
Next Week’s Maker Faire in San Mateo Could Be Bay Area’s Last - ctulek
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Next-week-s-Maker-Faire-in-San-Mateo-could-be-13836040.php
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benzofuran
It's a shame - in 2008/9/10 it was really something to see, but as a few other
commenters have said, it's (and a lot of the maker movement for that matter)
have declined a bit.

I personally think this is due to the infantilization in part of a lot of
media outlets, where the emphasis has been placed on getting the ideas into
the most hands possible instead of folks who'd actually benefit. Focusing the
faires around 3D printing geegaws and cosplay items is fine if you want to
make numbers, but you get consumers and the followons, and not creators from
that.

You can think of it in the same vein as Marvel movies or Harry Potter books -
low content, low thinking media that raises insane amounts of money based on
appealing to the mass market and the wannabe 'geek' crowd that doesn't tend to
do much innovating except in consumption methods.

~~~
Red_Tarsius
The culture has changed a lot. _Geek_ originally described loners with
unreasonable passion and knowledge about a specific niche. Now it's a codeword
for capitalist cattle. It's the _Big Bang Theory_ crowd that turned
consumerism and brand loyalty into a point of pride: I wonder what Nietzsche
would say about that.

~~~
benzofuran
I'd almost argue that we need to find a new word for it but at this point
there's not much to it. I've had the discussion a few times about how Big Bang
Theory is basically a minstrel show about smart people instead of your choice
of minority group and while some folks get the comparison, most just glaze
over.

~~~
scottlocklin
"Yeast life" works for me. Mass consumerization of everything from neck
tattoos and facial piercings to "geek culture" is covered by the phrase.

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lazzlazzlazz
I first went to Maker Faire in 2012 or so, and it was incredible - the variety
I saw was unreal, with so many smaller and interesting projects. I've gone
three more times since then, and each time it's been less and less inspiring.

More uniformity, more emphasis on unrelated consumer products like pre-
prepared food offerings, less emphasis on interesting electronics kits. Maybe
I became jaded, but maybe Maker Faire has tried to target a lower and lower
common denominator in an effort to boost revenues.

~~~
saboot
Yes, the last maker faire I went to had what I both loved, and hated, about it
summed up in two adjacent booths.

One was a young girl teaching passerbys to sew a purse together using recycled
jeans and fundraising for animal rescue missions.

The adjacent booth was to pay $15 for a "crystal therapy healing and ionic
rebalancing" session.

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alunaryak
I helped present a Tesla coil demo at one of the first Maker Faires (maybe
2006 or 2007?) and it was an absolute blast. It was also decidedly no frills,
focused on the artsy, crazy, creative projects. I don't recall much, if
anything, in the way of commercial products.

I wonder if it would be financially tenable if they scale it down and get back
that home grown feel. Then again the bay area is a very different place now.

~~~
mycall
Only one I attended, I remember this. Thank you for the fun time.

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mceachen
This is such an epic, annual celebration of learning and creativity. Losing it
would be a tragedy.

How do the economics not work out here? 100-150K visitors/year, each dropping
(on average? $20 for entrance ticket)?

Don't they require commercial presenters to pay for their space?

How much does it cost to rent the San Mateo Fairgrounds?

~~~
mdorazio
I can't find any info on how much the event space actually costs, but based a
few tidbits from the article it sounds more like the organization that runs
the faire let expenses get out of control. If they laid off 8-10 people, that
means they had significantly more than that, all of whom were ostensibly
drawing a salary on top of likely increasing event space costs.

~~~
applecrazy
There’s actually tons of other costs besides renting the space. Many exhibits
require large amounts of electricity and space. Not every exhibitor can fit
within a small booth. Not to mention liability insurance, since some exhibits
have things like fire.

As a exhibitor myself, I've seen how the event has changed over the past few
years, and the loss of sponsors such as Intel have definitely hit them. I just
hope the event can continue, it's really the highlight of the school year for
me and my peers.

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newnewpdro
It's been terrible for years, the last time I went a major automaker had taken
over a huge swath of parking lot and was giving test drives, I think it was
Chevrolet IIRC.

Long ago it was full of grassroots makers showing off their DIY stuff but it
quickly became a commercialized trade show targeting these folks and their
audience as consumers instead of hosting them.

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gaze
I'm heartbroken that Halted closed. Is tinkering with physical stuff in the
bay area dead?

Or well, scaled back significantly in comparison to a decade ago.

~~~
Tossrock
Definitely a trend. There's also the TechShop bankruptcy and the subsequent
"TheShop.build" clusterfuck, MotoGuild shutting down, etc.

~~~
Animats
Yes. Maker spaces in Silicon Valley are doing very badly. I was a TechShop
member for most of a decade. They went bankrupt, in a very messy way. I'm
currently a "TheShop.build" member, at least for a few more days. They closed
their San Francisco location months ago, despite it still being listed on the
web site. The San Jose location got a 3-day notice of eviction from their
landlord, but they seem to have survived that for now. Rumors of unpaid
employees, and former employees removing equipment they'd loaned to the shop
indicate that the end is probably near.

The new nonprofit shop, Maker Nexus, is below critical mass. Only 50 or so
paying members. (I tried to join, but their outsourced signup site can't send
me a confirmation email. So I didn't join.)

What happened? The "maker movement" fad declined. Etsy changed their policies
- you no longer have to make it yourself; you can outsource manufacturing.
TechShop SF used to have six CNC laser cutters busy cranking out "handmade"
crap for Etsy. That stopped. The rest of the place mostly turned out stuff for
Burning Man. Rising rents forced shops out, of course.

TechShop tried to pivot to "STEM" or "STEAM" education. In practice this meant
teaching middle schoolers to wire up Arduinos. That's fine, but a huge
mismatch with the tools available at TechShop.

Autodesk's previous CEO, Carl Bass, thought 3D printing was going to be a big
deal, and put money and software into TechShop. His successor decided that
wasn't happening and pulled the plug.

It's been a long time since there were people building parts for X-Prize
entries.

I don't think there's any public space in Silicon Valley which has everything
you need for surface mount soldering. Which is embarrassing.

~~~
Tossrock
Circuit Launch has hot air rework stations, apparently.

~~~
Animats
I'd hope so. Those are cheap. Since their business is supposed to be
electronics prototyping, they should have considerably more than that. Like a
prototype pick and place machine like a Liteplacer, a surface mount soldering
oven, and the setup for using a stencil to apply solder paste. But no. Just
basic bench tools.

I once tried to sign up there. I drove up to Oakland, and even though I'd made
an appointment, no one was there to let me in and nobody answered the phone or
door. Then my car was rear-ended on the freeway, and when I pulled off at the
next exit, the other car kept on going. So I had to report a hit and run.
While I was doing this someone approached me and hassled me in what seemed to
be the run-up to a mugging. Got rid of him and drove back to the Peninsula.

If those guys were on the other side of the bay, I'd be using them.

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jpm_sd
Good. It's become an over commercialized, over crowded mess.

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mirimir
There's something ironic about a "Maker Faire" that depends on a commercial
organization with many employees.

~~~
afarrell
Managing events is hard work.

