Maker Fest 2017, Lithuania’s first ever hardware hackathon, is taking place from 3rd – 5th March. The event will be held at Linkmenų fabrikas in Vilnius, and is being organised and hosted by Deeper and VGTU Linkmenų fabrikas.

The 3-day event will bring together inventors, artists, hardware lovers and budding entrepreneurs, who will all try their hand at creating an innovative hardware product. Along the way they’ll be mentored in how to successfully prototype and market their inventions. Makerfest will be free to attend, and all the necessary equipment and materials will be supplied by partners and sponsors of the event, announced Deeper today in a press release.

Each team will receive a voucher worth up to €100 to purchase the necessary equipment for their prototype at Lemona, one of Lithuania’s largest retailers for electronic parts and components. Each team will also get a Nordic Semiconductor Bluetooth Low Energy development board.

Best of all, participants can win prizes of €700 in four different categories:

• Best idea
• Best product prototype
• Best product related to social responsibility
• Best product related to Deeper’s business focus (smart devices for active leisure activities).

"The innovation culture in Lithuania is growing and we at Deeper want to strengthen this trend,” explains the company’s CEO Aurelijus Liubinas. “We want to ensure that more creative ideas are born here. Lithuania has great engineers, designers and product developers who have great ideas, but they may not know how to realize them. Makerfest is the perfect opportunity for them to try their hand at creating innovative products and prototypes, and even for finding partners to help them turn their idea into a reality”, he concludes.

Adas Meškėnas, VGTU Linkmenų fabrikas CEO believes Makerfest will offer budding creators and inventors a unique opportunity to test out their ideas. “Participants will have everything they need to develop and prototype their ideas over the weekend,” he explains. “We’re excited to see what creative new ideas people have. We want participants to come with open minds, to engage with like-minded people, and to see how far they can take their ideas.”

Makerfest is being supported by its general sponsors: Lemona, Elgerta, Esemda, Tele2. For more information and to register for the event, go to www.makerfest.lt.