2014 MadHackers.com Event on June 7th, 2014

We love the folks at Make, but for 2014 we’re running our own event called MadHackers.com. Mayor Mark calls the Danbury Hackerspace crew his “Mad Hackers,” and that’s where the name came from.

MadHackers.com will take place on June 7th, from 10am-5pm in CityCenter Danbury. We’ll have a technology faire, social media conference, concert, and mini food truck rally.

For more information and to get tickets visit MadHackers.com.

Keep Up with Danbury Maker & Hacker Happenings

We’re already planning the next Mad Hackers Conference & Danbury Mini Maker Faire for the summer of 2014, but if you want to keep up with all of the Danbury maker & hacker events you can:

• Follow @DanburyHackers
• Visit DanburyHackerspace.com
• Meeting & events on Meetup
• Follow Danbury Hackerspace on Facebook

Thanks for a Wonderful First Danbury Maker Faire & Mad Hackers Conference

The Danbury Mini Maker Faire yesterday was a lot of fun, and I want to thank everyone involved for helping, especially the Mayor for believing in our vision, Bruce Tuomala for producing the event, CityCenter Danbury (you guys rock), Manny for saving the day, the Connecticut Hackerspaces that came out in full force, the awesome artists and vendors, the bands, and all of the volunteers who stepped up to help. Our first year wasn’t perfect but we have a solid foundation for next year. Thanks also to everyone that attended — I hope you had as much fun as we did putting on the event.

What is a Maker Faire? Hackerspace? Attend Maker Faire Today, June 8th

Maker Faires are a fun festival of music, technology, craftspeople, artists and engineers. Not your ordinary event — you can get yourself scanned in 3D, see how 3D printers work, learn about electronics, watch blacksmiths forge things, see robots, observe people making jewelry, watch a screen printer, and more. Kids can  make origami with expert folder Professor Gurkewitz, make a tablet stylus, make music with Guitar Center, build things with Home Depot, and more.

We have three bands during the day and blues musician Roberto Morbioli in the evening. We have excellent food from the best trucks and caterers in Danbury.

There are going to be more than 100 Maker Faires around the world this year, and we’re excited to be bringing this event to Danbury. The two biggest Maker Faires have 100,000 and 55,000 attendees!

We’ll also have five hackerspaces from around Connecticut, including the team from the Danbury Hackerspace at the Innovation Center that will open in August at the Library. Hackerspaces are shared workspaces where people learn about technology, teach classes, and build and make things. Hackerspaces are spreading around the world — there are more than 1,000 and the numbers are growing quickly.

Come down to the Maker Faire today and for $10 (the price of a movie ticket), you’ll see amazing things and have a lot of fun.

 

Three Bands During the Day at Danbury Mini Maker Faire

We have three excellent local bands playing during the day at the Danbury Mini Maker Faire, and all of the bands have made at least one of their instruments.

11am •  The Backdoor Boys, a local punk band
1pm  • The Charm City Exiles will play a mix of Americana & country songs
3pm •  Burnkit 2600 will play experimental electronic music and circuit-bend

Don’t forget the Roberto Morbioli Band will be singing the blues on the City Center Green at 6pm after the Maker Faire.

Awesome Food at the Danbury Maker Faire

Pat from CityCenter Danbury runs the Taste of Danbury event, and she invited her favorite food trucks and caterers to the Danbury Maker Faire. We’ll have Steve Lang’s Hungarian BBQ Grill, Romy’s BBQ, The Blue Dog’s famous lobster rolls, Gallucci’s Catering with Pizza & Penne, Weenie Lynn’s dogs & kielbasa, and the Ice Cream Guy at the event.

We’d like to thank Andrea, Pat, and the rest of the CityCenter Danbury team for helping out with this event. They’ll be running registration so be sure to say hello to them tomorrow morning.

The Weather Looks Awesome for Maker Faire Tomorrow!

I have to admit that a tropical storm hitting the day before our first Maker Faire really freaked me out, but we got the tent up before the rain. The latest forecast says that the rain will stop just before Danbury Maker Faire setup begins, and we’ll have very comfortable temperatures during the day. Whew!

Question: Who Benefits from the Maker Faire? Why $10 Tickets?

We haven’t done a good job of explaining the purpose behind the Maker Faire. The City of Danbury has been incredibly helpful and supportive of the new Danbury Hackerspace opening in August. The City is providing The Danbury Innovation Center, a building attached to the Danbury Library at 158 Main Street for our Hackerspace and co-working facility, and the City of Danbury is producing the Maker Faire & Mad Hackers conference to help launch the Hackerspace. Any profits from the Maker Faire will go to the non-profit Danbury Hackerspace (nobody is getting rich off of producing this event).

Why $10? We’ve put up the biggest tent Danbury has seen on Green (I’m glad we did — the weather didn’t cooperate), hired the awesome Roberto Morbioli Band, and it costs a small fortune to put on an event like this. We wanted to make this a fun event, and we’re not charging the Makers (exhibitors) so we’ll get a different event than Danbury has seen before. The people exhibiting for the most part are not selling, but sharing what they do. We don’t have any timeshare or carpet-cleaning booths. We have blacksmiths, artists, engineers, craftspeople, etc. Check out the full list of Makers here.

This is just the beginning of our efforts to build a new & unique annual Danbury event. We’d love your feedback and ideas!

Party at the Dome Moved to CityCenter Green

We moved the Party at the Dome to the CityCenter Green, so hang around after the Maker Faire for a live performance from the Roberto Morbioli band from 6-9pm.

Danbury Maker Faire is on Saturday June 8th, Rain for Shine

The Danbury Maker Faire is still on for Saturday, June 8th, from 10am-5pm The  tent went up before it started raining, so it’s dry under the 29′ high 120×60 tent.