I just got back from Maker Faire, and I have to say it was incredible! First and foremost I want to say thank you to @dan, @bailey, and everyone else at glowforge who made it happen! It was an unforgettable experience! What follows is a summary of my trip…
##The Journey Begins
I arrived a week early to visit friends and have some fun in the Bay Area before jumping into Maker Faire. I used to live in SF, so it was amazing to be back home. It’s such a wonderful place. I spent the first part of the trip staying in a communal art/science warehouse in the heart of the mission district where my oldest friend lives.
I met a ton of new/remarkable people, some of whom I am doing more art trades with for glowforge engraves! Here are some random photos from the first half of the week:
5th Annual Steampunk Masquerade where a number of my friends were DJing
The Incredible FlowSpace compound, home of FlowToys, who also had a really incredible interactive area at MakerFaire. More on them later
Beach Party on China Beach!
##Maker Faire Setup:
I got to the Faire Thursday to set up, and met up with @karaelena, @rebecca, @marmak3261, @macphee, @Kallisti, and everyone in their entourages. It’s really cool rolling into an event like this with such a huge group of friends. It’s so weird to think that this was the first time I was meeting so many of them in person as it seems like Ive already known them for ages.
@Karaelena’s (f) Badass Shirt! @Karaelena (m) had one that says “Run CNC” which was awesome too, but I dont have a photo. Maybe he can post it up!
Most of us were all in the same area, right in the middle front of the biggest building, by booths from a lot of huge companies like kickstarter, arduino,. glowforge =), matter hackers, etc.
We all went and found our spots, and then went hunting for the glowforge crew to pick up the fresh off the production line glowforge units they brought us from the factory which was right around the corner. This was such a great idea, instead of us all shipping our PRUs across the country.
Here are some shots of my booth during setup. Thanks for the holdover table cloth @karaelena!
Forge unboxed and ready to set up!
Heres some of the welcome goodies we got in our packets!
A place for everything, and everything in its place!
During The Maker Faire!:
The weekend was intense! Droves of people wrapped around the booth almost non-stop! I made a couple hundred business cards to hand out, and they were all gone within the first day! Good thing I had a forge to make some more!
If it wasnt already crazy enough, @dan comes running into my booth to ask if I’d heard the news… “WERE SHIPPING!” We were both super excited, so I made him put on the helmet
The timing couldnt have been better, because people were asking about it all weekend, and I could reassure them with the great news. So many people stopped to check their email immediately!
It was so busy, I was stuck at the booth almost the entire weekend. I almost didnt have time to even get food! That was ok though, because I got a lot more cool visitors. I didnt get pics with all of them, but here are the ones I did get photos with/of:
@iliketomakestuff stops by and tries on the helmet
Hey, its Will Smith from Tested! / Will posing while Dan and Kaylen discuss the insane resolution of the glowforge
Hangin with Shawn Thorsson, Hollywood Propmaker extraordinaire! Im a huge fan of his! He made that ED209!
Frank Ippolito drops by to talk props and lasers
This guys suit was awesome!
My friend Dani drops in to hang out at the booth for a while!
The Big Surprise!!!
As the weekend was heading towards it’s close, one of the previous visitors I had spent a good deal of time talking with returned to my booth and revealed that he was and employee of, and here on behalf of MAKE Magazine, to award me with MAKE’s editor’s choice award for Maker Faire 2017!
I was incredibly shocked, amazed, flattered, flabbergasted… what an incredible honor!
He said to me that they were so impressed, they wanted to incentivize me to return next year. I was at a loss for words, so I just kept saying thank you over and over again, and that there was no way I was going to miss this next year. So if you’re reading this MAKE (Jordan!), thank you!
