Dublin Comic Con returns to the Convention Centre Dublin on March 12th and 13th and we will be there. This is Ireland’s leading pop culture event. An event for the whole family. Covering everything from movies/tv shows to comics, cosplay and gaming! Whether you are coming to find rare collectables, meet some Hollywood actors and local artists, have your portfolio reviews by industry professionals or simply cosplay.
We will have a fan table on the 1st-floor both days. We are excited to showcase some cosplays that were built by our members. Sample projects to give everyone the idea of what can be built in our space. Please drop by and say hello.
You can find out more about the event via the following link.
Local Enterprise Week is organised every year by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices across the country. Taking place from Monday 7th to Friday 11th March.
We are delighted to be taking part in a panel discussion called “The value of enterprise spaces & their unique offering to your business”. Event details are below.
Learn how Enterprise and Innovation Hubs can help entrepreneurs and small businesses start, sustain and grow”
Panel Discussion with time for Q&A (the panel will participate in a discussion on the ecosystem, their perspective and their unique offering – services / supports) and how their Hub contributes to economic development and community.
This is a panel discussion is facilitated by Heidi Corr
Participating are 5 Enterprise and Innovation Hubs offering space and services to assist for startups and small businesses.
It has been a while since we gave an update on our fitout works on Tog 4. Below are the highlights.
Flooring
We have put down a wooden floor in our electronics room and common room. The flooring came from Tog 2 and Tog 3. it has been a big cost saving to be able to reuse the flooring.
Our machine room is made up of a cement plinth but it has lots of high points and holes. We have done our best to give it a rough levelling. Below is a video of Gary mixing up some self-levelling screed.
This summer I had the privilege to visit a Hackerspace in Nantes, France. Nantes is the 6th Largest city in France, with a metro population of around 1 million (Dublin clocks in at about 1.5 million for reference).
Pingbase is located in an urban residential neighbourhood, about 4km from the very centre of the city.
They share a large civic building with other associations in that neighbourhood.
Even though I phoned out of the blue, our very gracious hosts Sophie and Gregoire were able to meet us with less than 1 hour’s notice and gave us a comprehensive guided tour!
On the surface, the space offers similar amenities to Tog, but it’s roots and organisational structure are quite different.
Sophie and Gregiore explained that Pingbase is majority publicly funded, at 80%. It was founded in 2004 with the values of: – Social Solidarity – Sharing – Experimentation & Innovation – General Civic Interest
This manifests itself in talks, training (including safety training for equipment), repair cafes, research and tool sharing schemes, all pro-actively promoted within the local community.
Pingbase offers a makerspace with the usual tools, like laser cutters etc… , a library, classrooms and social areas. If I had to guess I would say it is about the same size as Tog 3.0.
Pingbase has 9 paid staff, incorporating two “Community Employment Schemes” (as we would call them in Ireland). They have a significant employee presence to deal with community outreach.
Membership ranges from EUR90 per year for the un-waged, to EUR270 per year for an Enterprise membership. Note again that the majority of their costs are covered from public funding sources.
Unfortunately, the Chaos Communication Congress has not gone ahead this year in Germany due to the pandemic. The Remote Chaos Experience (rC3) has returned to bring us all together online to learn, share and communicate. From the 27th of December until the 30th of December a host of talks, workshops, meetups will all be hosted with people all around the world.
We are involved in an assembly during rC3. An assembly is an area or group of people who come together around a topic, geolocation or organization. We will be taking part in the Irish Embassy. This is a place for people with a connection to Ireland can hang out during rC3. Some of us are from Irish Hackerspaces, we like to collab on projects and LEDs, Green of course. We like three-pin plugs too. You can also join our discord to chat with us during the event.
Join us for a special Christmas themed online craft night. We will be chatting and crafting and having a bit of festive fun. Show us some festive crafts you are working on or get some ideas for those last-minute Christmas gifts.
We will be on Discord on Sunday 19th of December from 6 pm.
To join the discord, follow this invite link: https://discord.gg/QAqQ55d
TOG’s Craft Night is an opportunity to sew, knit or draw with a group of crafters. Bring a project or learn a new skill. All welcome
