RVA MakerFest

RVA MakerFest was held at the Richmond Science Museum. There were approximately 4500 attendees. HackRVA taught people how to solder using custom made blinky badges for the makerfest.

This is just some notes about what worked and what should be changed for next time - maybe even a page about How to Host a Learn to Solder Event...

Needs

• A highly visible banner or sign
• Soldering irons with holders. Pencil irons that leave the hot iron exposed result in too many burns.
• A few spare parts.
• One person can support about 2 students. A good set up would be 4 students at a table with an expert at each end.
• Two sales people
• One person to chat about the space and projects
• We should bring burn creme next time.
• Each station used about 30 inches of solder over the day.
• Volunteers should have explicit jobs with a scheduled end of shift or break time so they have an opportunity to browse the festival.
• A single table seems to be able to run between 30 - 50 badges in a day.
• It's probably a good idea to have extra (completed) badges on hand to distribute to other makers before the event starts.
• It would have been nice to have clamps or tape, or something to hold the boards down while soldering.
• A practical minimum age seems to be about 6 years old.
• It took about 2 hours to set up, but that could probably be reduced.
• The badge design should have had larger pads.
• The event mainly drew in children, maybe a more complex project could be made for adults?
• $5 was a successful price.
• Outdoors was ideal because it dissipates the smoke and noise.
• It would be beneficial to have signs with instructions and tips next time.