In simply its second 12 months, Open Sauce hosted greater than 20,000 guests, and over 5 instances as many exhibitors because the 12 months earlier than. Right here’s a short take a look at a bit of what I noticed whereas I used to be there.
Open Sauce, the world’s largest gathering of makers, creators, engineers, influencers, and tech fans, gathered for simply the second time earlier this month, and was, by all accounts (together with mine), a spectacular occasion. Born of the minds of William Osman and Ian Dokie, that needed to make “…the occasion that my 15 12 months previous self would go loopy for,” as Osman put it. Apparently there are a complete lot of different individuals who would go loopy for it too, and this 12 months they did. Over 500 got here to point out their merchandise and initiatives, and greater than 20,000 got here to see them.
This 12 months’s venue, The Cow Palace, was a lot bigger than final years, and it was packed all weekend
Friday was open to {industry} individuals, and gave everybody who could be spending a lot of the weekend at their sales space or on the stage as a part of a panel the prospect to fulfill, discuss and share tales and builds with the opposite creators earlier than the true crowd arrived. For many people, it was an opportunity to attach with previous buddies, make new ones, and meet buddies and fellow makers IRL whom we had beforehand solely spoken with on-line. There have been additionally panel discussions with extra of an industry-based slant – what’s occurring now, what occurring for the remainder of the 12 months, what’s occurring subsequent 12 months. (Spoiler alert – it’s largely about AI.)
Together with the greater than 500 reveals from all corners of the world, the weekend was crammed with visitor audio system, panel discussions, and demonstrations on two separate levels. Creators included the likes of Adam Savage, Mark Rober, Ali Spignola, Colin Furze, Mehdi Sadaghdar (ElectroBOOM), Emily the Engineer, and Joel Gomes (Integza), to call only a tiny fraction. Subjects and dialogue ran the total spectrum, from the ridiculous to the chic, and included issues like OUCH! Working with Excessive Voltage, Large Concepts in Brief Type, Creating Content material in 2024, Constructing a Model as a Creator, and Not Jeopardy (a ridiculous gameshow-style occasion that examined the STEM data of three makers).
Adam Savage shared his ardour for the maker group not solely on stage, however two days earlier when he invited 200 makers to his workshop
To get extra of an thought of the scope of this 12 months’s occasion, I positively recommend that you simply check out the Featured Creators Record and the Displays Record (There have been 29 completely different classes), however I’ll warn you – taking a look at these lists will certainly begin you figuring how one can make it out to San Francisco for subsequent 12 months’s occasion.
In case you are in any approach related to the maker group, at the same time as simply an observer at this level, I’d extremely suggest making an attempt to get to subsequent 12 months’s Open Sauce. You possibly can at present get discounted tickets for subsequent years occasion on their web site. After all, relying on the place you reside, a visit to San Francisco won’t be doable, however you even have the choice of seeing all the video recordings of the panels, video games, and talks, together with all the recordings from the 2023 occasion, by becoming a member of Open Sauce at Residence. Hopefully I’ll see you at subsequent 12 months’s Open Sauce, and till then, Glad Hacking!
Undecided how properly it might do on the water, however as an artwork piece, this LED boat was completely beautiful! (A nonetheless pic would not do it justice)