Maker Faire Shenzhen 2019 has finally concluded on November 10 at the Vanke Design Commune. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all sponsors, partners, makers, volunteers, performers and visitors for making Maker Faire Shenzhen 2019 a huge success this year! This year, we had 108 maker booths from all over the world, over 30 workshops, and 3 forum sessions with over 30000 visitors. It was really heartening to see all the happy faces on visitors and exhibitors alike, with optimism and excitement spreading around people from all walks of life.
This year, the key focus is on 17 Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) adopted by all UN members wince 2015, with sustainable growth being the main topic for our forums and exhibitions. Visitors were also encouraged to go green by taking public transport, and our Maker Faire guides were in an e-pamphlet format to reduce paper wastage and promo. Many of our exhibitors also focused on different aspects of sustainable development, aiming to solve the 17 UN SDGs through unconventional inventions.
Venue
This year, we held MFSZ2019 at the maze-like Vanke Design Commune, with the whole exhibition looking like a 3D labyrinth. The Design Commune is a futuristic space where clusters of companies ranging from design, hardware, software and other tech congregate to form a whole industrial ecosystem and community.
Located at the core of this strategic emerging industry cluster, the booths are tucked inside this design and innovative space, giving a whole new experience to exhibitors and visitors alike.
Exhibition
Creativity. Innovation. Sharing. With Maker Faire being more than a decade old, we’ve seen its evolution in the past years. But Maker Faire 2019 is a little bit different from the previous Maker Faires. This year’s theme is “To the Heart of Community, to the Cluster of Industry” — not only was this a weekend of fun and play, but it is also an avenue for industrial collaboration. By inviting many professional audiences from key industry sectors, we hope that MFSZ2019 can be a bridge that links makers with sustainable solutions to companies looking for innovation and sustainable development, sparking innovation and opening the doors to immense possibilities.
Check out the winners of the Blue Ribbons, which are only given to makers of merit here!
We even categorized the makers’ projects based on their target SDGs, highlighting and emphasising the importance of sustainable development in the future of the maker industry. This includes projects such as BioMer from Thailand, which reduces and recycles plastics combined with organic material to create a biodegradable plastic that degrades in 5 years.
Another highlight is SenseCAP, a smart agricultural solution that helps to increase agricultural output by integrating IoT technology into the traditional agricultural industry.
More highlights of our exhibition…
Flamethrower Hat
The Flamethrower Hat is designed by Jeffrey Gough, a designer, engineer, and creator, who is also a member of the Makerversity, a maker space in the UK. He initially made it for the Burning Man, an event held annually in the western United States at Black Rock City. Kids and adults at Maker Faire loved watching flames spurting out of his hat, and he brought much joy and laughter to MFSZ2019.
Robot Band
Made by a Japanese maker, Tetsuji Katsuda, the Robot Band and is made up of four 80cm robots controlled with a laptop. One is responsible for playing the drums, one is responsible for singing and one is responsible for playing the xylophone. The last one is a fortune-telling robot, which can tell you your luck by writing your fortune in Chinese calligraphy.
Cardboard T-Rex
ROAR~ From the country of Singapore, we have a cardboard T-rex, the brainchild of a full-time carton sculptor Bart. This T-rex is equipped with a sound and ultrasonic sensor, and reacts to sounds by coming to life! Look at those glowing eyes and massive roar from this T-rex! It will even move its limbs and summon a giant python, isn’t that cool?
Robot Combat
What better way to showcase your robot other than a little competition? With 3 different events: Robot Combat Showcase, Robot Combat Professional Competition and the Cute Robot Mass Battle, robot lovers can immerse themselves in the beauty of robotics. There is even a special segment where anyone can bring their robot to sign up and participate in the battle.
Fairyland playscape “Fish & Cat” Art Installation
The award-winning playscape “Fish & Cat Art Installation” at K11 came to Maker Faire Shenzhen, with two brand-new characters! One of them is the cat Xiaoyuan from the proud planet of W6605, and the other is the fish Xiaoxin from planet G2526.
DIY Robocar
DIY Robocar Shenzhen is a local unmanned autonomous car community event co-launched by Chaihuo x.factory and Robotics Masters. There was a model design competition as well as a remote-controlled car racing competition held during Maker Faire Shenzhen 2019!
Front Crystal Skeleton Robot
A life-sized puppet skeleton, the “Front Crystal Skeleton Robot” acts like a real person by manipulating it with a puppeteer rod. It has brought joy to many while it walked around Maker Faire Shenzhen 2019, dancing to music and hi-fiving people!
Maker Summit Forum
In line with this theme of sustainable growth, we invited various leaders from key sectors and industries to share about the latest developments in the global innovator community, as well as the shift towards sustainable development. This year’s Maker Forum consisted of 3 sessions, including “Make for Sustainability”, “Sustainable Maker Business”, and “Panel Discussion: Sustainable Maker Education”.
Through this sharing of sustainable projects and business ventures, and learning about the cultivation of maker education, we hope that participants can gain more insights into sustainable “making”.
“Make for Sustainability” session’s highlights include Andrew Lamb, the Global Innovation Lead from Field Ready, an organisation focusing on transforming logistics with technology and providing humanitarian aid in a faster, better and cheaper way.
Zhang Xunyu from Nature Conservancy also shared about the Sponge City Projects in Shenzhen.
For the “Sustainable Maker Business” session, we have Shuyang Zhou from Seeed Studio sharing about how open technologies can empower sustainable innovation, and how some of these have developed into sustainable businesses. Rongzhong Li also shared his experience in transforming from the OpenCat inventor to the CEO of Petoi LLC.
Last but not least, the evening session “Sustainable Maker Education” sparked heated discussion among the panelists and audiences about how maker education can be sustainable in the long run, as well as how SDGs can be incorporated to current educational system.
Workshops
Sustainable making is the future of humanity, so how can we miss out on the young ones at MFSZ2019? With sustainable maker education, we hope that we can plant the seeds in our future generation, helping them to understand the importance of sustainable growth. Through cool hands-on workshops and showcase, not only do they get a fun time, but also get introduced to this world of “making” and sustainable development.
MG Car Building & Racing
Longan Coding Workshop/Code Lab Coding Workshop
Kittenblock AI Project-Based Learning Workshop
Mini Cardboard Workshop
MARK AI Driverless Mini Car Workshop
Badge Soldering Workshop
Maker Party
Maker Party has always been a must for a Maker Faire Shenzhen. This year, we had it on 9 November to celebrate this season of making and creations! Our makers had a great time of fun and laughter, as well as the opportunity to interact with other makers from around the globe. Check out these photos below!
This year, we even had a DIY T-shirt painting competition to showcase the creativity of our makers, look at the beautiful t-shirts that were made. This further proves, makers can be great artists too!
And Finally…
Last but not least, the biggest thank you goes to YOU, who helped to make Maker Faire Shenzhen 2019 a huge success this year! We want to build a community together that can figure out and solve problems together, and all this would not be possible without the support of everyone in the community and your participation in the many acitivities. For those who missed out on MFSZ2019, we hope to see you next year at Maker Faire Shenzhen 2020!
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