3Dtoday holds 3Dtoday Fest, Russia’s first national 3D printing event
3Dtoday Fest took place last February in St. Petersburg
Russia’s leading 3D printing media outlet 3Dtoday held its first national event – the 3Dtoday Fest, in St. Petersburg last February. The festival gathered several thousand visitors and served as a place to showcase the latest developments and achievements in the field of additive technologies.
The event was organized by 3dpbm‘s network partner 3Dtoday, which is emerging as the largest Russian-speaking maker community and the leading local AT media portal, uniting Russian-speaking 3D printer owners, 3D equipment manufacturers and distributors of specialized equipment and consumables.
Apart from the traditional equipment expo, the aim of the festival was to popularize 3D technologies through a hands-on demonstration of 3D printing and 3D scanning. Forty-five stands displayed various 3D printers developed by makers and local brands, as well as all sorts of 3D printing demo projects – from electric guitars and submersible drones to a Formula Student racing car and even a real, flying ultra-light class aircraft.
In addition to the exhibition program, the event included 3D printing pen workshops for kids and adults. A number of top 3Dtoday bloggers and industry representatives delivered speeches about intricacies of 3D modeling and 3D printing, specifics of available consumables, as well as ins and outs of earning a profit using relatively inexpensive and widely available personal 3D printers.
The festive atmosphere was augmented by individual cosplay in 3D printed costumes and performances by “Remember Me!” cosplay team. Visitors received 3D printed souvenirs, and three of the guests won a raffle and walked away with their first 3D printers.
“February 9 was a red letter day for our portal, participants and guests. Together we have planted a seed of something wonderful and conducted a large-scale event for the sake of promoting the industry as a whole. The main idea of the festival was not only to show what 3D printing can do but also to share experiences among community members and visitors, provide interesting data and practical workshops, communicate and just have a good time. This is truly a festival by 3D makers for 3D makers,” commented the head of 3Dtoday Sergey Pushkin.
Gifts for the youngest visitors and prizes for the filament raffle were provided by a number of local enterprises: 3D printer developer and manufacturer PICASO 3D, and filament and resin brands Filamentarno!, Bestfilament and HARZ Labs. Due to the success of the pilot event, 3Dtoday intends to make it a regular affair with next stop in Moscow sometime this year.
