Worth exhibiting at Maker Faire?

I've displayed vintage computers at 3 of the last 4 West Coast Maker Fairs and it has gone very, very well. This year a number of CHM docent trainees "worked" the booth with me and had a blast. We got a fairly large display space (3 tables in a big booth) and we were packed open to close both days. I had folks playing with machines during setup and teardown! You are well within the spirit of the Maker Faire even if you aren't actually "making" things. You are still keeping them alive and happy and the attendees love the nostalgia vintage machines offer. I've gone totally hands-on with each display and made sure to include as many familiar machines as I can since the audience isn't quite as geeky as we are. So, for me anyway, lots of Apples, Atari's and Commodores and fewer Northstars, Eagles and IBM 5100s. That said, I did have people switching in programs on an Altair 8800 this year, alongside the Apple ][e, C-64, IBM PCjr and Atari 800. (Sorry so slow with a reply, but I'm still recovering from my vacation.) ----- Erik Klein www.vintage-computer.com www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum - The Vintage Computer Forums marketplace.vintage-computer.com - The Vintage Computer and Gaming Marketplace -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2010 7:52 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: OT: Worth exhibiting at Maker Faire? Hi all -- My club (MARCH) is scheduled to exhibit at the inaugural Maker Faire NYC. I'm starting to have second thoughts because we don't "make" anything, we just make old things work again. Who here has been to a Maker Faire event, and if so, would a vintage computers exhibit be well received by the audience?