Maker Faire UK, Newcastle, 28 and 29 April 2018

[JudgeBeeb]

Yesterday, I attended Maker Faire UK 2017 at the Life Science Centre in Newcastle. It was an interesting mix of exhibits. It was very much a family event and activities were often targetted at novices and children. There were many projects involving coding, Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, 'robotics' (I use that term loosely as radio controlled devices are not really robots), quadcopters, etc. There were a few stands that were more 'arts and crafts'. Some were potentially interesting, such as movie prosthetics. Others, maybe not (home made jewellery and baking). I think there were several thousand attendees over the weekend.

Notably, however, apart from one person who had developed a homebrew, Z80 based, computer kit, there was nothing from the retro computing scene. This was suprising since both from a software and from a hardware perspective, there are a lot of active 'makers' in the scene.

It seemed to me that hosting a stand is both rewarding and a quite a bit of fun and I would like to propose that we apply for a StarDot/ABUG stand at next year's event. Given the demographic, I think the stand would probably best focus on software - having three or four machines available for games both classic and modern (tricky?). We could also show off some hardware projects - PiCoPro springs to mind and possibly BeebSID or BeebOPL.

I think this would be popular with parents for a bit of retro nostalgia and the games would probably prove popular with kids too. It would also be a good way of encouraging more interest in the Acorn scene and in retro computing generally.

I believe they receive more applications than they can accomodate. The process, I believe, involves submitting a proposal at the end of the year with succesful applicants being notified in January. I would be happy to take the lead in organising this. However, I would probably come on public transport and it would be helpful if people closer to Newcastle could volunteer to supply kit.

I think we need no more than four or five people to man the stand. I have spoken to sydney and daveejhitchens and I think they may be prepared to help.

I don't know what costs are involved. However, there were a number of amateur groups there and I suspect, for people who are neither businesses nor selling stuff, the costs are probably quite low (and may even be free).

What do people think of the idea and who would like to be involved?

[flaxcottage]

Sounds like a good idea. Showing off is always good fun.

[daveejhitchins]

Yup! Count me in too
Dave H

[Arcadian]

Sounds really cool Robert - I'd love to be involved - I could bring equipment to demo various new games.

Do you know what the dates are likely to be for 2018 yet?

[CMcDougall]

Only a 1:20 hr drive for me

is it just a full day or over a weekend?

can bring all my 'junk' if needed...

PS my kids may hog all the games though

[JudgeBeeb]

It's a full weekend. Plus we will need to set up on Saturday morning (I don't think there is access on Friday evening) and get our kit out again ("ooh err missus") on Sunday evening.

People will not have to volunteer for the full weekend. But we would really have to be able to cast iron guarantee that there will be at least two people present on the stand at all times. This is not the sort of event where we could leave our stuff unattended at any time.

I think it will be some time before the details of next year's show are published and they launch the "Call for Makers". We can then look more closely at who is able to volunteer to do what. And see how feasible this will be.

[JudgeBeeb]

For those who are interested, the date of next year's event has now been fixed as 28 and 29 April 2018.

[CMcDougall]

Are folks still up for this?
will try to get that weekend off, but if not Sunday!

[JudgeBeeb]

Sorry. I mentioned this at the last ABUG, but didn't post on the forum

If we had wanted to exhibit at this, we needed to have put in an application by January. I didn't feel I could move forward with it this year. I had a lot on my plate with my new appointment and I wonted to put what little time I had into organising ABUG South.

Having said that, this may be something we could look into doing next year.