people love the idea of the Creator and hope to entice some very talented designers to come to Shapeways.
A lot of people are amazed at how our Dutch Design Week contest winner Peter Hermans’ Punnik 2.0 Waistband feels so organic and fabric-like. People also like a last minute adition to our stand, HeadSpace bowl. This design by Bryan Vaccaro was quite the challenge to print but the face within a bowl is arresting. We’ll keep you updated on all the goings on!