Ah, yes - it's that time of year again! The trees are budding, the flowers are blooming, and Colorado residents are being tormented with 75 degree days followed by snow storms the next. Spring has sprung, and we all know what that means! No, not baseball season and lawn work - Maker Faire is coming!
For those of you that aren't familiar with Maker Faire, it's a big convention hosted by Make Magazine where "makers" of all kinds get together to geek out and see what everyone is working on. SparkFun is going to be represented in force - we are officially a sponsor and we'll have a tent (or two) set-up where you can come chat, check out some products, and, of course, participate in a workshop. We'll be set up in the expo hall, so we should be easy to find!
People of all ages are welcome at our workshops. Don't worry - we have safety glasses!
What is this about workshops, you ask? Well, in a repeat performance from last year, we are going to hosting a few workshops during the faire. Each day during designated times, you are invited to come to the SparkFun booth where we will show you how to do either SMD or PTH soldering on a few cool gadgets. The workshops are technically free, though we do strongly suggest a donation (which will go to two local entities - The Exploratorium and the Rosalie House Emergency Shelter). The kits we are bringing with us are:
If you want to participate in the workshops, here's how. For the SMD workshop, we will only have 9 spots at designated times. Come to the SparkFun booth early and sign up! You can expect to spend 2.5 hours or so (depending on your experience level) working on the SMD kit. If you are more than ten minutes late for your time slot, we are going to be giving your seat away - so be punctual! The PTH workshop will be on a first come, first served basis - show up, pick your kit, and have at it (we'll have about 20 seats and the kits take about 15-20 minutes, so we'll be getting people through fairly quickly).
Maker Faire 2010 - it's sure to be a good time! Come check it out and make sure to say hi! For more information, please visit the SparkFun Maker Faire page. We will be updating this as we get more info, so keep an eye on it!
If I would have to, I would blow up a mountain with a freznel lens just to go see this year's maker faire. Unfortunately, I can't go, and will be spending the day at home, making another robot. Maybe I'll get to come see you guys next year (I'll probably have to run around the world to do it, but trust me, I will).
Just wondering if you guys are planning on showing at Maker Faire Detroit?
Fully agree with dill123, SparkFun rocks the give-back. Wish I weren't all the way on the east coast. Will you guys be in New York in September for the other Maker Faire? (He asks hopefully)
I love want Sparkfun does throughout each month to help out the community and hopefully inspire some to-be computer engineers! In fact, I wish I could come to take the course on SMD soldering since I have been only playing around with my Arduino and mbed for sometime now with breadboards and protoboards, but unfortunately, I live all the way down in Florida. I hope everything goes great at the Sparkfun tent(s) at Maker Faire!