Five years ago, when the city of Rome hosted the very first Maker Faire Rome, the wheels were set in motion for what is now both the largest gathering of makers and most robust celebration of innovation in all of Europe. There’s no end in sight to its exponential growth. While the inaugural Maker Faire Rome, also known as The European Edition, welcomed roughly 36,000 attendees, featured almost 250 maker projects, and had 12 sponsors, last year’s event hosted 110,000 attendees, 649 projects, and 88 sponsors.
This growth is a result of both a dedicated team of organizers and unwavering community interest and support. Last year, the organizing team reviewed 1,200 maker applications from 60 different countries. Without a doubt, if you’re a maker, university, research center, or school doing interesting work, there is no better place to share your innovation in Europe. This year’s Maker Faire Rome, with its focus on Industry 4.0, takes place December 1–3 at the Fiera di Roma and is once again promoted by Rome’s Chamber of Commerce and organized by its agency Innova Camera.
The call for proposals is now open, with a deadline of:
- Makers: call extended—new deadline: OCTOBER 1
- Universities and Research Centers: call extended—new deadline: SEPTEMBER 30
- Schools: still OCTOBER 20
Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino and Maker Faire Rome curator, puts it best in a short video they just released:
If you simply want to go to the Maker Faire and see some great ideas, great people, you want to maybe change your life, you want to invent a new job, or you simply want to spend a few days with a bunch of very clever people, the Maker Faire is a great place to do that, and so is Rome.
Call for Makers
Maker Faire Rome is a great celebration of invention, open to all forms of applied creativity, from the most serious to the most imaginative, from new technologies to traditional arts and crafts. They do specifically encourage creative, innovative, funny, interactive, or educational projects, but all types of projects are welcome. Having an exhibit at Maker Faire means high visibility and lots of fun, business contacts, and networking opportunities with fellow makers from all over the world. For all the details you need, including a link to the application, check out the Call for Makers.
Areas of Interest
- Inventors and innovators: Innovative products, prototypes, patents, research projects, startups, crowdfunding
- Innovative craftsmen: Tools and techniques for digital fabrication, from 3D printing to CNC machines, from creative woodworking and metalworking to digital techniques for fashion and design
- Electronics: From microcontrollers to retro-computing, from sensors to IoT, from circuit bending to hacking, from machine learning to open hardware
- Food and agriculture: Innovations in food (including machines, robotics, techniques for preparation and conservation) and agriculture (agro-tech, rural innovation, automation, monitoring)
- Robotics and machines: From wheel robots to animatronics, from humanoids to Goldberg machines, from artificial intelligence to industrial automation
- Health and quality of life: Projects for improving the lives of disabled people, biomedical products, accessories for sport, projects about the human body
- Art, interaction and games: Projects using light, darkness, sound, music, robotic art, creative coding, musical instruments, virtual reality, and interactive installations
- Science, chemistry, engineering: Science exhibits and experiments, laboratories and shows for kids and adults
- Energy, sustainability, recycling: From renewables to upcycling, from recycling of materials to repair culture, from water and environment, from green architecture and smart mobility
- Large-scale projects: Innovative or playful, static or moving, sculptural or technologic. These giant projects are always the great attractions that visitors always remember.
- Projects about this year’s theme: The future belongs to everyone. Innovation (when open, inclusive, bottom-up) is the only way to a better world.
- Also: Drones, bicycles, projects for cultural heritage, photography, security, and any other topic not listed here
You can participate in Maker Faire even if you don’t have an innovative project. You just have to have something to show and a willingness to teach and share your skills and experience. We’re all makers, and everybody want to learn from makers!
Awards
- For each one of the categories listed above, the most innovative and creative projects will be given an award
- Projects about health and disability participate in the Make to Care contest
- More prizes to be announced!
Ways to Participate
- Projects worth exhibiting: Selected applicants will be given a pre-set free booth (table + chairs) inside the exhibiting halls, strategically located so they are on display for people looking to discover interesting projects.
- Amazingly entertaining presentations: Selected applicants will be given a free room (or a stage) to give their project presentation/speech, tell a story, or engage the audience in the issue they are keen to discuss.
- Super cool workshops: Selected applicants will be assigned a workshop area where they can host interactive sessions and engage participants — adults and/or children — in hands-on activities.
- Performances: Selected applicants will be given a free space (or a stage) for them to perform in creative, technological, robotic, musical, or pyrotechnic performances.
Things to Know
- Selected projects will enjoy free participation!
- Sale will be allowed.
- Applications will be evaluated by the curators.
- The standard exhibit includes a shell scheme booth with two tables and two chairs. Alternately, there’s also a dark room (for projects that use light in spectacular ways), large drone stage, water pool, and outdoor spaces of various sizes for larger-scale attractions.
- After the public gates close, the Maker Networking Party begins
- For any questions, please write to makers@makerfairerome.eu
Call for Universities and Research Institutes
Do you have an innovative project that you’d like to share with the public at Maker Faire Rome 2017? The objective here is to shine the spotlight on innovation, through the spreading of digital culture and development of individual and collective entrepreneurship, by displaying the projects of state universities and public research institutes. A qualified jury will select the most innovative projects to attend. Each university or research institute may submit one or more projects and select one or more modes of participation. For all the details you need, including a link to the application, head to Call for Universities and Research Institutes.
Ways to Participate
This call is open to all public universities and research institutes who wish to share their proposed project with the Maker Faire Rome audience.
- Exhibiting the project: In order to allow visitors to experience the project, an area (either an open space or a shell scheme) will be provided.
- Presenting the project to the public: A room or stage will be provided, where makers may talk about their project or tell their story.
- Holding a workshop: An area will be provided where makers can hold interactive presentations in order to involve the participants in hands-on activities.
Call for Schools
In 2016, 25,000 students attended the special preview Education Day. During the Faire, in the Kids Area, 12,500 kids took part in the workshops. Are you still in school but have an innovative project that you’d like to share with the public at Maker Faire Rome? The Call for Schools is open to educational institutions that belong to the countries of the European Union (14–18 years of age). A jury will pick the most innovative projects, which will be featured in an area dedicated entirely to schools! Participation is free of charge. Come show off the creativity, passion, and ingenuity you’ve created. Maker Faire Rome will provide you with a space and great visibility, plenty of contacts, and loads of fun. For all the details you need, including a link to the application, head to Call for Schools.
All participating projects will be prominently displayed on the Maker Faire Rome website, and will have exposure to national and international newspapers, radio, and television!
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