Open Sauce was a lot 

So glad you were able to come! Always fun hanging out 😊

If I had a nickel for every time Amanda went to an event on a battleship this year, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

This would be such a cool event to invite librarians to. public librarians would love to learn all about the maker spaced and tech lab stuff to add to their STEM labs. they should have a professional pass for librarians and teachers next year!

Swell's egg drop contraption "Chaos Carrier" was built in 10 minutes and weighed just 79 grams. It successfully protected the egg! Thanks for playing, and I'll share video if I find any.

I thought this was going to be a convention about sauces and other condiments and now I’m slightly disappointed lol.

Amanda’s giggle of unbridled joy as she pets a robot dog slapped a smile on my face that’s gonna last the whole day

As someone who went to Opensauce, had a great time and also an Amanda spotting, it was clear that a lot of care was put into the event. The PCB badges, ridiculous posters, even the logo projected onto the floors and walls, it all felt very much like organized chaos and also very pure in a passion-for-STEM way with creators walking the floors and chatting with fans. I think a lot of the attendees had a lot of blind faith in William and the crew to actually put this event on, and I don't think many creators have cultivated the kind of audience and personas which lend themselves to that trust (which was luckily not squandered that weekend imo). I felt that the line was reasonable for a first-time sizeable event - I arrived at 10am on Saturday and waited about 1.5 hours. The event was mostly publicized via the Safety Third Podcast, and thus I imagine most/many attendees were fans of the podcast, however it being the first event of the day Saturday meant that most people were waiting outside instead of being able to watch. Security and the crowding was probably my main concern; security was not checking bags the first day, and if this was somewhere other than SF and about anything other than science and engineering I would have felt incredibly uncomfortable. Overall very excited to see how they improve upon this event next year and hopefully they keep it in the bay!

Honestly Swell you could totally make another branch of “Swell Entertainment” by being an event planning consultant. You always have great feedback and constructive criticism for the events that you attend and with the way your brain seems to work, you’d help companies maximize the potential of their events!

Security theatre is a huge thing though, like I’m not surprised they kept up appearances while the scanners never actually worked. It’s obviously not great, but giving the air of security does actually go a long way.

exhibitor here 👋 in my application I thought I would have a better chance of getting accepted with my non-science project if I wasn't selling stuff. Also, laziness. I didn't want to figure out how to legally sell my crafts LOL it was enough of a challenge to just get there haha. I too had a box of free crafts lol. Thanks for including big furby in your video!!! :)

This channel warps my mind. I could not possibly care less about half the things you go to, but am ABSOLUTELY ENTHRALLED by your coverage lol. Love it. Like... RU-vidrs boxing? Battleship rave? What? The amount of real estate you've taken up in my brain is unreal. You're the anti-Kardashians in that I know about everything you cover but it's by actual conscious choice lol

I was not expecting Amanda to be friends with Evan and Kaitlyn??? Not in a bad way but since they're on two different sides of RU-vid. How random (for me) and cool! Amanda really knows everyone LOL

Thank you for bringing up the accessibility issues! Disability is the only marginalized group that is taking recruits, so you’d think more folks would consider accessibility when they plan an event…

I really enjoyed Open Sauce. I got there right at opening and the line was a bit of a disaster. They initially were trying to scan QR codes, give out badges, and give out swag when you first came in. They soon switched to giving people a ticket to retrieve swag at the merch table. They ended up giving me meal tickets at both locations. I am never going to pass up free food, Tuna Poke was good.

I've heard a couple of times that marketting wasn't great, but 3/4ths of my sub box were there, so I heard about it plenty. So I think they did a decent job marketing to their built-in audience.

People really should be consulting you while planning events like this!! You’ve got so much experience and valuable input and could definitely make it another arm of your career. A crash course would be delightful.

I think a lot of the spirit of giving things away for free is a big part of the maker community and open source community. That being said I do think there could have been more things to buy at this event I got my nieces some robotics kits and I am super excited to send that to them, I also bought some PLA gloop. I wish there was more individual swag from the maker spaces that were there and had booths.

Just doing a cursory search on RU-vid and Twitter, it seems like everyone had an amazing time. Super cool to see first-timers pull off a convention so successfully. Things like Tanacon and Fyre fest have scared a lot of people out of even going to things like this unless it's from a well-established brand. Hope they do it even better next year.

Thanks for stopping by my booth Amanda (18:45)!!! I made the Jett Knives and Gaslighting fish with Michelle! We hope you had fun!!

Since we lost Bay Area Maker Faire, Open Sauce sounded absolutely incredible! Due to personal reasons, I wasn't able to make it out, but I am glad to see someone who's not in the "tech maker space" enjoyed themselves. As for the car, you MUST make one. It should not be "that hard" to over-volt one and make it go stupid fast! If I can, I want to try and make it out for next year.

Hey swell! I just wanted to say thank you a million times for helping me get sober and inspire me to Vlog! I’m a recovering alcoholic and while I was in rehab getting better I would watch your videos after hard days of group therapy and it would always help me come down from the day. You also inspired me to start vlogging and I never thought I would be able to do that so thank you a million times over. 😊

Please don't do it for free or make a RU-vid video for it. Become an event consultant! You can make crazy money from that. CHARGE THEM! - Sincerely, someone in marketing

I'm a convention vendor, and most cons I do prohibit you prom planning up early, sometimes the point of saying you won't be allowed back the next year. They don't seem to care if you start with 15 minutes to go, or remove signage or overstock early, but your booth has to stay functional.

Worked in a place with temporary metal detecting arches and they were so temperamental depending on the structure they were in - which was also normally a temporary tent with lots of metal around it that messed with the sensors. I'm a veteran of the switch the arch off and just wand everyone in full lol

I was the tall person who gave you the UCSC keychain!!! It was super surprising seeing you there lol but I love seeing the clips you shot cuz I get to relive that weekend :) I will definitely agree that the creator museum was iffy, I saw someone messing with the snake's leg and moving it around which is like eh. Also yes, competitors is a good word to describe us at NHRL :) The art alley idea is great! I felt so bad for James at his booth Painting with James, he seemed so out of place with his hand-made paintings :(

Hello I was the guy who awkwardly said hi to you twice when you were having your titanic moment on the side of the ship. And the reason i was up there was simply because my Gf is wheelchair bound and it would have been impossible for her to get the food unless someone else went up to get it for her. We also had a similar issue where the panels were constantly crowded and unless someone was kind enough to let us through she would end up having to stare at a bunch of people's asses the whole time which I could tell was making her upset. Hopefully things improve for the second time but we gad a fun time nonetheless.

as someone that helps run a convention with a vendor hall, one thing that can make it tough for a first-year event is having to collect tax IDs and related personal/business info from everyone who might be selling something (or at least that's usually the case?) and then either directly paying the associated state fees to file everything or having each vendor pay that cost to secure their spot (which fwiw helps ensure people don't flake out at the last minute)

You live in LA and have contacts with RU-vid makers there, you could totally get help souping up a Barbie car. RU-vidr crossovers are awesome.

My grandfather worked on the ss Jeremiah when it was used to deliver supplies during the war, we threw his ashes off the back of the boat when he passed. Love the ship and hope you enjoyed the history ❤️

Swell - I think it would be fun if you came up with essentially a rubric for conventions/events and then give a grade after your review. Like a report card!

As a woman in stem, this convention would be amazing to go to! I love all the new gadgets that people make and everything that people think of. I love this idea, I hope that it comes to a city near me because I would %100 go!

We went! We had so much fun! My partner and I splurged for VIP badges and it was the best thing we've done in awhile. Also I saw you while in line for the boat, and I'm sorry I couldn't speak with you more. So regarding the promotion, there was a fair amount but a lot of it was being promoted on their podcast and by featured creators. It seems to have been all social media stuff. I vend at local art markets for my own business and on the one hand, I hate when organizers for events rely on me to advertise for them. But I also don't have millions of subscribers and/or followers. The food situation was a bit rough. As VIP we had a free food ticket, and they had burgers, tacos, nachos, ice cream, and other stuff but I will admit that we still had to leave the event and get food elsewhere on both days. The battleship was very cool but I agree it wasn't the most practical thing. The booths and creator discussions were both highlights for me. I got to meet Evan and Katelyn and they are so wonderful and inspiring. For the booths, we're still telling people about some of the things we saw. Usually at an event like this I can sort of walk around and see everything in the first day, but there was so much to see and do that we never got bored. I'm dumb as hell and even I was so enamoured by all of the cool displays! Code is fucking magic, haha. I was looking forward to this review, so thank you very much for sharing your perspective! I'm glad you got to see it too.

It was awesome to meet you; I’ll admit I was a little star struck! I hope the 2024 con comes together 🤞

Ooh, I’m excited for your coverage on another event I’ve never heard of and will probably never go to!!! Seriously☺️

Six word UwU, for the algorithm 🥺

As someone who does have mobility issues and who usually walks with a cane at big events like this, I always appreciate you keeping people like me in mind

i’m so sad this had no advertising! this video is the first i’m hearing about it. i live in berkeley and would have LOVED going to an event like this

You can make really good looking descriptor placards with a high quality printer, glue sticks and foam board. We used to do it at an archive I interned at.

I was at Opensauce. Honestly I expected it to be a disaster since it was run by William Osman. I assumed it would end up being kind of empty or would go the same way the Safety Third live show which got cancelled because it had no advertising. I was very pleasantly surprised and am definitely coming next year. Already got my ticket for $69.69

Thank you so much for including petting the robot dog. It was everything I hoped for 😭

I always love hearing your events analysis and the way your break things down ✨✨ it’s so easily digestible and honestly really good advice!!

As an event producer,, the promoters & producers of the event don't make money at all((unless usually under less than desired circumstances)) this is why selling "official event merch" is so common but even that is a gamble the artists , performers & crew such as lights , sound ect. are supposed to make money on their end & that's if they're paid for travel & lodging as well their time & skills We live & we learn😅 I've seen so many canceled events bc ppl don't realize how many ppl & $$$ it takes

the little zoom and lighting change at “still here” was dope. It’s the little things that you nail dude.

I hope Open Sauce succeeds next year! I sounds like a super fun time and it looks like everyone involved was pretty excited, if they can work out the issues I'm sure it'll be a great event.

wow, TWO boat events? swell must be having an expensive summer with the price of shipping these days

I am *very* surprised exhibitors tabled for free. Even as a first time event. I looked it up on their site and it seems like they may have charged companies and not individuals (or are planning to next year, it's updated for 2024). I think it's a noble idea but charging even something like a sliding scale of $0-100 is a really easy way to recoup some costs. I don't know if they're providing tables, chairs, lighting, electrical, load in help, etc but there are events who will charge you for that on top of your booth rent too. Exhibitors packing up early makes me wonder how this went down logistically because to me that indicates either 1. They felt they were not getting enough out of the event/attendance dropped significantly towards the end 2. There was no mention of packing early in the exhibitor instructions/there was no forced acknowledgement of the rules 3. There was no point person on the floor to shut it down or 4. Load in was an absolute shit show and they wanted to get ahead of it

Did they have any other way onto the boat, or were wheelchair users left high and dry for food?

Yayyy! I was one of the emailers, I’m so happy you went! Thanks for a great review as always, looked fun and I hope they listen (especially on the food situation) and can grow next year!

OHHHHH, like open SOURCE!!!! ...and here i thought we were talking about a sauce convention..

when you're done with RU-vid, have you considered being an events consultant? I think you've developed such a good skillset for that line of work!

Trying to learn about going to OpenSauce this year, minutes in and I have learned all about this woman’s creator friendships, flight information, a very informational and tempting commercial on women’s underwear, expensive battleships, and that you shouldn’t expect to make money your first year starting an event. I’m gonna look somewhere else to learn about OpenSauce, but next time I need advice on starting an event and/or women’s underwear… I’ll find my way back 👍 Lol jokes, much appreciated

Dude Swell join the board of these events. Charge a fee. Secure a bag for yourself. You know this shit too well to not being an asset to these teams

I’m on a channel binge rn…. I vote that we need merch that says “I wanna make something abundantly clear”

OMG I SEE THE “GIVING A SNAKE BACK ITS LEGS” MECH I LOVED THAT VIDEO!!

Me manifesting a SwellXGiertz Collab for next years race..

I'm glad it was overall (seemingly) a great event! I'm happy that big Willy seemed to dream this up and make it happen (obviously with tons of help) and I hope this becomes a regular event that helps foster the incredible community(ies) of YT makers. There are SOOOOO many channels big and small of people doing the most creative and technical and dumb and primitive machines and gadgets and they are all so much fun to watch grow and interact. It's likely my favorite niche of YT.

You should totally make an event planning course, considering how much experience you have with events I'm sure your advice would be very helpful for people who want to plan big events like this

I was confident I saw you in the background of Evan and katelyns video at vidcon, so to hear yall are friends makes my heart very happy😩

28:00 It’s pretty standard to not allow merchants to leave early at markets. I own a small handmade soap business and I participate at outdoor markets often. When I apply to a new market, there are house rules I have to agree to. One of which is agreeing to stay for the entire time even if the market is slow and there aren’t many patrons. Exceptions can be made on a case by case basis but you have to talk to the people running the event before you leave. If one person leaves early not only can it create a chain reaction of vendors leaving early but it looks bad to have empty spaces and can cause issues for the market in the long run. The owners of the market may have a contract with the property that’s hosting them and if vendors leave early the property managers may terminate that contract for a variety of reasons.

At one point you asked about good careers for RU-vidrs after RU-vid. For you, RU-vid event planning could be a good idea lmao

I generally like your videos but I noticed that for some of them, you don't exactly explain what it is you're talking about. I'm halfway through this one and I still don't know what Open Sauce is. Same thing for your frog video from a while ago, I couldn't finish it because I had no idea what you were talking about and I was just lost. I think that's something to keep in mind for future videos, just a short explaination of what the thing you're talking about actually is!

I love swell entertainment and all the sponsors for her videos, I love engaging in things 😂😂

I was there and did look for you for a little bit. I think they did a fair job of trying to recreate the maker fairs of old Im really excited to see what they do next year

As someone who watches both you and Evan and Katelyn, I can say there is little to no content overlap, and yet it was absolutely unsurprising to hear you guys are friends.

I agree with others that some of the misses are likely due to the type of people who put this on ie science loving geeks and nerds who want to get together and share and connect. The first year of it all too, accounts for some of the stumbles. I do think William should hire you for next year. You have very clear and easy fixes to make it a more well rounded event.

My worlds collided when you mentioned Evan + Katelyn omg! I’ve been bingeing both of your videos lately and had no idea haha Thanks for keeping us entertained at your own expense as always!!

Wait, Swell is friends with Evan and Katelyn … day made

The merch this time should be the drawing of the chaos carrier with the writing at the back or around the illustration “i survived the egg drop from circa 2023 open sauce” 😂

Open Sauce certainly had a lot of things going on. You can't easily wrap your head around it.

I was part of a team that exhibited! We were in that front section with the micro-car. I'll skip talking about the things that have been covered by everyone else in the comments and stick to things that I guess were more relevant to our situation. 1) I cannot really speak for other exhibitors, but we did not have to pay to exhibit. We're also a 501(c)3 so that might have changed things? I don't know. 2) Anyone who wanted to sell stuff had to get a temporary seller's permit and there was a lot of confusion around it. 3) Temporary event insurance was a nightmare for a lot of people. We already had different insurance policies and were fine, but a lot of individual exhibitors definitely struggled. 4) When we were told we were going to be at the entrance and one of the first things that people saw, we were super excited! Since everyone had to walk past us, there was no chance of being missed. Floorplans and layouts changed multiple times very quickly in the two or three weeks leading up to the event and it was a little hard to get information from organizers (Tami Jo and Caleb were amazing but everyone was overwhelmed). When we got loaded in, it quickly became more of a curse than a blessing just due to how Pier 35 was laid out. The front area was basically just a transitional space to get into the main event area, and almost nobody came back through the double doors if they even bothered to stop the first time around. Half of the area had the lights off so people could see Arc Attack, and then Arc Attack was so loud while playing that conversations with anyone at our booth was nearly impossible. I think originally, the battlebots teams were supposed to be in that space but things got shuffled around. Only a small handful of creators ventured into that front area the whole weekend. Overall though, it felt like very minor complaints and just first-year growing pains/venue troubles that any event can/will run into. We had an absolute blast and would absolutely exhibit again!

this is an event I really wanted to attend but i live in Australia so it's really not in my budget! I'm glad to hear it went well ❤

10:44 yeah, the accessibility issue jumped out to me the second you said the food was all on the top deck!! Ships are not know for being accessible, that definitely should have been accounted for in the planning process! No wheelchair access, treacherous for people with limited mobility or service animals, like you witnessed, probably should have had an alternative available!!

This event looks epic. Agree with your criticism but really all of that is small and learning curve type stuff. The clips you showed of all the robots, battle bots, automation, and tech- incredible. I’d go.

This sounds a lot like an offshoot of the official MakerFaire that used to be in the Bay area. Supposedly it's coming back, but in a smaller form. I'd be interested to see how that compares to this experience when it happens.

YES Barbie swell-mobile needs to happen

This sounds like such a cool event and I wish I had heard about it happening. It's one of the only conventions that might actually have been worth it to me

I guess I’m not the only one that thought this was going to be for sauces 🤣🤣

After watching this video I have reached the inevitable conclusion that: Yes. Yes it was.

The boat should have been one of multiple food options/stations since it does not look very wheelchair friendly. However, from what I see it is perfectly friendly and accessible for service dogs (might not be accessible for service horses though) and I wouldn't take seeing one service dog being unable to get as a reason to say all service dogs can't get on. Either the service dog was still young and not fully trained yet, or whoever trained the dog did not do proper confidence training with the dog. Stuff like having the dog be okay and comfortable on wobbly surfaces or on floors that are loud is very important to do. The only time a surface should be an issue is on the off chance it is a grate that is poorly sized for your dog's paws. Can't really train to avoid that being an issue on all grates since sometimes there is no safe way for the dog to walk across them. (this is more of an issue for smaller service dogs or dogs with smaller paws though)

It's a tech convention? App based streaming of speakers so people can plug in headphones and hear. I had that at a normal conference

Collab with Evan and Katelyn for your souped up mini Barbie car perhaps? :)

Evan and Katelyn are some of my absolute favorite people to watch! this crossover (and matpat too) have been so fun for me! im only subscribed to like 25-30 channels so to see the friendships between them is so fun 🥹

I love your channel so much ❤ I think it’s so insightful. Especially after tanacon, I feel like I have had a fascination with conventions and how they’re run.

SHOUTOUT TO NHRL!! I'm so glad you went to see some of their fights, including the Dutch Oven explosion!

At maker fairs I've tabled at there is sometimes a penalty for booths packing up early (at ours it was the threat of not being invited back.) I think even that is a good incentive to stay until the close of the event.

i casually watch a lot of the creators that went to this event and hadnt heard about it till you posted this video to be honest.

I heard about this less than a month out from it and I wanted to go sooooooo bad but I couldn’t get off work with less than a months notice. I hate that I missed you and E&K. I would’ve loved to have seen y’all and this. I am so sad I missed this. Looks amazing.

I am glad you reviewed this, I have been a fan of Richards ever since his house burned down but was so weary of Open Sauce because like you mentioned the advertising was so limited. Huge creators who were featured did zero promotion and it did make it seem like the event would be cancelled.

Yeah, the food situation was pretty bad. Audio from the stage was also pretty bad. We got our early bird badges Friday, we went to the front door Saturday and they told us to go to the back of the line. We got to the back of the line and they told us to go to the front, walked to the front and they tried to tell us to go to the back again and a few of us told them to figure their shit out and that this was unreasonable... The door dude walked away and some lady let a group of us in that had our badges and done the back and forth a few times already. Totally agree with you about the merch, I would've loved to pick up a Words are Hard T and see if E&K would sign it. They're always super nice to chat with!

This seems like a stunningly helpful review, even taking into account all of your other events run downs! Wish I could have experienced it ❤ Also great point on the promotion, I watch most of William's videos and had barely heard of this event

I can’t express how much appreciation I have for what you do. With inflation and being a working class person that’s fallen on hard times recently, I cannot afford to conventions or events like this right now and possibly not ever again. But I have gone to some that were worth it, some not. In the current economic climate, going to events or conventions of this caliber are a huge financial risk. You can argue a luxury but when you are passionate about something to convene with a large community of it I argue is good for your mental health. Especially if you live in rural areas, etc. That being said I feel like having your channel as a resource to make informed decisions about spending money on these events is something you really pioneered but also is a public service in financial wellness lol. So that’s my long winded way to say, thanks swell!

Overall it sounds like a great event with a few fixable issues! Completely agree that big events like this should plan to lose money the first time. Great review, thanks!

I had no idea the event was happening until William's video and by that point i think all the basic tickets were sold out.. I kinda wish there had been more marketing, especially as someone who lives so close to SF, I feel like the bay area usually has good word of mouth marketing as long as at least some people know whats going on.

Im sad i knew nothing about this until now. Definitely going next year

Glad you were able to attend and cover it. I can confirm the lack of any real marketing or promotion. I only found out about it because a friend is a member of one of the hackerspaces responsible for it... a week after the tickets were sold out. They need to do better next time

On the floor in front of a bed for a thumbnail and it wasn’t an apology video

For a first attempt of an event this was great I hope they plan to do more events like these

They should definitely look into an actial comvention hall for next year. Probably not in SF just due to how expensive the area is. Maybe Anaheim or Sacramento (depending on how big they plan the event to be)

Zürich mentioned ‼️‼️🔵⚪️

Im so thrilled you went, covered and had a pretty great time. All the critiques and suggestions you had (which oh my god people please pay Amanda for consulting shes has so much input) aounds like a first time con running group. Which means that if they do it again, it will iron out all those small issues. Excited for more coverage if you end up going next time.