3,000 people attended 3DPrintopia last month. At the front door, PrintKits was giving away a mini-kit that makes a very useful soldering helper. As of this morning, that model's been downloaded 128 times. That is not a high engagement rate. Free useful tool! Nobody cares!
To be fair, I've only engaged with ten or fifteen of the 100 vendors I talked to there. But I've got a list, and I'm still working through it. I guess we're spoiled with too many opportunities.
My personal highlights from #3DPrintopia first day:
HueForge. Amazing imagery, and the booth had a HUGE! number of samples. Well over a hundred, every one stunning.
HEN3DRIK's electroplated prints. They look much more convincing in person than on YouTube.
I met Gabe "soozafone" Rosiak, creator of the Dummy13 models. Nice guy. (Everybody was nice. Nobody was too famous or too busy to just talk.)
(crappy photos.)
Key takeaways from 3DPrintopia:
Prusa, Positron, and LDO Motors were the only printer vendors I saw with booths. SnapMaker had some posters for their U1 kickstarter. The most common printers in the booths were Voron-likes, Bambu, and Prusa.
Lots of filament vendors. Lots of Youtubers.
Surprising numbers of huge prints (like, too big to transport in a car). Huge variety in surface finishes and colors.
Everybody had MakerCoins.
(random photos.)
They say they're moving to a bigger venue next year. Once we made it through the front gate, it wasn't too crowded.
Spousey and I only saw about 60% of the show today. We're going back tomorrow.
In nine hours, I'll be at #3DPrintopia. The last 3D printing show I went to was MRRF 2018*. So I'll wear my MRRF 2018 T-shirt today.
I sincerely hope I don't buy a new printer this weekend.
* Midwest RepRap Festival
My Time at 3D Printiopa
Kernel Bob 
Vincent Ascosi's Blog
Alien3D ✅️
Emily
CapT-Rex 
