It had been a while since my dad and I had done a road trip together. This last weekend we traveled down to the 3D Printer World conference in Burbank CA to represent Boxbot and interact with many others who are excited and passionate about 3D printing.
It was three days filled with exhibits, seminars, and people interested in the world of 3D printing. There were artists, engineers, toymakers, movie makers, fashion designers, entrepreneurs, animators, hobbyists, middle schoolers, and many others coming together in one spot all because of 3D printing.
I can't speak to every interesting thing learned and each interesting person we met in one blog post, but there were two sessions that I thought captured well the future of 3D printing.
The first was a session completely dedicated to integrating 3D printing with education. Middle schoolers from Berkeley California who attended the first ever White House Maker Faire representing their after-school maker club. These kids did a phenomenal job speaking to an audience of 70 adults who were enthralled with the learning experience and presentation skills of a few 7th and 8th graders. A reflection of the amazing work done by their teacher Christine Mytko, who started this club even though she had no personal interest in 3D printing.
The second was a session done by professionals from the R&D, fashion, and movie making industries who are using 3D printing to innovate in their space. One was designing drinking glasses being made and 3D printed for space tourism (like for real), another uses 3D printing to create fashionable wearable tech that interacts with the world around you. Then there were the two movie makers who worked on Iron Man's costume (which was 3D printed to fit perfectly to Robert Downey Jr's body), and who just came off of making a new independent movie called Alien Outpost, where they brought props from their movie for the audience to touch and see. I don't know if the low budget independent sci-fi film is any good, but it was cool to see first hand the innovation that is occurring because of 3D printing.
There was so much more jammed packed into three little days. And other sessions just as interesting as the two I just shared. This year's 3D Printer World was a success for us at Boxbot. So successful that I anticipate reliving a road trip with dad yet again.