If there are three things that are sure to draw a crowd at Interact Labs then they are robots, Virtual Reality and 3d printing. These technologies remain very much 'of the moment' and can be a great way to introduce people to creative technology. We've featured them at a number of our events recently.

On July 8th the first of our regular 3D printer nights saw 11 people visit the Lab for an introduction to 3D printing and a safety induction for the FlashForge Creator II 3D printer we use. Given that we have been running sessions like this since we opened in October 2013, it's great to see that interest in these sessions is still high. The next one will be on the 12th August. We also have a more advanced workshop coming up in September.

On July 18th we ran our first 'Open Lab' drop-in afternoon where the device of most interest was the Oculus Rift and, to a lesser extent, the Google Cardboard. Interest in Virtual Reality is on the rise, largely thanks to the Oculus, which seems to impress most users. We might look to run Virtual Reality workshops in the future - perhaps focussed around the low-cost and self-constructured Google Cardboard device.

Finally, just last Friday, we ran the first of our 'Technology Explorer' sessions for young people. While the 3D printer went down well, the most popular devices were our computer-controlled robot arm and the Cubelet robot construction kits. Note to self, kids love robots.

Keep an eye on the www.interactlabs.co.uk website for details of future events and activities.