DanThornton

Tech, Geekery, Pop Culture, Miscellaneous

From Co-founder To Director At DPiP CiC In Just 15 Years

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I’m pleased to share that after a vote at the recent AGM, I’m now officially a Director at Digital People in Peterborough CiC (Community Interest Company) just 15 years after I originally suggested some internet nerds might want to meet up and hang out.

Things have changed a lot since then. Back in October 2010 it was an informal meeting in the pub. Now it’s a CiC with three existing Directors organising Peterborough STEM Festival and multiple related events throughout the year, along with our monthly DPiP meetups. Other local groups have come and gone, funding has become more challenging, and there’s been disruption due to a pandemic amongst other things.

From Co-founder to Director at DPiP CiC in just 15 years
From Co-founder to Director at DPiP CiC in just 15 years

In that time I’ve also moved from Peterborough and back again, watched my son grow from a small STEM Festival attendee to an enthusiastic volunteer, and watched some of the great things being done by the DPiP team of directors and volunteers both in my absence, and during my trips back to volunteer at every festival.

And since coming back to Peterborough I’ve been involved from the sidelines, partly due to other priorities, and also because my partner Liz has been chairperson for a while now, and I didn’t want to undermine her relentless hard work in any way. But I think we’ve found a way for it to work in a good way, and I have some ideas to help ensure it’s a positive step in the future both for DPiP, and for us.

So expect more updates about DPiP, Peterborough STEM Festival, and running a CiC in the future as I dive back into everything.

Promoting Peterborough STEM Festival 2025 With Slime

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How do you encourage kids of all ages to enjoy science, technology, engineering and maths? In my case, it’s by volunteering for a few hours of promoting Peterborough STEM Festival 2025 with slime.

The Peterborough campus of Anglia Ruskin University held a Family Day with various attractions and displays, and with the free 2025 Peterborough STEM Festival taking place on October 18th at ARU, we were invited along.

And while lots of things may have changed since holding our first STEM Festival back in 2016, the attraction of making slime is as strong as ever. In just a few hours, we estimated more than 200 children had spent some time experimenting with different amounts of common chemicals and food safe washable colourings to create their own pot of slime.

Promoting Peterborough STEM Festival 2025 With Slime - Dan and Andy
Me and fellow organiser/volunteer Andy promoting Peterborough STEM Festival with slime

The four of us manning the stall (me, Andy, Liz and Stanley), barely had time to breath before another request came for a pot of glue, some bicarbonate of soda and shaving foam, or a particular colouring.

And amongst the fun, and managing to be the one person who turned his own hands blue (and various kids comparing me to a smurf for the rest of the day), there are a few more serious aspects to slime-making.

Kids will happily ignore their smartphones etc if you give them something interesting, fun and entertaining to do. Especially when you explain that it’s fine when things don’t work out first time, and experiments often don’t succeed straight away.

And there’s a bigger need for these kinds of events than ever before. When a lot of education has gone back to rote learning, children are being led by AI, apps and algorithms, and concerns about safety means they’re less independent, having the permission to muck around and fail can be eye-opening.

It’s tougher than ever to find suitable venues, funding and volunteers, so if you want to support Peterborough STEM Festival or any of our smaller fringe events, don’t hestitate to get involved. You don’t need a PhD to volunteer, and your hands will be back to a normal colour within a few hours.

The Glorious Return Of Peterborough STEM Festival 2024

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I’ve been busy catching up on work due to health issues recently, so it’s taken me a little while to get around to sharing my thoughts on the glorious return of Peterborough STEM Festival 2024.

I’ve been variously involved as a volunteer, organiser, the co-founder of the DPiP CIC that runs the event, and the partner/support animal for Liz, who takes on all the boring and arduous project management tasks are essential, but that no-one else wants to do. And after the first event was launched by friend, inspiration and former DPiPer Tia in 2016, it’s been an integral part of the year for my family.

So a four year enforced break due to a global health crisis had a massive impact. But not only is STEM Festival back, it’s also as popular as ever, with a huge number of local families (more than 2,000 people) coming along to try out experiments, see exhibits and speakers, and hopefully be encouraged to explore the world of science, technology, engineering and maths.

The Glorious Return Of Peterborough STEM Festival 2024
The glorious return of Peterborough STEM Festival 2024 included SPOT the robot dog…

As a TL/DR, it was amazing to be back, seeing the enthusiasm of the hard-working volunteers and exhibitors reflected in the children, whether that was interacting with SPOT, the Boston Dynamics robots dog which was part of the Schools Aerospace Career Programme area alongside drone simulators and VR, or performing a simple experiment with crayons, paper and water, among a selection organised by Kinetic Adventure. And then there was GPUTC with F1 in Schools, Perkins, Anglian Water, Wandimo, Geology Rocks, talks by Dr Sam Gregson and Scott Steele and so much more.

Not only was the event at a new venue (the impressive ARU Peterborough campus), but I bumped into a surprising number of returning visitors considering how many children will have potentially moved into university or work since the first event.

It’s been a tough time for a lot of people for various reasons, and the challenges of putting on a free event, finding sponsors, exhibitors, and volunteers has never been more difficult. But seeing children open-mouthed at some of the exhibits, or wowing people with their own impressive knowledge certainly makes it worthwhile.

What makes it even more impactful for me has been seeing my son go from a relatively young volunteer largely following me around to try and get as much time on the retrogaming machines as possible, to watching him as a young man providing emergency cover for one of the short-staffed exhibitors. Definitely a proud dad moment, and I’m not sure I was up to his standards when I covered for his late lunch break.

It’s funny how a single day can re-energise everyone, and I know a lot more things are already being planned for both Peterborough STEM Festival and Digital People in Peterborough in the coming months, partly because I’m stepping up my involvement once again.

So if you have a young family of potential STEM adventurers, I’d definitely recommend keeping up with the Stem Festival website and social media accounts, and the same for DPiP if you’re involved in the digital and technology fields in the area.