20 to 23 February 2025, TechnoPark, Eastern University campus, Batticaloa
Innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in one place
DreamShot MakerFaire brought innovators, entrepreneurs, changemakers and creative artists together for four days, and showed startups, inventions, ideas and performances about sustainability and technology for good. Entry was free.
What DreamShot is
DreamShot is our name for innovation and entrepreneurship with a community purpose. The MakerFaire, held in Batticaloa in February 2025, opened exhibitions, practical training, startup pitches and cultural programmes to the public. School students, university teams, local businesses and artists all took part, and many of them met mentors, investors and partners they would not otherwise have reached.
Frontline Innovation
Robotics, AI with electronics and 3D printing in the MakerSpace, and the innovation showcase.
Inspiring Entrepreneurship
More than fifty stalls, the Entrepreneurs Next Level workshops and the pitch winners’ stories.
Creativepreneurs
The filmmaking bootcamp, music and the DreamShot Music Festival, media and illustration, Koothu and traditional crafts.
Reimagining Education
Play for Peace leadership training, school visits, the school project competition and a cybersecurity masterclass.
Short talks and panels
The opening panel on support for education, innovation and entrepreneurship, and short talks each morning.
AI for Good
The DreamHack AI hackathon, its mentoring and an exhibition of our AI projects.
Experts
The panellists, experts, mentors and master trainers who taught, judged and mentored.
Partners
The sponsors and partners who made the event possible, in their four tiers.
Why the event was held
The event set out to answer three needs in the Eastern Province:
- Little entrepreneurial education or STEAM exposure. Young people had few chances to build prototypes, pitch ideas or try selling products alongside school or university.
- Local career and business opportunities are hard to see. Bringing businesses, practitioners and mentors to Batticaloa showed young people what they could do close to home.
- Local makers lack support. Makers and entrepreneurs need resources, mentors and investors to work on the problems in their own communities.
So the four days aimed to open practical workshops, equipment and teaching to everyone who came, to give local producers a place to sell and meet supporters, and to show students and young makers what is possible within reach of their own homes.
How the four days worked
Six programme categories ran side by side, so a visitor could move between technology, business, education and the arts in one visit:
| Category | What it covered |
|---|---|
| Frontline Innovation | Robotics, renewable energy and technology for local problems, from local innovators and from our own projects. |
| Inspiring Entrepreneurship | Stalls, business workshops, and founders pitching to investors. |
| Creativepreneurs | Artists and creative entrepreneurs: film, music, illustration and crafts. |
| Reimagining Education | STEAM workshops and hands-on learning for students and teachers, and school visits. |
| Short talks and panels | Entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders speaking on the themes of the faire, each morning. |
| AI for Good | The DreamHack hackathon, mentoring, and an exhibition of our AI projects. |
Day by day
Thursday 20 February: the opening
Registration, the lighting of the oil lamps and the inauguration came first. Then a panel on building a support system for education, innovation and entrepreneurship brought the district administration, the municipal council, the university and industry onto one stage. Guests were then taken through every space and the stalls. By late morning everything was running at once: DreamHack upstairs, the first school groups arriving, the filmmaking bootcamp, AI with Electronics, the TrackMaster workshop, a DJ masterclass and the Play for Peace leadership training.
Friday 21 February: the workshop floor
The fullest day: cartoon illustration, music production, the line-following car competition, 3D printing, Play for Peace, a cybersecurity masterclass, the Paradise screening with its director, the film-to-business masterclass, VisAct Media's documentary, the music hackathon, and workshops for hearing-impaired participants.
Saturday 22 February: culture and the pitch
The Koothu performance and workshop, Sufi and Carnatic music, the screenplay masterclass, the second days of 3D printing and AI with Electronics, and the start of the startup pitch. DreamHack submissions closed at 5 pm. In the evening, hackathon teams, stallholders, artists, partners and international guests met at a reception in the courtyard.
Sunday 23 February: the final day and closing night
DreamHack's final pitches, the innovation showcase, the last filmmaking masterclass with Karthik Subbaraj joining from India, an exclusive music workshop and the pitch event for entrepreneurs. From 5.30 pm came the awards ceremony, then the DreamShot Music Festival, where the DreamSpace Anthem was performed for the first time.
The venue
The event filled TechnoPark on the Eastern University campus, 50 New Kalmunai Road, Batticaloa, with each space given a name and a strand:
| Space | What ran there |
|---|---|
| Kaleidoscope, the DreamSpace Productions studio | The filmmaking bootcamp and the green-screen studio |
| Rhythm, DreamSpace Records | The music hackathon and the music workshops |
| DreamHack, the co-working floor | The AI hackathon |
| The MakerSpace | AI with Electronics, the line-following cars and 3D printing |
| DreamSpace Technologies | The AI for Good exhibition |
| Hacktorium | The underwater glider and other innovations |
| DesignSpace | The business stalls and the entrepreneurs' workshops |
| Auditorium and Main Hall | The opening, panels, short talks, screenings and pitches |
| The cabanas, outdoors | The TrackMaster track and the robotics demonstrations |
| Café Culture Canvas | The event café |
Who ran it
We organised the event with our own teams: DreamSpace Productions, DreamSpace Technologies, DreamSpace Records, the MakerSpace and VisAct Media, with Tour Sri Lanka. Lakshanya Muthulingam coordinated it, with 17 volunteers across the four days.
- Event coordination
- Lakshanya Muthulingam
- DreamHack
- Govarthenan Rajadurai, DreamSpace Technologies
- AI for Good
- Rathees Koneswaran and Sajeeth Ahamed, DreamSpace Technologies
- MakerSpace
- Sujipan Sugarnan
- Innovations
- Brunthaban Manickavasagam
- Rhythm
- Dinoj Mahendranathan, DreamSpace Records
- Kaleidoscope
- Premaluxshan Krishnakumar, DreamSpace Productions
- Exhibition and showcase
- Priyanthan Kanthasamy
- Prizes and awards
- Abdul Basith Rafeekin
Forty-seven experts, mentors and master trainers taught, judged and mentored, and 22 partner organisations supported the event. They are listed on Experts and Partners.
Coverage
- Maker exhibition in Batticaloa, BattiMedia, 20 February 2025 (in Tamil).
After the event, DreamSpace Records posted the closing concert artist by artist through March 2025.