Creat-A-Con was a one-day Creative Technology organised by Jason Boomer of SideFest. It took place in the Queens Building at DMU in Leicester on the 21st February 2015. Exhibitors included Leicester Hackspace, Creative Manifesto, Starbase Leicester and Interact Labs. Over 500 people attended the event.

Interact and Interact Labs brought a range of art and technology exhibits along for people to play with.

Our Robot Arm always goes down well, and was joined at this event by a new Edison Mini Robot. This is a great little learning 'bot that is also great value for money.

Our WaterColourBot suffered a little in transport and was not performing at its best, but people still liked it. The 3D Printer also suffered a little, but was eventually set-up to produce a steady stream of whistles for people (mostly children) to take away. For many attendees it was the first time that they had seen a 3D printer in action.

We brought some DIY Virtual Reality headsets along too. However, we also had the Oculus Rift on loan to Starbase and in the end settled on encouraging people have a go with that instead. Reports were that the queue didn't die down all day.

Finally, we seem to have found a new star - the Arduino-powered Jamm Jar computer. This is a new project by Sean Clark that features a neoPixel LED ring, Arduino micro-controller, switch and rechargeable battery, all placed in a glass jam jar (see some pictures here). He has been using this device in workshops and is looking to develop it further as part of a new series of artworks. Attendees seemed to be fascinated by them and enjoyed the LED lighting patterns it produced.

Despite the odd technical problem, it was a great day. SideFest brought a very impressive audience to the event and the DMU student volunteers (and the non-DMU ones too) were incredibly helpful. We're already looking forward to the next one!

See our pictures from the event here on Flickr.