Borodino 2002

MagWeb.com Speakers Conference

by Russ Lockwood


Although the interactive computer-moderated wargame took center stage at Borodino 2002, the MagWeb.com Speaker's Conference came in a close second with an array of wonderful speakers talking about a variety of Napoleonic information.

At right: Nigel Marsh, creator of the computer program, pounding the keyboard during the weekend-long action. His amusing talk at lunch time mixed English observational humor with the history of his efforts.

The good news is that whenever a player wanted a break from the wargame, or his command didn't have much to do, there was a speaker talking in an adjacent room. The bad news was that since most times the wargame ran concurrently with the lectures, most of the 102 pre-registered attendees (plus a number of walk-ins) did not get to hear more than a smidgen of the talks. Each talk had between a half dozen and two dozen listeners.

A word of thanks goes out to our speakers, who did an excellent job in somewhat primitive circumstances. The Hotel Chamberlin is an old hotel, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it is in need of a renovation. The lecture room had two obstacles, only one of which could be overcome at one time. The air conditioning blowers were so loud, you couldn't hear the speakers. If you turned the blowers off so that you could hear the lecture, the 95-degree, 80% humidity would soon overwhelm the comfort of the listeners. We tried alternating between the two, and the compromise somewhat worked, but its tough enough to give a lecture to a group of knowledgeable Napoleonic buffs without having to shout or sweat.

And if you can believe it, none of the curtains closed, which caused a goodly amount of glare since the windows were behind them. In retrospect, we should have rotated the set-up 90-degrees to put the screen against the wall. Live and learn.

The Speakers

As most of you know, no plan survives contact with the enemy, and planning a Speakers Conference is no different. Some of our original speakers had last-minute cancellations, Nigel ended up in airport delay hell (we moved his talk to lunch), and another took ill and could not make it. Nevertheless, we pulled together an impressive line-up. Needless to say, any mistakes in my write-ups are mine and mine alone.

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