The 2018 HackFest soldering village brought together numerous hackers and makers to celebrate both Badgelife and SAO culture in Québec. With four levels of soldering challenges and workshops galore, there was plenty to keep attendees busy and hacking!
20 soldering stations and a total operation time of 25 hours certainly made this an event to remember! Before we say goodbye to 2018 for good, let’s take a look back on this epic event.
Touring HackFest’s Soldering Village
To help support this awesome fusion of badgelife and SAO culture, Tindie provided 200 beagle badges, along with a welcome table and plenty of help from Angel Puppy (pictured below), who was featured on the website’s thank you page for their efforts.
The beagle badges were a hit, with members wearing them everywhere across the hotel premises. They have even been spotted on backpacks around town since the event. In addition to the Tindie badges, a few other Tindarian projects made an appearance as well:
- 20 Unexpected Maker Badges from Seon were handed out
- 29 Rainbow Jellyfish Kits from Radomir Dopieralski went out
- 30 NWMaker 0201 challenges were distributed
- 40 SMD Challenge Kits from MakersBox
Combine this with 200 SAOs, and over $2,500 in prizes, and there were plenty of souvenirs to go around. Martin Lebel shared several funny and wholesome anecdotes from the event as well. The hotel, for example, insisted on using black tablecloths for the tables Martin brought. As you can imagine, they’re now full of holes.
There was one casualty as well: a 2″ soldering tip that fell onto the floor. The person didn’t notify anyone and it was found later with the carpet melted around the tip.
One opportunistic person brought some electronic components and used the equipment to repair their iPad. Several dads who didn’t know each other also brought their kids with them on day 2 to teach them about soldering.
The event was a massive success overall, thanks to the combined efforts of HackFest, the various partners who contributed to the event, and of course, the people who made it such a memorable experience.
Watch Out 2019, HackFest is Coming Back!
Martin Lebel: Teacher in computer science, organizer of the soldering village
Martin shared some of the plans for 2019, including similar activities at NSEC. There are also plans to build a “badge wall” to showcase the badge collection. HackFest is planning another village in November of 2019, which aims for a bigger room and up to 30 stations!
Mark it on your calendar, this is one event you won’t want to miss!
