The highly appropriate setting was the New York Hall of Science, which is located on the site of the 1964 World's Fair. Rockets loomed above the check-in area, and talks were located in a refurbished pavilion that clearly showed its Jet Age origins.  The crowd seemed composed of equal parts tinkering geeks, respectable parents with tots in tow, and tatted-up hipsters who’d ventured northward in search of a DIY fix.

As you might expect from such a crowd, the line-up veered towards the whimsical. Large crowds of kids gathered around the aptly named PancakeBot. Outside, there was a life-sized mousestrap, and we're pretty sure we caught sight of a tiny Go Cart track.

But it wasn't all play, even of the educational kind. Attracting a packed house was a keynote with the rather weighty title of "Going Big: From Maker Movement to New Industrial Revolution," featuring Wired editor Chris Anderson and Makerbot CEO Bre Pettis.

Speaking of Messers. Anderson and Pettis: In person, the pair (who collaborated for the cover of this month's issue) are something of a mismatch. Mr. Anderson is the human embodiment of the TED talk--the man can sell an idea like he's the William Jennings Bryant of futurism. On the other hand, everything about Mr. Pettis makes more sense once you learn he was once a puppeteer. He's just got that gawky, Kermit-like excitability about him.

Mr. Anderson seemed to be previewing the contents of his new book Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, due on sale Tuesday and excerpted in Wired's Makerbot story (which also features Mr. Pettis’s smiling mug on the cover). After opening with a brief gloss on the rise of the factory--"It's the ultimate amplification of human potential, but it comes at a certain cost, which is that you need to move to the factory"--he proceeded to explain just why it was Maker Faire warranted such grand contextualizing.

His argument was pretty simple: 3D printers are to manufacturing what the personal computer was to publishing. Now there's a machine on your desktop, ready to facilitate all kinds of experiments in democratic distribution. "Just as publishing turned into a button to press, now 'machining' turns into a button press," Mr. Anderson said, arguing that the combination of design tools (such as Autodesk 123D and 3D printers like the Replicator 2) and the advent of crowdfunding (perhaps you've heard of Kickstarter?) “lowers the barrier to entry to realizing an idea.”

In the brave new future, the only filter left will be taste. If the mixed bag that was the Bust Craftacular happening outside the auditorium was any indication, taste and taste alone will still be plenty to help stem the firehose effect.

Mr. Pettis was a bit more off the cuff, reminiscing about the trials and travails of Makerbot's early days. “That first year, I didn’t pay rent on my apartment," he confessed. "We weren’t getting much, and all the money had to go to robot parts, because it was more important to get [the company's kits] out into the world.”

If Makerbot's prominence at the festival was any indication, Mr. Pettis must now be in a much better place with his landlord. He said, "A good chunk of [Maker Faire] is, like, 3D Printer Faire." He estimated that probably 35 percent of the event was either people either making 3D printers, or using 3D printers to make cool things. Many of those devices, according to Betabeat's highly unscientific anecdotal ballpark estimates? Makerbot-made.

However, Mr. Pettis admitted that the mainstreaming of Makerbot had come with a certain emotional cost. Nowadays the company's machines are shipped fully assembled, because it reached a point where the market had grown beyond the hardcore hobbyists who're delighted at the prospect of a box of screws and assorted parts. "It's a crushing reality when you realize that there’s something that’s learned when you're fixing a bicycle, which is sort of like a commitment to doing it until it works, that not everybody in the world has."

"Some people think that you should just be able to buy it and it should just work,” he added, sounding slightly aghast at the notion.

But if the crowds checking out the selection of robots, kits, and printers were any indication, there's still plenty of people with a ken for tinkering. For a closer look at the DIY divas, scroll back up to check out our slidehow.

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of Gary's Guide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

K-pop singing sensation Psy's "Gangnam Style" video (you know, the one with the horse dance) just blew past 250 million views and recently set a Guinness World Record for most-liked video on Youtube--and yet it shows no signs of slowing down. So some of my Silicon Valley friends decided to join in on the fun and create their very own "Gangnam STARTUP Style!" version :)

This West Coast reinterpretation stars Ben Parr, Dave McClure, Danielle Morrill, Seth Bannon, Kate Click, Chris Saad, Heather Meeker, Amy Higgins and a whole bunch of folks. Highlights include Dave McClure wearing a giant bowtie and a skirt (or is that a kilt?), David Hornik's cameo appearance on a bicycle and the inimitable Ben Parr channeling Psy (outside Google's Android building) so well he just might have a new career on his hands!

Missed the ERA demo day last week? No worries! Betabeat has you covered with a round-up of the latest class of startups, including Bizodo, Jetaport, Juniper & Trade, VidRocket, Houdini, CaterCow, AngelPolitics, SaleMove, Healthy Chic and mxHero.

A couple of my friends, Charlie Kemper (Revel Partners, ERA) and Shai Goldman (Silicon Valley Bank), are organizing a two-day kiteboarding event on October 6 and 7, bringing together entrepreneurs and founders for a great mix of kitesurfing and networking in the Hamptons. Interested? Go check it out!

Don't forget, next week is Advertising Week, with a ton of panels and parties happening all over town.

Peter Bell (SVP engineering, General Assembly) with my friend Kathryn Minshew (founder and CEO, The Daily Muse) will be doing a free livestream this Friday at 3:30p.m. on the topic of How To Create A Great Presentation.

Wix Lounge invites you to apply for their Design-a-Wix-athon, a contest pitting fifty designers against one another to see who can build the most face meltingly awesome website using Wix.com in just one hour. (Plus, there's a cash prize of $500.)

And in totally random (but awesome) bit of news, here's a snapshot of two Starfleet captains--Kirk and Picard, specifically--complaining about their cable service on Twitter.

And now let's see whats going down in the Alley this week...

Social Entrepreneurship Party
With Reshma Saujani (former deputy public advocate and founder, Girls Who Code), Nihal Mehta (cofounder & CEO, LocalResponse), Dave Kerpen (cofounder & CEO, Likeable Media) and Caroline Ghosn (founder & CEO, Levo League).
Monday (Sept. 24), 6 p.m. @ Likeable Media, 240 W. 37th St., 7th Floor

Muck Rack's #MuckedUp in NYC with NBC News
Muck Rack cofounder (and Shorty Awards co-creator) @Gregory Galant will lead a conversation with the amazing NBC News Social Media Team.
Monday (Sept. 24), 6 p.m. @ NBC News, 30 Rockefeller Plaza

NYC Data Business Meetup #8
With Dwight Merriman (CEO & cofounder, 10Gen), Arnab Gupta (CEO and founder, Opera Solutions) and K Young (CEO and cofounder, Mortar Data).
Monday (Sept. 24), 6 p.m. @ Bloomberg LP, 731 Lexington Ave, 7th Floor

Coming To America: Immigration Entrepreneurship & the Economy
With Congressman Michael Grimm (introduced the Startup Act into the House in May), Robert Greifeld (CEO, Nasdaq OMX), Liz Elkiss (U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service), Kate Hipwell (Regional Director of the Americas, UK Border Agency) and Dario Mutabdzija (cofounder & President, Blueseed).
Monday (Sept. 24), 6:30 p.m. @ New York Law School, 185 W. Broadway

Personal Democracy Media Presents: An Evening with Steven Johnson
Author Steven Johnson discusses his new book, Future, Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age. Other speakers include Beth Noveck (first US Deputy CTO and founder, White House Open Gov Initiative), Tina Rosenberg (New York Times) and Clay Shirky (bestselling author and NYU Professor of Interactive Telecommunications).
Monday (Sept. 24), 7:30 p.m. @ New York Law School, 185 W. Broadway

Enterprise Insights: Go Big (Data) Or Go Home
Panelists include Edouard Servan-Schreiber (director for solution architecture, 10gen), Richard Daley (founder & chief strategy officer, Pentaho), Patrick Angeles (solutions architect, Cloudera) and Kathleen Rohrecker (director of marketing, Revolution Analytics). Moderated by Andrew Brust (big data blogger for ZDNet and CEO, Blue Badge Insights).
Tuesday (Sept. 25), 6 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 6th Floor

Open Hardware Summit 2012
The world’s first comprehensive conference on open hardware, a venue to discuss and draw attention to the rapidly growing open-source hardware movement.
Thursday (Sept. 27), 8:30 a.m. @ Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St.

Entrepreneurs Roundtable 51
With guest speaker Raju Rishi (Sigma Partners).
Thursday (Sept. 27), 6 p.m. @ NYU Stern, 44 West 4th St., Rm 2-60

Fast Company Event at Aloft Harlem // Destination Design
With Geoff Cook (Base Design New York), Kelsey Falter (PopTip) and Chris Paik (Thrive Capital).
Thursday (Sept. 27), 6 p.m. @ Aloft Harlem, 2296 Frederick Douglass Blvd

Queens Tech Meetup 3
Presenters include Amol Sarva (Founder of Virgin Mobile USA, Angel Investor and Founder, Cfund), Sonar (a mobile social discovery app), Storybox (a social collaging tool) and Rukkus (an event ticketing platform).
Thursday (Sept. 27), 7 p.m. @ Hunter's Point Plaza Rooftop, 47-40 21st St., 10th Floor, Long Island City

Startup Grind NYC
With Scott Kurnit (founder of About.com and Keep.com). Scott led About.com as CEO through IPO and its growth to a public market value of $1.5 billion.
Thursday (Sept. 27), 7:30 p.m. @ The Alley, 500 7th Ave

NYC Startup Job Fair
Connecting qualified students and recent graduates with exciting and innovative New York-based startups.
Friday (Sep 28), 1 p.m. @ World Trade Center 7, 250 Greenwich St

Cleanweb Hackathon NYC
The opportunity to apply web, mobile and social media technologies to resource constraint issues, such as energy, waste, transporation, and water efficiency.
Friday (Sept. 28), 7 p.m. @ AlleyNYC, 500 7th Ave, 17th Floor

2012 World Maker Faire New York
MAKE magazine's 3rd Annual Maker Faire in New York, showcasing creative and resourceful people in the areas of science and technology, engineering, food, and arts and crafts.
Saturday (Sept. 29), 10 a.m. @ New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th Street, Queens

More events on the horizon...
NYTECH Presents: Content Marketing: Beyond Liking and Tweeting on Oct 02 @ Anchin
Daniweb Presents: Advertising, Marketing and Media Mayhem! on Oct 02 @ Slate Lounge
Feast Conference Hackathon on Oct 04 @ Eyebeam
Growth Hacking with Noah Kagan on Oct 04 @ AlleyNYC
FOCUS100 Symposium and Pitch Bootcamp on Oct 05 @ Ogilvy & Mather
Investor Feedback Forum on Oct 11 @ Microsoft
Talk NYC Presents: 2nd Annual Tech Madison Avenue Conference on Oct 17 @ Crosby Street Hotel
Ignite NYC 15 - Truth is a Moving Target: Oddities Anomalies and Wonders with Data on Oct 22 @ Sheraton New York Hotel
All Things D: Dive Into Mobile on Oct 29 @ The Ritz-Carlton Battery Park
Ad:Tech New York on Nov 07 @ Javits Convention Center

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

This week in New York start-ups:

TO DO LIST: Maker Faire at Etsy, tonight at 6:30. Get together and talk about doing. Behind on your mainstream? The Social Network is screening at Pier 63. Hack and Tell at Meetup, tomorrow. There will be electronic fireflies! More hacking to be had at Red Bull Creation, this weekend at McCarren Park. And last but not least in the hands-on hacking category, submissions are now being accepted for World Maker Faire.

General Assembly is hosting a Selling to Middle America class, in which the co-founders of Jump Ramp Games will talk about how to get people to use Foursquare and Turntable.fm in Missouri, etc. Seems relevant, but they could have given it a less-condescending name. Selling to Customers Who Make Up the Vast Majority of the Consumer Web Market and Are Essential for Many Start-Ups to Succeed, perhaps?

The first Startup Health Roundtable announced for next week, at Meetup.

CH-CH-CHANGES. HopStop, menaced by Google Transit, launched a new site. Can the two co-exist? Google has the world to cover; HopStop, a local start-up, is betting they can at least do New York better. Background Check App for the Android launched (for instant recon on those potential dates you're scoping on HowAboutWe's recently-launched app)). "The appropriately named “Background Check App” is the first of its kind for Android and users are responding enthusiastically." SeamlessWeb is also about to get more seamless.

FIRST RESPONDERS. LocalResponse is hiring someone team-oriented to be lead software engineer. Bessemer Venture Partners, the oldest venture-capital firm in the U.S. according to itself (they invested in Carnegie Steel!), is hiring analysts. Job-seekers with an interest in education should also look at Knewton and Drop the Chalk, both hiring.