Maker Faire NC recap

The first annual Maker Faire NC was April 25th, 2010, and it was quite a success, with over 2000 people coming to see more than 50 of us showcasing various things we've made.

I ran a display called LEGO DIY, which featured original creations from myself, BrickJournal editor Joe Meno, and Brickapolis. This was my first time running a display by myself and using my own models to anchor a display (generally I'm more active in group layouts instead). You can find information on all of the creations (and the modified set) I did on the NCLUG post I wrote for the event.

I believe that all the photos and videos you could possibly want (and plenty extra to spare) can be found in the official Maker Faire:NC 2010 flickr pool. I'm gratuitously over-represented in there, but for the purposes of this blog I guess that counts as less of a bug and more of a feature. I also have three photosets of my own (I only added a handful of photos to the group pool): Maker Faire NC setup, Maker Faire NC 2010, and Scrap Exchange. The Scrap Exchange hosted the exhibitor's party on Saturday night, which was also a great opportunity for me to see all the exciting things they do there. I picked up a variety of interesting things from their barrels that you can fill bags from - some of which I was actually able to use with my LEGO pneumatics to make a quick repair during the show.

The event was well-organized, especially considering that this was the first time out. It was a great show - my only regret is not getting to see more of the other displays. I'm not sure how long they'll keep the list of exhibitors from 2010 online, but there were quite a few displays that I'm interested in looking into further. Isn't that the point? That we all want to try out some of each other's hobbies afterwards?

Word when I left that night was that they'd start looking for another location in Durham for Maker Faire NC 2011 within the month. Since I will probably be involved again in some way or another (I might do a similar display again, might get a proper NCLUG group display going, or might opt to go the musical performance route with my Mindstorms band instead), I will keep you posted.