RenRan Sun · Hack Club (The Hack Foundation) · United States · Technology Education and Interactive Art · Makers and Teams
If previous editions of Maker Faire Shenzhen were testing grounds where inspiration sparked, this year we will see how creative ideas take root and become reality. This year’s event is officially scheduled for December 12–13, 2026, in Nanshan District, Shenzhen — and this time we are putting OPC creators and full-industry-chain service providers center stage, working together to build a “Mega Evolution Stage for Global Makers.”
In today’s “Meet the Maker”, we introduce one of this year’s international exhibitors: Hack Club, a US-based nonprofit and the largest free coding and making program for teens worldwide, with a community of more than 100,000 students. The team is led by RenRan Sun.
Hack Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States and the largest maker program for teens in the world. The mechanism is simple: Hack Club runs free online programs where students code and build hardware, and earn physical rewards for finishing — MacBooks, 3D printers, phones and more. For Maker Faire Shenzhen they are bringing the best hardware projects their students have built.
Build something. Earn the tools to build the next one.
Project Spotlight: Hack Club Student Hardware
Hack Club is not bringing a single object but a body of work: the hardware projects their students built with their own hands.
Hack Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in the United States and the largest maker program for teens anywhere. Its core loop is direct: free online programs, students code and build hardware there, and finished work earns physical rewards.
The reward list includes MacBooks, 3D printers and phones. The design detail that matters is that the reward is not a finish line — it is the tool for the next round of building. Whoever receives a 3D printer goes on to build something bigger next time.
The community is what makes the case: more than 100,000 students looking at each other’s projects, passing ideas along, so that one idea is quickly replicated, modified and improved by dozens of people.
Why the build-and-earn loop works
Hack Club’s real contribution is not a curriculum but a piece of motivation design:
- Build first, learn along the way. Skills are embedded in real projects, and the motivation comes from wanting the thing to exist.
- Results are verifiable. A hardware project either runs or it does not — the standard is not set by a teacher.
- The reward is a means of production. Equipment is not a trophy; it is the precondition for the next project.
- Scale comes from the community. A hundred thousand peers form a reference group that speeds everyone up.
The project lists SDG 4 Quality Education, SDG 5 Gender Equality and SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
What You Will See at the Booth
The materials Hack Club submitted when applying were a community magazine (PDF) and two project videos. In other words, they would rather let the work speak.
- Physical hardware projects made by students — topic, build and finish all their own
- A community magazine showing what these teenagers are paying attention to and making
- Two project videos for a quick sense of the scale and texture of what they do
About Hack Club
Hack Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States, operating as The Hack Foundation, and the largest maker program for teens in the world.
They run free online programs where students learn to code and build hardware through real projects, earning the equipment that lets them keep building.
The team is led by RenRan Sun, with up to 30 students and staff attending — which means the people standing behind the booth explaining a project are very likely the people who built it.
Experience Technology and Creativity First-Hand
Hack Club will be in the Makers and Teams zone. They have not flagged the project as an onsite-performance highlight, but students will be there with the physical projects, demonstrating and explaining them.
Here is what you can do at their booth:
- See what students built, and ask them how they started from nothing
- If you are a parent, ask how to join, what prior skills are needed, and whether it costs anything
- If you are an educator or community organiser, talk about bringing a similar program to your own school or city
Links
- Website: hackclub.com
- Community magazine (PDF): Hack Club magazine
- Video 1: YouTube
- Video 2: YouTube
We sincerely invite you to visit the Makers and Teams zone during the event, meet the students of Hack Club, and see what teenagers build when the tools are within reach.
If you would like to share your OPC ideas and experiences at China’s largest maker innovation celebration—and demonstrate how AI can truly become part of our work and everyday lives while solving real-world problems—this is your opportunity.
Let your project be seen by more peers, developers, partners, and potential customers, and allow new ideas to meet and grow here.
Scan the QR code below or click “Read the Original Article” at the end of the post to apply. Together, let us step into the era of OPC creators and unlock the infinite possibilities of the future!
Greater Bay Area International Maker Summit & Maker Faire Shenzhen 2026
Global Call for Makers Now Open
Application period: June 30–October 30, 2026
Event dates: December 12–13, 2026
P.S. Companies that reserved a booth last year do not need to submit another application. More participation opportunities will be announced soon—stay tuned!
Over the past 13 years, the development trajectory of Maker Faire Shenzhen can be seen as a microcosm of the development of maker culture in China.
- 2012: “Gathering Small Wisdom, Journeying through the Great Future” – This was the first Mini Maker Faire in China, with less than 1000 attendees, and was more like a gathering within a small circle. But we saw the infinite possibilities emerging from the maker community.
- 2013: The slogan was absent, and the maker community was still small. – In the OCT Creative Park, there were cross-disciplinary exchanges among different creative communities, silently laying the foundation for cultural output.
- 2014: “Innovate with China” – the event was upgraded to the Featured level for the first time, with a significant increase in scale compared to previous years, and the beginning of professional independent forums. This year, makers began to enter the public’s view.
- 2015: “Everyone is a Maker, what are you waiting for?” – This year’s Shenzhen International Maker Week became one of the largest Maker Faires in the world. This year, the concept of “maker” was elevated to a national level, and the trend of “mass innovation, mass entrepreneurship” swept across the country.
- 2016: “My World, My Creation” – As the sub-venue of the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week, the event was held for the first time in the commercial center area, experiencing unpredictable weather from typhoons to scorching heat. Many makers succeeded in your entrepreneurial endeavors this year, but it seemed like there were even more failures. The hype around entrepreneurship shifted towards rationality.
- 2017: “Makers, Go Pro” – The event took place at the university campus for the first time, focusing on Maker Pros and providing a platform for diverse innovators and makers to showcase themselves, presenting more possibilities for the growth path of makers to the entire community.
- 2018: “Co-making in the City” – The main venue of Shenzhen International Maker Week, where individuals and groups with shared visions and values gathered to showcase stories, projects, and explorations of collaboration among different communities and people.
- 2019: ” To the Heart of Community, To the Cluster of Industry” – The event was upgraded to the Maker Faire Shenzhen, attempting to attract professional audiences and focusing on pragmatic aspects such as solving the needs of industrial upgrading and co-developin. It aims to build a platform for innovation and industry dialogue and collaboration.
- 2023: “Where Are The Makers?”– Starting from our own mission and values, we aim to explore the future direction of makers and theapossibilities for commercialization. Though this question does not have a definitive answer, we do hope that through this event, we can communicate and share with every one of you, finding more ideas and directions together.
- 2024: “Everything is AI” – This year, we brought together over 120 exhibitors from around the world, attracting nearly 1,500 professional attendees from nearly 20 countries and over 20 provinces across China. The exhibition showcased a wide range of AI application projects and hosted 10 AI hardware-themed satellite events, alongside various workshops.
- 2025: “AI Without Boundaries, Everything Reimagined”The summit brought together nearly 100 international innovation ambassadors and showcased almost 1,000 AI hardware projects.Technology leaders, pioneering makers, industry experts, and university teams from more than 30 countries gathered to create an international innovation event combining frontier thinking, technical exchange, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
