We are all makers
Las Vegas celebrated its maker community at the 2nd annual Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire on April 5th. Held at The Learning Center in the revitalized downtown Las Vegas, the event hosted over 60 makers, and drew a crowd of over 700 attendees from around the Las Vegas area.
The event was organized by Paweł Szymczykowski and the crew from SYN Shop, the hackerspace located in downtown Las Vegas. Arriving early, I loved seeing the passion of both the crew and the makers as they setup up the event. I was immediately welcomed, given a volunteer t-shirt – and put to work!
At 10am the gates opened, and the community poured in.
Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire sponsor Pololu created this video of their exhibit and many of the other areas of Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpsXJkXZ880?rel=0]
Las Vegas Mini Maker Faire had all the amazement and wonder that are part of Maker Faire. I was glad to see that sponsors such as Zappos, The Downtown Project, Pololu, and FSL3D were exhibiting at the event and interacting with the local community, and I even met Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos while at the event.
It takes a large a large community effort to bring a Maker Faire to life – I think this tweet from SYN Shop says it well.
Check out the slideshow and videos below for highlights from the event.
I backed the Robot Army Starter Kit on Kickstarter and it was great to see the delta robots in action. They will be at Maker Faire Bay Area with an even larger Robot Army!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vepMMLzZQQ?rel=0]
A portion of the dark space was turned into a chill lounge with music, LED lighting and projected light patterns.
This flame-shooting praying mantis is located at the Container Park retail & food area next to the Learning Village in Downtown Las Vegas – it may not have officially been an exhibit, but it was still very awesome!
My next maker events are MakerCon and Maker Faire Bay Area. At MakerCon, I will be sharing the results of the Maker Personality & Skills Assessment. At Maker Faire Bay Area, I will be in the Maker Stories Project exhibit helping makers share their inspiring stories with the world – I hope to see you there!