KC's first Maker Faire

For Kansas City's first attempt, it wasn't bad. I was sad to see how many people didn't show up to staff their tables. There were a lot (probably a quarter) of the tables that were just sitting empty. They could've moved all the outside vendors to the indoors where the foot traffic was better and there was a lack of horrible music.

One group I tried to talk to was disappointing in that it seemed I knew more about their project (an electric car built on an Indy car body) than they did. I asked what the engine specs were and the kid just looked at me. The adult adviser guy started talking to me and I asked what sort of power did it make. You know, basic stuff (which is all I know) like torque vs. horsepower. Adviser Guy said "Well, it's an electric engine." "It still has torque!" I said, and he started rambling about how their goal was to get 500 miles per tank off it. Whatever. I walked off. It's one thing to put efficiency above power for a project (that's totally cool), but to not even know (or want to tell) about one's engine capabilities? On something that looks like a racecar? Bah.

I also stopped to look at a booth that had wee electronics sewn into the clothing, but they weren't offering up any trade secrets. They had a video of their fashion show from earlier in the year (which showed one photo of a garment that was actually turned on), and a couple of other garments on display which were not functioning. One girl was wearing a shirt that had little lights in it, but because she was wearing it, nobody could get a close look at it. Lame.

Reading stuology's description of her day there, I think my problem was I didn't expect or understand that it was heavily marketed toward kids. I should have been able to figure it out, since the reason I didn't approach many of the booths was that they were surrounded by small persons. That fact didn't occur to me, though, until I read what an awesome time Stu and Ada had. Oh well.

Thanks to miischelle for slogging through it with me. I'm glad that I got a free pass from Yelp. I would've been ticked off to pay $10 f for my experience. I didn't get enough out of it to justify the drive and a ten-buck ticket (oh, plus $5 for parking). I hope next year they have things a little better arranged, with more exhibits for adults--and maybe have areas separated by function: Kid's exhibits, Vendors, Demos, Hands-on, etc.

The highlight of the day for me (besides hanging with Miss M, which is always a delight) was a spontaneous stop at a garage sale where I picked up eight sliding-top cigar boxes for super cheap. I should have bought the whole damn stack of them even though I didn't know where I'd put them once I got them home. Today I'm having "should have bought more" buyer's remorse. Does anyone else ever get that?