Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 May, at the MUSE in Trento, the big closing event of the EU FabLabNet project

 After three years of work, Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 May, the FabLabNet Project will conclude its journey with a two-day celebration and meetings, dedicated to all lovers of technology and innovation, young and old. For the occasion, the nine FabLabs of the INTERREG Central Europe FabLabNet project will meet in Trento for a public presentation of the activities and results achieved in the field of digital prototyping and shared innovation. Two days in which conferences and technological demonstrations will alternate with music, interactive activities, flight tests with drones and – for night owls – a night of music, video mapping and technological sounds. The FabLabNet BIGFest will be an unmissable opportunity for technology enthusiasts, families looking for a special weekend, or even the merely curious who want to meet experimenters, inventors, creatives and artists in an international environment.

The programme starts on Saturday morning with three conferences at Palazzo delle Albere, where national and European experts will be exploring the role of FabLabs in the world of Business (9am-1pm), Education (2pm-4pm) and Communities (4pm-7pm).

Starting from Saturday afternoon, and for the whole day on Sunday, the nine FabLab project partners – from Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – together with more than twenty representatives of FabLabs and Italian companies working in the field of technological and social innovation, will be presenting prototypes, activities and stands related to creativity and digital inventions to the public.

A special flight cage will be set up to allow visitors to experiment with flying drones.

Saturday evening, starting at 6pm, “FabNight” will open: a multimedia event in the name of technology in which speakers, gamers and artists will be performing. Young creatives, incredible inventions and numerous well-known names such as YouTuber Andrea Galeazzi, presenter Paolo Labati, beatboxer Lil Klips, musicians Anansi, Ardan Dal Rì, ReacTj, Tina Baffy and Sabota VJ, along with many others, will take turns on stage.

To recharge your batteries, food trucks will be open for the duration of the event.

All activities will be free, admission to conferences will be open while seats last (online registration is recommended).  For the occasion, the MUSE will be open to the public at the special rate of €3.

The full programme of the event and the online registration to the conferences are available at: http://fablab.muse.it/fablabnet-big-fest/

FOCUS: the International Conferences

On Saturday 18th, the BIGFest will start with 3 International Conferences, of particular interest to technology enthusiasts, experts and professionals. Held in the prestigious setting of Palazzo delle Albere, the three conferences will discuss the interactions between FabLabs and Companies (9am to 1pm), FabLabs and Education (2pm to 4pm) and FabLabs and Communities (4pm to 7pm).

Expert speakers on the theme of “FabLabs and Companies” will include Ann Christin Döding from lvh APA Bozen Confartigianato Imprese, Paolo Gregori and Matteo Perini from PROM Facility, Trento. The MakerSpace in Munich will present its experience with BMW, while the FabLab in Budapest will illustrate its partnership with leading robotics company KUKA.

On the subject of “Education”, experts from MUSE FabLab, FabLab Bielsko-Biala (PL) and the University of Brno (CZ) will talk to Tine de Pauw (Brussels Photonic Team), Orietta Daprà (training consultant in educational services), Daniele Khalousi and Marcello Scaravella of the FabLab in Parma.

Lastly, we will talk about “FabLabs and Communities” with Happylab in Vienna, RogLab in Ljubljana and FabLab in Zagreb. Prof. Bojan Baletić (University of Zagreb), educators Emanuela Leva (Soprasotto, Milan) and Vittoria de Mare (Carpe Diem, Trento), and makers Zoe Romano (WeMake, Milan) and Matilde Bognolo (MUSE FabLab) will focus on the ways in which FabLab can catalyse social and technological innovation.

Admission to the conferences is free and includes coffee breaks and light lunches, but places are limited and we recommend that you book your place at the link below well in advance:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfUniDG8RC3l0rdaeFA6bhG9b0evkI6P7FVdSlJcyNx_jGRTw/viewform

The full programme of the FabLabNet BIGFest: http://fablab.muse.it/fablabnet-big-fest/

FOCUS: FabDays

For children, families or the merely curious, the BIGFest will offer two days of activities, stands and technological demonstrations starting on Saturday afternoon and throughout Sunday at the MUSE and its garden.

31 national and European FabLabs will be presenting prototypes and activities. Particularly interesting events for children of the many activities going on will include Flight Testing to safely test drones, Nintendo LABO to play with Switch in a new and creative way, and PixelArt to create art like a real computer! For those who feel like it, with Insetti Robot it will be possible to create a cyber-beetle to take home (reservation required at the link: www.roglab.si/en/fabbox/2019/robotic_beetles).

To recharge your batteries between one discovery and the next, food trucks will be available in the MUSE garden on both Saturday and Sunday.

Programme and list of exhibitors: http://fablab.muse.it/fablabnet-big-fest/

FOCUS: FabNight

On Saturday 18th, from 6pm onwards, creatives, inventors, artists, gamers and YouTubers will take turns on the stage of the MUSE for an exceptional evening of music and ideas on the theme of technology and innovation.

The evening will begin with TECHNO BLA BLA BLA (7pm to 9pm), a series of short, easy to understand talks that will describe what it means to innovate today.

A group of young Alfieri della Repubblica (Filippo Pasquazzo, Enrico Cescato, and Samuele Ropelato, accompanied by Prof. Monica Ropele, of the De Gasperi Institute of Borgo Valsugana) will then take turns on the stage, winners of the prestigious title for their App “My Voices”, created to help one of their classmates with communicative and relational disabilities. Edoardo and Federica Taori will present Plants Play: a device for listening to the “voice of plants”; Necomimi will demonstrate a strange way of using brain waves; the Fire Brigade will be flying their Hi-Tech drones; the artist Lil Klips will tell you what he means by “DIY” music; Miss Lala will play with light; the Makey Makey kit get you playing with the strangest objects; and Ardan Dal Rì will present “Body Glove: when technology makes DNA resonate”.

This will be followed by the GAMERS’ DIALOGUE (9 pm to 9.30 pm), in which gamification guru Fabio Viola will talk with Elisa Di Lorenzo – the first Italian game producer – about the possibilities of developing the video game medium in the coming years.

After the TALKS, “L’altromovimento” company will be offering something more purely entertaining, with their “Dance with Drones” choreography. YouTuber Andrea Galeazzi and presenter Paolo Labati will then take an entertaining and irreverent look of what you can – and can’t – do with technology, nowadays…

From 10pm onwards, the music will start with beatboxer Lil Klips (Isam Maarouf), the musical experiments of Anansi & Ardan Dal Rì and – directly from “Italia’s Got Talent” – the ReacTj show with its surprising interactive table.

Finally, you can dance with the DJ set by Tina Buffy & Sabota VJ.