Some more observations from me…
The first day was the busiest yet that I’ve seen, and the attendance was high.
The initial in the door rush was grabbing maker coins like it was a raffle ticket. maybe we need a coin rationing bot in future years.
The original RepRap festival was targeted at machine RepRap movement, and that’s lost concept for a lot of folks. It became “3D printer building”, and it appears to me to being morphing to “making things with 3D printers.”
I slip in RepRap phrases when talking to attendees when I think they grok what that is. I had a handfull of folks respond to “The LR4 can cut parts for itself” or “The LR4 is able to bootstrap its’ own setup.”. They’re out there, just becoming more and more rare.
I heard quite a few “oh it’s a big plotter”, plenty of surprised expressions when I’d say something like “Everything on this table, including THAT machine (Pointing to ZenXY) was made by that machine (Pointing to LR4).”
It was weird to me that there were multiple booths that brought commercial machines which were dead at the show floor. I sort of expect that in the maker tables but not at a vendor.
Maybe in some future year we bring a really wild setup. Something like a full sheet LR4 with two machines on one set of Y belts, and each machine with two cores. Or maybe a toolchanger. I think it was @srcnet who through out an idea for a pen tool changer that has been rattling around in my brain.
I think these shows will continue to grow, but the emphasis is going to be more and more on things you can make with the machine or enhancements to existing machines.
There’s increasing overlap in attendees with the other maker movements. Lots of cosplay folks, or droid builders, or crafts and arts people coming through.
There were a half dozen makerspaces that introduced themselves to me, including some that were out of state. I think a California makerspace introduced themselves to Ryan.
I still think doing an event pre-show like what we did at Nottinghack pre-SMRRF would be fun, and this year I met one of the leaders of the local Loveland, CO makerspace. Maybe that would be a thing I try to coordinate in future years.
There were a bunch of stealth marketing things I saw. For example, some folks dropped their own maker coins into our pile. Others left flyers for things. Not someone losing track of something they were holding, but people I watched float around the space ‘losing’ materials on all the tables.
Plenty of folks at the show were just wanting to network, and I think there’s a genuine networking opportunity for folks at shows like this.
I do have a couple of regrets. I didn’t have a lot of free time between SMRRF, and the issue I had with getting into my storage facility in the snowy morning on Friday meant that I gave up on taking the not-quite-finished MPR&P machine that I’ve been working on. I feel that as a personal fail and regret it’s probably a big letdown for @dkj4linux .
Aza’s tablets are great, and I used them when I could. It’s hard to use them effectively in the crush like early on opening day, but in calmer moments where we can do more focused engagement they are great.
I also regret I didn’t have time to plan and organize better, so showed up less than fully ready to roll on setup day. I ended up chasing down EMT tubing because I set the long rail for the table beside my garage in the morning snowy chaos. The team had already almost finished the LR4 build up by the time I got back from hopping between the big box stores. The orange big box had no 1" EMT in stock, so the Blue big box store came through.
I have a couple of health items to work on, the show can be tiring and we should all make sure we help each other with managing the overload / over-stress.
I was really happy to take more time with the crew after-show, this is something to focus on.
One of the kids who were with us said “Since I’m working today, I get to go to the after-party…” A good theory, but on day 2 the after party is called teardown.
I had another weird interaction where Prusa didn’t really want to say anything about INDX on Core One L, and hinted I should talk to Bondtech next door to them, where Bondtech said essentially the opposite. I wonder if there’s been a falling-out between them, or if the Core One L for some reason is proving a more difficult challenge for some reason.
I would be remiss to talk about the show and not call out Dave’s sessions around his MPCNC an carvings. There’s always a collection gathered about Dave.
Our crew works really well together, and my sense of this is that the community who stay engaged here are much the same. It was definitely true for me going to SMRRF and meeting awesome community members and also true at RMRRF.
No chance to rest, I’m back to a really busy work schedule, but will try to get going on the projects I haven’t finished. A kick-butt MPR&P, and luggage that unfurls into a travel LowRider.
So we can hang out before we are burnt out and tired.
