Mini Maker Faire Brighton

Doing
Maker Faires have been going for years in the US but last year was the first Mini Maker Faire in Brighton and this year it took over the whole of the corn exchange, A big venue. There was an amazing mix of craft, Arduino, darleks, teaching and people interested in making... stuff. Technology Will Save Us  and the science museum were there running workshops and the atmosphere overall was amazing due to the diversity of projects.

I was there with Dan Lockton looking at how people created instructions. This was a simple postcard activity that got people of all ages thinking, drawing and making. There were people from Ikea that came round and said hello interested in what we were doing. There were some really interesting mixed results, these will be published appropriately later. The task was to make the instructions for either fire making or tea making. There were also some lessons on using a bowdrill and different kinds of tinder to use and how to make charcloth but that was not really the intention of the day.

The workshops were really well received and thank you to all that took part. Due to the nature of being indoors we were not actually allowed to make fire, but we had a cheesy, awesome mini arduino fire simulator that kids of all ages (including adults) liked.

Tips from being involved in the maker faire for future events
- organisers kept bringing stall holders water (brilliant)
- organisers had volunteers to run your stand if you needed a quick break
- organisers provided an advanced set up/parking etc PDF of FAQ's
- Have an element that people can easily engage with
- If you are trying to get people to create ideas, have some inspiration things or images
- Keep it simple for people to get involved with
- Remember to listen to what people are actually telling you not what you want to hear

These are notes for myself but they might have application for other things?