Maker Faire update

[alessandro_bard]

Just found out that our booth will not be in the Dark Room, as they are not having one per se this year. Instead, they will put us in the main hall (the big boxy building) which has better foot traffic, at least. But it isn't dark, not the least bit. This means we have to rework the booth to make our own darkness!

We need to be able to make it dark enough to show the fireflies doing their thing while still being open enough to get people's attention as they pass. I'm expecting an ambient room light intensity of at least 200 lux, which could be up to 1000 if we're too close to the entrances, whereas the fireflies don't start to come on till well under 20 lux. Yipe!

We'll have to make some kind of dark box around the whole booth, or something. Maybe use an easy-up and cover the whole thing in dark cloth? Put out some kind of awning over the front to shade that area (assuming the Powers That Make will let us do so)? Any other ideas, anyone?

In other areas, prep for the Faire is rolling along more smoothly. The web site is being reworked by colletteshorses  and two of her school chums. She has worked out the credit card and PayPal systems, and I'm finishing construction and testing of the first run of 100. I have a manufacturer friend lined up for the follow-on run of 1000, which he says should easily be done by the show. I'd really like to have all the parts and boards ordered once a few details get worked out in the next few days - in other words, Real Soon Now (TM).

The Maker Faire is approaching at a rate of 1 second per second, which nevertheless seems awfully fast from here.

Comments

[acanthusleaf.livejournal.com]

I am under the impression that any fabric used in an indoor booth setup must be certified fire-retardant. Just a data point. Maybe a dark box with several viewports would work. Like the thing Spock looks into in TOS on the bridge.

I sent you an email through your humbleearth email a while back - did you get it? I'm happy to help out in your booth at Maker Faire when you guys need a break. I'm good at explaining things to potential customers. :-)

I can't wait to see the fireflies!

[alessandro-bard.livejournal.com]

Good point about fire retardant fabric. Hadn't thought of that.

I didn't get any emails sent to the humbleearth.net account which were sent before the 8th. I had to get a few things fixed on Earthlink's end when I realized it wasn't working.

Thanks for offering to help. We're certainly going to need some people to fill in occasionally, as well as half-day helpers (who I will pay entrance for once we work things out as to who and when, but it's not time for that yet).

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

When I was teaching astronomy to kids in windowed classrooms, we made a lightbox of constellations that we showed on the roof of a small tent made of black garbage bags.

This would probably look too make-shift for the faire, but I'm thinking perhaps you could be successful with a tunnel box with a small opening shadowed with an awning at one end for people to look into?