Santiago Mini Maker Faire 2013—Day Two

10,000 people attended this past weekend’s Santiago Mini Maker Faire—more than double last year’s attendance. However impressive the turnout and the fair production design (kudos Pedro Sepulveda & Mil M2 team—incredible work!), the 120+ makers maintained center stage, surprising, teaching and inspiring. You could feel the epiphanies and the delight going off all around.

As a foreign visitor, it was interesting to see even at “the end of the world,” key Maker Movement platforms are established and thriving: Arduino, OpenROV, Raspberry Pi, Nerdy Derby, RepRap—even valet bike parking—all represented.

Chilean makers were strong and diverse, with Makerspace STGO clearly providing connective tissue. (One great example of this: the Makerspace provided a 2 month membership scholarship for 10 deserving Maker Faire applicants, thus welcoming new makers into the community, and delivering new cool content to the fair. Brilliant!)

Imported star talent Jorge Crowe/Argentina; Landfill Harmonic/Paraguay; Gonazlo Frasca/Uruguay; Burnkit, Molecule Synth and Matt Richardson/USA; and Amor Munoz/Mexico helped mix up the scene and generate exchange.

Some compelling evidence:

Can’t forget PissCO, a robotic drink dispensing machine by Nathan Pahucki and Pablo Castro. It was probably the populist hit of the event, mixing potty humor, a national joke, and Raspberry Pi:

Makerspace STGO & Tiburcio de la Carcova:  take a bow! and another!