Avnet Online Communities Reach One Million Members

One million members have joined Avnet’s online communities, element14.com and Hackster.io, creating the world’s largest collaborative networks of engineers, entrepreneurs and developers who learn from each other’s product ideas. element14 and Hackster help product developers all over the world get work done faster and more effectively. Instead of scouring several sources for answers, members turn to the communities of Avnet (Nasdaq: AVT) for consolidated information on new technologies, as well as access to experts.

“The most exciting part is that our members get hands-on with the latest products, working on real designs,” said Bill Amelio, Chief Executive Officer, Avnet. “Because they learn from real-world project examples, industry experts and each other, our community members are more likely to find the right path to get their idea from prototype to mass production.”

Amelio added, “Today we celebrate our community members and say ‘thank you!’ Your contributions add enormous value to Avnet’s connected ecosystem. By sharing information, best practices and know-how, you’re helping to bring better products into the world.”

Avnet acquired both element14 (as part of Premier Farnell) and Hackster.io in 2016. Since then, the two online communities have continued to experience rapid growth as technology advancements such as IoT introduce more learning opportunities, as well as complexity into the product development process. Combined membership grew by approximately 48 percent year over year and details about both communities are depicted in this infographic.

element14 is a discussion-based online community where engineers collaborate to solve one another’s design challenges. Members can see what other engineers are working on, learn from their experiences, as well as online training, and get help to optimize their own designs. Seeing technology in action and having the ability to road test their projects is one of the main benefits for element14 members.

“element14 is a prime example of how the consistent sharing of information is driving the democratization of design,” said Dianne Kibbey, global head of community and social media for element14. “Our members are more active than ever, and with the support of Avnet’s ecosystem we’ve been able to get more technology into their hands.”

Hackster.io is a project-based online community for anyone who wants to learn about programming and building hardware. One of the world’s fastest growing communities, the site also hosts in-person workshops and meetups to help individuals, whether or not they have previous engineering or design experience, take their hardware ideas to the next level.

“With the support of the Avnet ecosystem, we have been able to accelerate our outreach to more people in more places and offer better learning tools for hardware creation,” said Adam Benzion, co-founder and CEO at Hackster.io. “It’s been fascinating to see our members’ skills evolve as they pursue projects in emerging areas such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, or specific components like FPGAs.”

With a collective membership of one million across element14 and Hackster.io, Avnet continues to engage engineers, entrepreneurs and developers online, and guide them through each stage of the product lifecycle, from prototype to mass production. To learn more about Avnet and its one million member strong communities, check out this related infographic and visit Avnet.com.

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