8th April 2023

I'm writing this at Easter 2023, three years after starting the delivery phase of our LEO project. Those three years have seen an incredible amount of change and uncertainty brought about by the global Covid pandemic, which first started to impact Britain - and force the museum to close its doors for a prolonged period of time - less than one month after we received the news that the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) had awarded us continuation funding for our work on LEO.

But now we're approaching the end of the project. Our archivist Luke Thorne has moved on to pastures new and the final few deliverables of the project are nearing completion:

• Having carried out user testing in the museum earlier this week, we're looking forward to presenting the new 3D LEO application to the LEO Computers Society's members and installing it in the museum later this month. Then we'll be releasing a tablet version in early May so people can explore LEO I at home.

• Some final artefacts are being catalogued by the Project Manager, Lisa McGerty.
• Lisa is also reworking the LEO display in the museum's main gallery to reflect both the 3D app and some of the stories discovered throughout the project.
• The project's webpages on this site are being revamped too as we reflect on what we've achieved.
• And all of this will be completed before the project's final celebratory event on 18th May 2023 at the museum. At the event we will focus first on the tangible outcomes of the project  - explained and demonstrated by those most closely involved in their development. After a break for lunch – and an opportunity to look around the museum – the afternoon session will take the form of an open panel discussion on LEO's role in early business computing, the importance of preserving and promoting computing history and the ways in which future generations of young people can learn about that history and from it, chaired by Professor Frank Land OBE. After the formal events there will be an opportunity for 1:1 'guided tours' of the 3D LEO application. 

If you'd like to attend this special event, please do let us know by emailing leo@computinghistory.org.uk.