This email is coming from your president, Zac. If you've been to events with the Maker Club over the last couple of years, there's a good chance you've been to an event I've helped run.
Sadly, this year will be my last year leading the Maker Club. I’m off to London to study Innovation Design Engineering, which will put me indefinitely as far away as you can get from the creative and maker scenes in New Zealand.
If you’d like to come say goodbye and celebrate all the awesome events our tenacious little club have put on, I’d encourage you to grab some friends and see me at any (or all) of the last hackathons I’m running in NZ:
- 12th - 14th July: Mobility Dogs Hackathon
- 19th - 21st July: Kiwijam
- 2nd - 4th August: The Terrible Ideas Hackathon
Also: If you'd like to have the best volunteer role in the world, consider joining our committee! We'll have an election soon where lots of roles will become available. Being a part of the Maker Club team has been such a fantastic opportunity and part of how I'm now able to continue to exciting things overseas.
To wrap things up for this newsletter, here are a few of my favourite events over the years. Enjoy!
The Cardboard Forts series
This is the simplest idea for an event, but has led to such creativity both times! Take a look:
![](https://makeuoa.nz/content/images/2024/06/cardboarD_1-Large.jpeg)
![](https://makeuoa.nz/content/images/2024/06/cardboard_3_2-Large-1.jpeg)
![](https://makeuoa.nz/content/images/2024/06/cardboard_2-Large.jpeg)
Kiwijam
Co-hosted with the Game Developer Guild, the SAE creative media school in Parnell put together this slick little promo video showing all the creative games people make in one weekend:
Mug Painting
One of the more chill events that we've run, but it was cool seeing so many creative designs happening at once!
![](https://makeuoa.nz/content/images/2024/06/mug_painting.jpg)
Butane Rockets
What can I say - there's something magic about making things explode! This was a super easy event to put together, but was so satisfying to watch (and watch back in slow motion):
![](https://makeuoa.nz/content/images/2024/06/butane_1-Large.jpeg)
![](https://makeuoa.nz/content/images/2024/06/butane_2-Large.jpeg)
Liquid Nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen is the perfect balance of dangerous lab chemical and exciting smoke effect combined into a surprisingly safe workshop for making ice cream 🍦 what more could I ask for?
![](https://makeuoa.nz/content/images/2024/06/liquid_nitrogen-Large.jpeg)
Okay that's probably enough for one post! I'm sure you'll hear more from me before I'm off, but until next time, thanks for making this club as great as it is 😊
-- Zac