Curious about what people have said about the event?
- Endorsement Letter (PDF) from Ward 29 City Councillor Mary Fragedakis.
- Ryan Varga has made a beautiful (there is no other word) short film that documents the event. It’s so good, in fact, that it was linked to on BoingBoing! We’re totally thrilled to have made it on to the site again.
- Sponsor/participant Aesthetec Studio have written a bit of a report on the great time they had showing visitors how their exhibits (which are destined for the Calgary Science Centre) worked – we’re so glad it went so well for them!
- Volunteer/participant/all-around amazing lady Michelle Axbey reflects on her experience of the Faire.
- Participants think|haus say it simply & Straight from the Heart in their blog post, “MiniMakerFaireToronto == Awesome”.
- Participants kwartzlab makerspace loved their time at the Faire… and say it with a blog post.
- We get a “WOWZA!” out of 5 on Dan Gaede’s blog, 365 New Things.
- Blogger/participant Lindsay Munro has some great photos and a lot of nice things to say about us on her blog, Just My Type – we agree with her feedback of what we can do better for next year, too!
- One of our (great) volunteers gives a bit of insight into what was happening at the event on the blog Amiable Moray.
- Participant Carl Peny says a few words about his experience at the Faire on his blog, arcnet01.
- Visitor/Blogger Phillip Smith made a video about his trip to the Faire!
- Torontoist had an eye-opening time checking out the show.
I’ve been looking forward to this event for weeks. My wife, mom, and I arrive at about noon, and paid $30 to get in. Now for $10/person, I’m expecting to be there for a significant amount of time. Unfortunately, we covered the entire event in about 30 minutes. And we certainly by no means rushed. We stopped and talked to several vendors and generally took our time. Bottom line, you shouldn’t have charged $10 for this. I think it was probably worth $2.50, maybe $3. I really hope this thing grows, but in the future I will be extra vigilant to ensure I will be getting my money’s worth.
Hi Lee,
I’m part of the team that helped organize the event. We really appreciate your feedback and we’re definitely working on making the faire larger and more exciting for next year.
If you covered the faire in only 30 minutes, I’m not surprised that you don’t feel like you got your money’s worth, but I can’t help but think that 30 minutes wouldn’t be enough time to include playing a round of Dyad in The Machine, sending a txt message to the Tweletype, having a slow dance at the Pong Prom, fooling around with the laser guitar, making some noise on an Atari Punk console, or making your mom a scarf for mother’s day at the No-Sew workshop (and that’s only naming a few of the interactive displays). Perhaps it wasn’t obvious enough that almost all of the makers had stuff that you could interact with – a large part of what this and other maker faires are all about. We’ll definitely look into ways to encourage more interaction between attendees and makers for next year.
I am sorry that Mini Maker Faire Toronto didn’t live up to your expectations and if you have any further suggestions about what would make future Faires better please let us know.
I really enjoyed the faire, thanks for organizing a great experience.
Here’s my report (which I will revise over the next day or two):
http://mambohead.com/2011/05/toronto-maker-faire-went-well/
There are pictures and video of the fair further down in my blog.
Darcy
Thanks for the link, Darcy, and for the feedback on your blog. We’re really glad you enjoyed yourself!
Lindsay