UIUC MK Meetup Fall 2021 Recap
UIUC MK Meetup Fall 2021 Recap
Authors: Chamelemon_64
Photos: by J. Shek
Published: Dec 26, 2021
On Saturday, November 13, 2021, a meetup was held at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC), in the new Siebel Center for Design (SCD). It is worth mentioning that 8 years ago, the first Keycon meetup was held at the UI Chicago Campus. The last UIUC keyboard meetup was in 2019, before COVID, and it was nice to have the opportunity for people to come together again. The organizer, Chamelemon_64, shares his take on the event...
My overall impression was excellent! This is the second meetup I have organized here, and the size of it has almost tripled In that time(last one was 2019, I had a 2020 meetup planned but had to defer due to the pandemic). We had a very diverse crowd, both in terms of different tastes and interests within the hobby and from many different colleges, departments, and even some faculty. The atmosphere was very positive, I think that people were happy to socialize after the very long Covid isolation, the buzz in the room was constant, it was a very reassuring experience for someone who is trying to establish a base for a long running community here at the university.
The overwhelming majority of the 90 attendees were newer to the hobby(less than 2 years) with many having joined during the pandemic. There were not that many artisan collectors but those that were there were very passionate, and a lot of people were learning about them for the first time. While the number of collectors was small, we had some very heavy hitters with both JoeyQuinn and Hellocaps in attendance. For anyone looking to learn I think there are very few combinations of people that you can learn more from in this kind of more casual setting.
There was no enthusiasm lost to the pandemic, which was nice to see. As far as safety protocols we had taken quite a few steps to ensure everyones safety:
1. We had a required "Safer Illinois" check, which is a service that our university uses to check vaccination status and provide COVID testing for building access. Attendees were required to have either proof of vaccination or a test within the last 48 hours to be allowed to attend. I am glad to say we faced no cases of non-compliance. We also required a mask/nose and mouth covering to be worn at all times with no exceptions.
2. We had a designated no-touch area for people that would prefer their items not be handled by all the other attendees.
3. We provided hand sanitizer and booked a space with a capacity of 150 people to ensure that we had adequate room to maintain social distance.
Show Me the Artisans
As far as artisans go, it was a rare treat to see Hello? Caps’s entire bongo archive in one place! That is always a special sight for me, as well as a slice of his personal collection. Along with that Joey Quinn's (JQ) tower of jewelry boxes, full of history and all kinds of exciting goodies is also a welcome sight.
Editor's Note: In addition to connecting with friends and trying out various keyboards, one of the benefits of going to meetups is being able to see amazing artisan collections up close. As Chamelemon mentioned, among the great collections present at this meetup were two particularly impressive ones. Hello Caps brought his archive of bongos, including some rare commissions and a box of his personal collection of caps from other makers. Joey Quinn displayed his recognizable jewelry boxes full of vintage artisans. See if you can spot these rarities among the photos below: Boost Superhero, KBK Mummy v1, Karma Bat, False Idol, GAF True Garbo, HWS Sir WASDson, and Zorb Gart.
Supporters and Giveaways
Mekibo sent us five deskmats to give away on very short notice so I am very thankful to popkorn for this (see some of the winners below). Apart from that we had many artisans and friends of mine send us some incredible items to give away.
Tumsy from Amidst the clouds made a special Octo and Cloud blanks in our school colors, Tikkaman made some incredible Eye Screams, also in our school colors, Hellocaps Gave away some Egg Drop bongo cats, and some community members donated artisans from their personal collections to give away. We also had Lindy cables and miscellaneous accessories.
A Bright Future for Hobbyists at UIUC
This meetup was not so much an event with a planned agenda, but rather a starting point for the community to come back together and get to know each other. It was also a test for me to see if we had the potential to form a registered student organization around mechanical keyboards (MKB) on campus, which would give us greater access to funding and university resources to plan future events. I am happy to say that the process of forming this organization has already begun!
Many thanks to J. Shek for his great photo albums of the meetup (links below).
Meetup Photo Album
Top Down Boards and Artisans Album
