We took up the invitation from Michael Ianni-Palarchio and dropped in on the Youth Technology Camp and their grand opening Open House this afternoon -- a pretty amazing place, and I'm proud to say that it's right here in the heart of Sauble Beach.

Michael gave us the Royal Tour starting with some ambling bi-ped robots who greeted us at the door. We saw the Lego Mindstorms robotics design kits and a quick demonstration of just how easy it was to alter the programming on a little robot car. From there an introduction to the stop-frame animation and webdesign tools, a robot vacuum (like in the Pepsi commercial), a self-programming Aibo robot dog who's now scared to step of his shelf (did once, fell, learned his lesson) and another strange homebrewed tele-robotic contraption that can be set outside in the back yard to teach the children what it would be like to pilot a Mars Rover!

Pretty amazing stuff. Our tour ended with a demo of some of the 3-D animation tools for game and cartoon crafting and lastly, a short film created by Michael's daughter using the iMovie software.

Michael told me some time ago his main reason to open the camp was to capture some of that enthusiasm for the technology which those of us who work in it sometimes take for granted, and from what we saw today, I think he's succeeded.

The week-long summer camps at YTC begin in just two weeks and already the last two July sessions are booked.