Another Successful Tech Faire!
The leaves were changing, the weather was fine and the October 22nd Tech Faire was once again a big hit. Over 40 people came to the Sunnyside Room to learn about many different technologies that could be of use to them or just plain fun. The Sunnyside Marketing Team joined forces with the resident-led Tech Forum to put on an event that had something for everyone. Marketing even gave out a fun freebie phone holder that also had a screen cleaner on it!
There were twenty-four tech topics at the show and three of them were outside the Sunnyside Room. Lou Bukauskas not only had information on electric and hybrid cars, but he got three residents to show off their vehicles in the parking area. Ann Speer had an electric Nissan Leaf, Les Grady a Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid and Dennis Landis a Toyota Avalon Hybrid. All three happily demonstrated the various benefits of their cars, as well as touting the vehicles' bells and whistles.
Inside, Tom Harkins had his drone on display, letting attendees get a close up look and even see it in action. He also had an Amazon Echo Show which helped him demonstrate smart plugs that could turn on and off lights with a voice command. Mike Bollen was next to Tom and he was showing off an Apple Computer, iPad, Apple Watch and other Apple devices, along with various streaming services you can use to find information and entertainment. On the other side of Tom was Pete Fundinger, who had a wide variety of technology, from a Roku streaming device to Bluetooth hearing aids to the Christmas light set up from the Sunnyside light show.
Of note was Bill Ingham’s presentation of Johannes Kepler’s polyheadra, geometric shapes that Bill reproduced as tiles using 3D printing and laser cutting. This was an excellent way to show technology providing greater understanding to complex ideas.
Every day tools were also available and Colleen Cahill-Landis’ demonstrated the Tile Tracker to help you find lost keys, wallets, or even TV remotes; anything you can attach a Bluetooth tracker to, you can use your smart phone to find. Sam Patterson explained differences between many web browsers now available for your computer and smart devices. Exploring the most up-to-date choices was a focus at the Faire.
There was even tech that was specific to Sunnyside. Barbara Boothe showed off the Highlands Library TinyCat catalog, which lists all the books in the Highlands Library. You can use this at the Highlands Library computers, or also on your home computer or your phone. Just go to https://www.librarycat.or/lib/SunnysideCC to check it out yourself! Linda Bradley and Mary Yarnell were at the Sunnyside Times table, helping residents to find stories on the website created by residents for residents! It is a great resource we hope all residents will find useful.
There was more technology at the Faire than is listed here and we were delighted some people also brought their own tech questions and issues with them to the Faire. We hope to make this event annual now and if you have any ideas for next year, please send them to Colleen Cahill-Landis at colleen.cahill@gmail.com.