This past weekend the Maker Faire took over Stadhuisplein. Held once every year in Eindhoven, the fair is a chance for children and adults to explore and try out brilliant experiments and out-of-the-box creations.
The fair brings together novices and experts whose collaboration has created a community that nourishes creatives in all fields.
Some highlights from this year’s fair include, but are not limited to robot races and robot soccer matches, adults and children having washing machine races, and a giant robot made of drums that play music; the hustle and bustle were spectacular.
The event was divided into outdoor booths and indoor fun in the Eindhoven City Hall building, with a room dedicated to games made out of light, and an area for drone flying. There were booths for children to make their own cars and hovercrafts, have robot battles, laser cutting workshops and brilliantly 3D printed statues, chess boards, and automated train tracks.
A family event filled with energy and creativity for everyone, one of the many highlighted events held in Eindhoven, and one that children are highly encouraged to attend, concluded as a success once again.
The Maker Faire is a place designed for creators to showcase their new innovative ideas and creations, and is open for all to present their work. For information on how to become a maker and showcase your work, or for next year’s event program and other Maker Faire locations, visit Maker Faire.
Source: Maker Faire
For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez
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“It’s expensive being poor”, according to Don Ceder, lawyer, politician, and top-candidate for Christenunie Amsterdam. Apparently, about 20% of Amsterdammers are in debts. He wants to address this taboo-subject and help people in other ways, instead of just giving money. Sharing personal experiences on the mental, physical and emotional damage that traps people into a vicious cycle that often creates next-generation-poverty. He asks for leadership to take charge of educating people and reviewing the banking systems to reduce the stress of debtors.
Jos de Jong, Entrepreneur in the hospitality business, feels that current competitive markets are missing out on the “the power of staff engagement in the hospitality business”. He shares his personal experience in the restaurant business where chefs on media do not resemble the chefs’ in reality! He took charge to develop a new process of training, connecting, rewarding and enjoying work/life balance. His customers seem to notice the happy ambiance with fully engaged employees, who eat meals together. And his business is doing very well, delivering more than just pure financial returns. He sums up by sharing “the world is greater than the sum of their parts!”
Business with conflict? According to Stefanie Jansen, psychologist and co-founder of the Cocreators, says “fear is never the answer”. There is a simple recipe, “when all relevant parties are actively engaged in the creation of the solution. It will be implemented successfully because it will be relevant to the end-users and supported by all critical parties”. She shared an example “groove.me” using music to teach English to children in the Netherlands, with great success! Stefanie has overwhelmingly convinced us that Co-Creation plays a critical role in addressing current (and future) issues created by Human Tectonics.
Aukje Kuypers, Dutch Businesswoman of the year 2018. She was taught at a young age, to “do things that make you happy”, as such she decided to “do something great”. She accepted that sustainability was not a strictly mainstream business. But she wanted a wake-up-call for most business leaders to take up the longer-term view. She took a bold step and successfully led 800 people towards a strategy of zero-emissions and circular economy. Her advice to everyone is simply “trust your intuition, as its always right!”
Marietje Schaake, Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament, is concerned about politics in the connected world, and the abuse of technology to destroy democracy. She shared several real-life cases in developing countries, where people were tracked and targeted through mobile phones, emails, and text messages. Then she shocks us even further, by adding, “did you know that, all these technologies, used in these incidents were designed for gathering marketing information, only?” Her view is simply that “it should be us that governs a democracy, and not technology that governs us”.
We closed the day with Peter Vandermeersch, Editor in Chief at NRC, who is extremely concerned about the current and future state of journalism globally. The struggle with the various streams of “news”, or even what should quantify as real news? He shared that 40% of Dutch and 70% Americans, do not trust the media. This is entering an extremely dangerous era, where we cannot trust what we see or read in the media, as news can be easily manipulated by technology as “alternative facts”. He was extremely poignant on the future role of journalism, with widespread mistrust. He has a very crisp and clear message, he wants “the public democracy, to step up and force higher standards!”
