Next week, the Gadget Show Live! in Birmingham, UK will play host to all the latest gadgets from across the world. Well, mbed is now going to be there too, sharing a little of what goes on behind all those shiny covers!

Background: A few weeks ago, we spent the weekend at Newcastle Maker Faire. We were there to let people play with our robots for fun, but also to help give a bit of education and insight in to embedded technology.

It turns out we also bumped in to lots of engineers. Be it embedded engineers, mechanical engineers, computer programmers, test engineers or scientists, it was a great place meet people from all backgrounds in one place, even if it was "off the clock". Many hadn't heard of mbed yet, and after we explained what it was, most could tell us (usually via a past experience of pain!) how it could help them save time in the future. We came away entirely exhausted, but having met lots of interesting people in a short space of time, and hopefully some of who we will now be able to help with their future projects. A great success!

This success made us think about what other events could be an opportunity to talk to lots of engineers who don't come to embedded trade shows, whilst also being able to share knowledge about embedded engineering and technology in general (the greater good!).

The same day we were discussing this, I found out about the Gadget Show Live:

• Gadget Show Live!

It seemed like fate, so I signed us up!

We've never done anything like this, so it is going to be interesting to see how it works out. The goals for the show are to:

• Meet engineers who wouldn't normally come to embedded electronics shows
• Give people insights in to how gadgets actually work and are designed
• Inspire some people to become engineers and invent their own future products

I remember us saying less than a year ago how "in the future" we'd aim to have our own "mbed" stand at a show. We didn't realise quite how quickly mbed would catch on to be in a position to do it so soon! Given the show is about a week away, we've got our work cut out. Here are some of the things we hope to have on show...

To help give insight, I thought a "mindmap" or brainstorm of electronic modules could give insight in to how you can pick-and-mix different functionality, and program a central controller to orchestrate it. Hexley suggested basing it around the cookbook, so the work in progress is exactly that; an "mbed Coookbook Mindmap":

• Cookbook Mindmap

As an aside, it is great to see how busy people have been; some great contributions in the cookbook!

We also know many people won't care too much for the engineering behind the scenes, so we're planning some demos to provide some fun (with a splash of insight).

Although we said never again, and even wondered if he'd blend, by popular demand Billy is going to be re-wired, re-vamped and refreshed! And the fact a new I2S high-quality audio reference design is in the works means a significant upgrade.

Steve Ravet's original write-up is here:

• Big Mouth Billy Bass

For another demo, we thought what is the number one gadget that everyone owns and can relate to? Well, that is a phone. And what is the one thing everyone needs on a day out looking at gadgets? Well, that is snacks. So we're planning to combine these two in to a Snack Machine Service (SMS), that you can text to get a snack:

• Snack Machine Service

Still very much a work in progress, but hopefully will get finished one evening this week.

And for our final demo, we're thinking what we could do with the robots we've got that would be fun? Something wii-ly wii-ly fun? We're still working on what that could be...

Hopefully this will be a great opportunity to meet a diverse range of engineers mbed can help, whilst doing our bit to help give insights in to the technology around us.

The main show runs Wednesday 13th to Sunday 17th April, with a trade-only day on Tuesday 12th. If you'll be at the show, come and find us on stand M21a, near T3 magazine!