We’re proud to announce the Hackaday Remoticon, taking place everywhere November 6th – 8th, 2020. It’s a weekend packed with workshops about hardware creation, held virtually for all to enjoy.

Update: Tickets are now available for 2020 Remoticon!

But we can’t do it without you. We need you to host a workshop on that skill, technique, or special know-how that you acquired through hard work over too many hours to count. Send in your workshop proposal now!

What is a Remoticon?

The Hackaday Remoticon achieves something that we just couldn’t do at the Hackaday Superconference: host more workshops that involve more people. Anyone who’s been to Supercon over the past six years can tell you it’s space-limited and, although we do our best to host a handful of workshops each day, those available seats are always in high demand.

We’re sad that we can’t get together in person for Supercon this year, but now we have an opportunity to host more workshops, engaging more live instructors and participants because they will be held virtually. This also means that we can make recordings of them available so that more people can learn from the experience. This is something that we tried way back during the first Supercon with Mike Ossmann’s RF Circuit Design workshop and 140,000 people have watched that video. (By the way, that link is worth clicking just to see Joe Kim’s excellent art.)

Now I’m not saying that your workshop will have a view count into six digits. What I am saying is that you have skills worth sharing, and people are hungry to learn. Since traveling to massive conferences is on pause for a while, spinning up a way to share your experience with others is a superb use of your time.

We need you to submit a workshop proposal! This can take any shape that makes sense for your topic, but here’s the gist of how this might work. Each accepted workshop makes a list of necessary materials and where to get them so that participants can order ahead of time and follow along. Live workshops will be held via video conference, with periods of instruction, work time, and recap that lets participants ask questions and show results as they go.

Get Your Tickets Now!

Wait, wait, wait. Before you click away to the next awesome Hackaday article, don’t assume you have nothing to teach. In fact, do the opposite. Assume you have rare and specialized knowledge on something (because you do!) and seek that out. Then unleash your mind to form a workshop idea around it. Hackaday is filled with weird, wild, and interesting projects, and we always want to see more of them. Share the wealth so that more people begin to walk the path of the hardware hacker

What Kind of Workshops Do You Have in Mind?

In general, we’re looking for anything related to hardware creation. It can be artistic, practical, programming-based, fabrication-focused, cerebral in nature, or none of the above. Teach us to properly characterize parts, optimize firmware, remove headaches from manufacturing runs, design 3D printed parts that last, or build proof-of-concept showpieces. Bring it on!

To get the ball rolling with Remoticon we do have two concrete things to tell you about today. First off, Mohit Bhoite, Kelly Heaton, and Jiri Praus will host a circuit sculpture workshop. You may remember Kelly’s museum-grade nesting bird sculpture that won Hackaday’s Circuit Sculpture contest. You’ll certainly be familiar with Jiri’s moving tulip sculpture. And Mohit’s talk sharing his build techniques at last year’s Supercon is something that really makes us gaga for a hands-on workshop. From choosing materials to making two and three dimensional templates to aesthetically pleasing solder joints and structure, this topic runs deep.

Not too shabby, but 0402’s my limit.

Kapton tape and tweezers at work

Another activity we wish we could expand during our in-person conferences is competitive soldering. For the Hackaday Remoticon we’re taking the SMD soldering challenge global. The event will run all weekend long, as competitors have their chance to set up a camera at their workbench and show us how extremely-small soldering is meant to be done. We’ll see some inspiring skills, we’ll see some hilarious flops, and we’ll all have fun cheering on the action.

Hackaday is Better Together

The Hacker spirit is what makes the world go ’round. But at times we all do some pretty geeky things, and most often your neighbors and family don’t want to spend hours gabbing about this stuff. Let’s build a high-point of the autumn together by supporting one another during these strange days of social distancing. Put the Hackaday Remoticon on your calendar, and pull together a proposal to host your own workshop!