MAKE MUNICH - How it waZz
As I was announcing earlier, this weekend I participated in Make Munich - the fist Maker Fair in Germany. And a very successful one indeed! (In case you are wondering what this maker culture is all about, here is a nice article in German.) The huge Tonhalle was full of creatives, nerds, tinkerers, hackers, DYI and hands-on fans, families and just curious people. The whole event was organised by several enthusiast, such as Nils, Karim and Rachel, who have been working in their spare time for free. They rented a space and invited makers of all kinds to participate. It turned out that there were more than enough people eager to showcase their work. Within the two days of the fair, instead of expected 1.500 visitors the organisers counted around 3.000!
There were plenty of 3D printers, laser cutters, robots, arduinos, DIY jewellery, T-shirt printing, seed bombs and even a board game version of Packman! Visitors could explore several workshop areas, I personally laid my hand on soldering which was fun fun! All sorts of workshops were led by the FabLab, Guerilla Gardeners, HUJI, eHaJo, and of course, myself (on the picture above you can see the workshop area above the main hall, in the very back).
The soft circuit workshops were a huge success! Many people passing by were really excited, saying that they have never seen anything like this in their lives. I had many participants on both days, who dedicated the entire three hours of their time at the fair to soft circuits! Being used to female participants who are not familiar with electronics, it was quite a surprise to have a male-dominated audience who had no or very little sewing experience. A very exciting twist it was! On the second day I had many children around the table, which was obvious if you think of the toy robots we were making, but still totally unexpected from my side. Next time I'll be prepared :)
(Here is a BR's video, to see my workshop jump to sec. 24.
And here is another review of the event, jump to the seventh picture there.)
There were plenty of 3D printers, laser cutters, robots, arduinos, DIY jewellery, T-shirt printing, seed bombs and even a board game version of Packman! Visitors could explore several workshop areas, I personally laid my hand on soldering which was fun fun! All sorts of workshops were led by the FabLab, Guerilla Gardeners, HUJI, eHaJo, and of course, myself (on the picture above you can see the workshop area above the main hall, in the very back).
Being taught and shot by Hannes
From heise-online website
This picture taken by Severin
by Severin
All in all, it couldn't have been better. I met so many amazing creatives, tinkerers and technology enthusiast. Exactly the kind of people I was looking for in Munich. Hope to keep in touch with everybody! And there are definitely many more wearable technology / soft circuit workshops coming up! Stay tuned ;-) 
This actually sounds pretty awesome although I'm usually not a DIY person at all. Say, could you teach me how to make these Super Mario Mushrooms (and how to saw :D) next time I'm in Munich? Would do they do, btw? Are the LEDs or what else is the electronic part for?
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