Bonjour! My name is Sharon Leigh and I am one of the 4 core-founders of a new maker group; Maker Schmiede, from Holzbachtal/Straubenhardt, Germany. Our group is growing and so far we are about 20. We would like to invite you to participate in our first ever Maker-Art-Hacker Black-Forest festival. Sat.29 & Sun.30 June, 2013 I found your group online and we really like your philosophy, online ambience and your group looks inspiring to us. We need the help of maker-group mentors! I am American, we have 1 French and the rest of us are German. The majority of us speak 3 languages. I have been an artist-maker-hacker-preneuer for over 25 years. We want to formally introduce our group with a bang(of course exploding things are enthusiastically encouraged!) in a combined fest with my annual Summer Maker-Art-Handwerk Festival in order to create excitement and exposure in our community. Our challenge here is educating the people in the region who tend to be rather… um, conservative. People around here see makers/hackers as outsiders(yay!), foolish, unprofessional, head-in-the-clouds, etc. We want(must!) change this way of thinking! Participation from other established maker groups would demonstrate that we are not merely crazy(ha ha) but that we actually are a catalyst for creativity, innovation, education, entrepreneurial business building, etc. The more international groups we can have, the better! If you are interested, you can reach me at: s.leighdesign@t-online.de Home: 07248 92 7445 Just some additional info: My website: www.sleighdesign.com (We are in process of building our group website.) Also; There is LOTS of space here. My studio and home are in the forest. I have unlimited space for fest tents, camping, bonfires/BBQ, theater productions, machine/robot demonstrations, etc. It’s really a hacker-space-wonderland. Will you join us and help us make our debut extraordinary? Viva le Maker Revolution! Sharon ……………………………