Brighton Mini Maker Faire. Photographs: Kati Byrne / Developing Dreams
We’re taking a break!
There are no plans to hold a Brighton Mini Maker Faire in 2016.
We’ve been putting on events every year since 2011, and had an amazing time in the process. We’ve met many inspirational makers, seen some incredible projects, and learned about everything from crochet to welding. We love meeting the makers every year, and seeing how visitors enjoy the experience.
However, putting on the event is also a mammoth task, and meanwhile life goes on. Members of the project team have been busy getting new jobs, having babies, putting on other events, starting businesses, doing PhDs, and making radio shows. Fitting in an event of this scale around other commitments, is not something we can do sustainably in the long term.
So it is with heavy hearts, but also some relief, that we’re taking a break. We don’t know how long for, but certainly while we put some energy into other things.
We hope you’ve had a great time coming to Brighton Mini Maker Faire, whether as a maker or visitor, and we’d urge you to check out one of the other Maker Faires or similar events which happen around the country, many of which you can find here, or even start your own.
Would you like to see Brighton Mini Maker Faire happen again?
While we’re stepping back for the foreseeable future, we would like to see BMMF happen again, and we’d be delighted to help others make it happen. We have some pretty good systems in place to help things run smoothly; we’ve figured out some things that work, and some things that don’t. There is also a big community of people who have volunteered for BMMF, sponsored us, provided advice or services, and helped in many other ways, who would also be happy to contribute again. If you’d like to see it happen again, there are two things that are essential to making a Maker Faire:
1. A lead producer (or production team)
BMMF has always been a distributed effort, but it takes one person to co-ordinate and take responsibility for making it happen. When we started, we had no money or experience, and we figured it out, so if you have energy, time and commitment, you can too. If you’re that person, or you could form a tight team with one or two others, do get in touch.
2. Money
Even run on a shoestring, the event costs many £1000s to put on, and we simply can’t cover it through ticket sales. We have had great support from those in the arts, tech and maker communities in the past, but the event needs a more significant level of financial support to make it viable. If you can make this happen, again, please do get in touch. Have a look at our sponsorship information pack.
Thank you
Now would be a good time to say thanks to some of the people who’ve supported us along the way. So, in no particular order, and with apologies for any omissions, we’d like to say a huge thank you to:
All the makers, of course!
All the project team who’ve helped make Brighton Mini Maker Faire over the last 5 years: Mike, Jo, Emma, Amy, Developing Dreams (Kati, Julia and Inessa), Rob, Alastair, Rowan, Ant, Anna, Barney, Toby, Nat, Caley, Samuel, Naomi, Georgina, Clare, Sam, Paula, Simon and Ruth (and probably one or two others…). Well done us.
All the lovely volunteers who’ve pitched in on the day to help make it a wonderful experience for our visitors. You have been awesome.
All the visitors who came, spread the word, made a donation, or helped make it a special day for us and our makers.
Graham and co. at O’Reilly
Sabrina, Sherry and Dale at Maker Media
Richard at Semantico
Simon, Declan and the team at Maker Club
Andy and the team at Maplin
Rebecca and Simon at Create
Julia and co. at Yelp
Jo at the University of Brighton
Jesse, and everyone who’s part of Brighton Digital Festival
Jon, the other Jon and Peter at Arts Council England
The guys and gals at Build Brighton, and in makerspaces around the UK
Josh, Tim, Tijana, the stellar production team, and everyone at Brighton Dome
Literally everyone at Bare Conductive
Bethany, Kirsty and the team at Technology Will Save Us
Jane, David and the team at Sugru
Dominic and Martin at Just Add Sharks
Our many sponsors through the years: Computer Arts Society, Beta Layout, Folksy, Kendall Copywriting, Nixon McInnes, Radical Robot, Revolution Education, Curious Chip, Omotayo, Carbon Frog, Chikai and others mentioned elsewhere
Maff for the flyer and t-shirt design
Andy at Sideline for the T’s
Emily at Stanley James Press for the zine
Roberta for the event photography
Curtis for the Makers at Work show
All the filmmakers we’ve worked with: Angus at Loaded, Jay at Make Moving Messages, Philip at Larchmont, and Frit and Liam at Think Again
Branwen at BHCC
Andy at Clearleft
Honor, Miriam and the team at Lighthouse
Greg at The Brighton Independent
Nilden and the team at Ozkan Accountants
Vicki and her team at Fugu PR
Matt at Storythings
Everyone in the UK Maker Faire community, and those around the world who are supporting their local maker communities
Thanks again, on behalf of the Brighton Mini Maker Faire team,
Andrew
Photograph by Roberta Matis
Brighton Mini Maker Faire 