Fun is good!
This is a very encouraging graph - We need more fun in our too-techie lives.
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This is a very encouraging graph - We need more fun in our too-techie lives.
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At the makerfaire it would have have been useful to try to communicate the fun more. Your booth had dead devices sitting on tables. Not a lot of fun in evidence.
Posted by: a suggestion | May 05, 2008 at 07:21 AM
Thanks for the feedback. We tried to be fun with the layout + having a lot of people there who could do real-time coding and build BUGs on the spot. Unfortunately we were swamped (even with 6-7 booth staff) too much of the time to really do as much hands-on stuff as we wanted...
That said, if you have any specific suggestions as to how you'd make a Bug booth more fun, we'd love to hear em!
Posted by: Jeremy Toeman | May 05, 2008 at 11:55 AM
I also was underwhelmed by the BugLabs booth at the maker faire...and I'm a fan and customer.
Specifically:
- Visability: I walked by the booth several times without seeing it before asking officials where the BugLabs booth was...and I was looking for it.
- No working products: just a dead Bug on the counter.
- No inspiring projects: no demonstrations or graphical descriptions of what you could do with the product, just several guys hanging around not very interesting computer screens.
- Flat booth personnel: It could have been a fluke, but the guy we approached seemed to have little knowledge of or passion for the (dead) Bug in his hand...mostly looking around for someone else (where is he?) more knowledgeable.
- No fun: Admittedly, the bar is pretty high for fun at the Maker Faire, but come on, Bug is supposed to be fun, whimsical, spontaneous. Right?
Comparisons: Chumby personnel also were a little stiff, but they had working product, and demos of widget development and Chumbys driving iRobots around. Sun had some awesome demos of SunSpots controlling a slide whistle music contraption and wifi pong using the accelerometers...and their booth personnel were genuinely excited about their little device. You get the idea.
I'm still rooting for Bug, but a sad performance for such an awesome product.
Posted by: keithr | May 05, 2008 at 03:30 PM
keithr - first, thanks for your support. Second, thanks for your candor. I'm sorry we didn't come through for you at Maker Faire. I'm taking note of your criticisms and seeing how we can improve. I've heard so much positive feedback from the event, I'm hoping that your experience was the exception. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. This type of feedback is important to us.
Posted by: Peter Semmelhack | May 05, 2008 at 06:04 PM