Josh and I are traveling to New York City this week for World Maker Faire 2018. We decided to take that opportunity to answer some of your questions posted in the YouTube Community tab!
This isn’t a traditional project video, so this post won’t be in the traditional style. But, we saw some amazing projects and hung out with some amazing people while at Maker Faire and we’d like to share them with you.
Thanks to Make: for Hosting Us!
We would like to first thank Jess Hobs from Make: and all of the other event staff and volunteers for putting on an amazing event. Getting all of those people together in a super busy city while keeping everything clean, organized, and scheduled was no small feet. There are always multiple stages with multiple presenters going at once, there are live demonstrations, food trucks, information booths, security personnel, medical staff, and volunteers helping people properly recycle their waste. Great job everyone, the weekend was awesome!
If you don’t know who Caleb Kraft is, let me properly introduce him. Caleb is a Senior Editor at Make: and has an awesome YouTube channel as well. He moderated a talk that I gave on Saturday, and if you are a Maker Faire regular, you’ll see him moderating panels of other content creators as well.
Awesomeness: Things
I was really impressed with a lot of the products and projects that people were showcasing at Maker Faire. I am particularly fond of the R2 Builders Club. I like to pick the brains of the R2D2 makers to get some advice before I start my own (so soon!).
I also found the Mandalorian Mercs, a nation-wide club of people making their own Bobba Fest-Style Mandalorian armor. They provide free templates to make your own armor sets and they gave me a lot of idea about making some for my kids. It is amazing to see creative people so passionate about Star Wars!
Being Maker Faire, of course I saw a lot of 3d printers. I saw a Cocoa Press that made models out of chocolate, kids making amazing prototype parts on kit printers, and we got to see the brand new products from Josef Prusa. At the Prusa booth, we were introduced to Prusament, their in-house filament, which is meticulously manufactured and comes in a variety of amazing colors. We also got an up-close look at the new Prusa SL1, the company’s new SLA printer. This machine prints in resin instead of fusing filament and produces flawless prints.
There are some amazing staples of the larger Maker Faires, like the Power Racing Series, the Coke & Mentos show, and now the recurring Content Creator stage where you can hear panel discussions with your favorite DIY content creators.
Awesomeness: People
As always, it is soo much fun getting to hang out with people from our community in real life. Faires like these are a great chance for people to meet up and really get to know each other as opposed to just seeing them on a computer screen. It was so encouraging to meet everyone who came to hear the panel discussions and I got to answer a lot of great questions. People were excited about the new stuff we’re doing here at ILTMS, like the Bits videos and the No Instructions podcast with Josh and I. I even saw Josh blush a bit when someone wanted their picture with him.
Many people brought awesome projects Like Esteffani, from Esteffani Explains it All, brought a pair of LED matrix glasses she made, Jackie Craft, an amazing cosplay specialist, brought a super cool costume. She and Darrell Malone from The Broken Nerd judged a cosplay contest which is a recent addition to the Maker Faire lineup. Paul Jackman was there doing a live wood carving and Donald Bell was there promoting the Power Racing Series. I got ride a tall bike made by RocketProps, and the cool people from the Hand of Man let me pilot the 30-foot tall robotic arm to pick up and crush a car!
Find a Faire Near You!
I cannot emphasize how important events like Maker Faire are for this community. You can be introduced to cool new projects and products, amazingly talented people, learn from your favorite content creators, and get lost in the whimsy and fun of making things. It is absolutely appropriate for all ages and there are super fun things to keep kids engaged like the Build a Fort booth, or the giant Connect Four Robot.
Thank you for all of the questions, if I didn’t get to yours, I will soon enough!
