Maker Faire festivals are a beautiful showcase of what modern technology makes possible. The whole maker world feels like a big playground for both kids and adults. It’s incredible to think about what anyone can create at home today, on a small budget, using programmable controllers and online resources. And there’s no need to be especially handy anymore—you can leave most of the work to 3D printers or home CNC machines.
On the first floor of the hall, you could also try out a bunch of physics experiments that you may know from YouTube shorts and play with magnets, electricity and electromagnetism.
Old-timers may still remember CRT monitors and why it was not a good idea to put some speakers too close to them. At the show you could abuse the monitor with a magnet to your heart’s content.
Upstairs there were also workshops (formerly training) in 3D printing, soldering components, or discussing artificial intelligence.
Other lectures and meetings of game developers took place at GameDev Connect in the second wing of the hall. There were representatives from well-known and lesser-known local game developers, and there were even some boardgames.
Miloš Večeřa and Jiří Vystrčil, the chemistry popularizers behind the RhAgchem Instagram account, put together a periodic table of the elements, where you could see the chemical elements as you’ve probably never seen them, even if you encounter them in everyday life. And some of them have another story behind them; the table includes a remnant of the Trinity test, the first nuclear explosion in history, or a silver coin with an Egyptian motif as a historical reminder that gold is not always more valuable than silver.
