Hello Skkaw friends! This post is very delayed since a lot of good stuff happened between the Maker Faire Bay Area and this posting . . . Ahem, like getting married! 🎉🙏🏼 With that said, join me as I take you through my Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 experience including bumping into Eben Upton from Raspberry Pi.
About the Maker Faire
I was lucky, and very grateful, to get a press pass to the Maker Faire Bay Area 2023. If you’re unfamiliar, the Maker Faire is a gathering/convention for DIY crafters, tinkerers, builders, and educators (to name a few). It’s a community that fosters curiosity, collaboration, and resourcefulness. Also, this is not the first Maker faire our blog has covered (we’ve listed our past coverage at the bottom of this post). Do check out the Maker Faire website for more info about the Maker Faire and the Maker Movement.
Arriving at Mare Island
This year the Maker Faire was held at Mare Island, Vallejo CA. It’s just about a 40 minute drive up north from San Francisco.
Parking was pretty straightforward, just some lines getting into the parking lot. You will have to pay for parking. My experience is that paying ahead of time helps a little bit so you can just flash the QR code and drive straight through into the lot. Parking was all outdoors. The parking lot is actually a little further away from the actual convention area. They have shuttles going back and forth to the convention at regular intervals. It said 20 minute intervals between shuttles on the website. There was almost always a shuttle ready when I got there, and the lines to the shuttle were moving steadily along.
After taking a short ride, I arrived at the entrance gate. I got there when the faire opened so it wasn’t busy at the gates.
After getting my press credentials in order, I happily started exploring. I was glad to see so many of the things I’d come to enjoy at the Maker Faire welcome me in. For starters, there was the bumper-car muffins of the Acme Muffineering Crew buzzing around me, and followed by a psychedelic metal dragon sculpture that looked like it came straight out of a burning man festival. All good stuff!
Meeting Eben Upton of Raspberry Pi
The highlight of the day was almost literally bumping into Eben Upton of Raspberry Pi! Just wow, Eben is the CEO/Founder of Raspberry Pi Ltd. If you’re not familiar, the Raspberry Pi is a small, low cost, computer geared towered the makers, and educators in STEM. Among the makerspace enthusiasts (or maybe just me), Eben is a rockstar! Been a huge fan of the Raspberry Pi computers, and meeting him was a delight. I also met Liz Upton, chief marketing and communications officer at Raspberry PI Ltd.
From left: Skkaw, Liz Upton, and Eben Upton.
At the time, the Raspberry Pi 5 had just been released. So I had excitedly had a very geek-filled conversation with Eben and Liz about their thoughts on keeping that mini-computer under the radar (it was a surprise to many of us!), what what they were excited for moving forward (no spoilers haha). Both were very kind and gracious, what an epic experience!
Speaking of the Raspberry Pi 5 computer, I was able to get a bit of early access. See below!
It was great to play around with the Raspberry Pi 5. For starters, I played some 4K video on Youtube to test it, and it played great. It seemed to play much smoother than my own Raspberry Pi 4 (it’s predecessor) that I use at home for personal projects. Super fun!
Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 Show Floor Highlights
After that extraordinary geek-filled experience, I decided to chill by exploring the Maker Faire Bay Area show floor. I found myself in this huge covered warehouse (probably was a storage facility). That’s where I encountered the display from Thorsson & Associates Workshop (TandAWorkshop.com). They had a lot of amazing cosplay and props on display.
I was able to meet Shawn Thorsson, founder and CEO of Thorsson & Associates. I showed him my self-made Mandalorian helmet I made during the pandemic. If you’re curious about prop-making, or you’re a Maker yourself, consider checking out his Props and Costume Armor book.
My favorite prop from their display was their Gravity Hammer. That’s the hammer used by the Armorer from the Mandalorian. It was super impressive to hold.
Within the same area I also encountered a fun display that piqued my interest. It was a set of miniatures from Jacquelyn Scott. Super intricate and detailed work.
Later on I found myself at the Make: Workshops area. There were many different hands on tutorials happening there throughout the day. One of the popular ones was the DIY desk lamp organized by Maker Nexus. I would have signed-up myself, but it was all booked!
Pro-tip: Definitely check out the Maker Faire Bay Area website prior to the Maker Faire and see if there are any fun activities to sign-up for before the event as they can go pretty fast.
There were also so many great vendors at the convention. One of my favorites was there too: Alpen Glow Industries. They’re have so many amazing DIY electronic-circuit based projects like illuminated signs, and wall art. They even do custom engravings! My favorite is their Solder Kit. I bought one for myself, and it went a long way for my personal electronic projects.
I had so many more adventures that day. Rather than talk about them, I put together a visual guide through the slideshow below.
What can I say, I had an absolute blast the Maker Faire Bay Area 2023. So many fun experiences, random encounters (Eben Upton!), and things to see. With that said, I cannot wait for the Maker Faire Bay Area 2024 which is just around the corner (as of this posting).
Thanks so much for joining my adventures at the Maker Faire! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. A huge thanks Make team for providing me with a press pass to cover and attend Maker Faire Bay Area 2023. So grateful for the experience. On behalf of SKKAW.BLOG, thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this post, do check out our coverage from previous Maker Faires:
- Show Floor Highlights @Maker Faire Bay Area 2019
- Workshops @Maker Faire Bay Area 2019
- Mech Warfare @Maker Faire Bay Area 2019
- Cosplay @Maker Faire Bay Area 2019
- Maker Faire Bay Area 2018
Also, if you enjoyed reading this post please be sure to like, and follow us here at SKKAW.BLOG for more geek and pop-culture goodness.