Stepping out even further East

I’m leaving tomorrow for London, to attend the first ever “Connections-UK” conference. This conference has the same purpose as the twenty-years-young Connections annual conference in the United States, organized by Matt Caffrey. Dr. Phil Sabin of the Department of War Studies of Kings College London and colleagues put this together, and it looks to be a very interesting event!

http://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/

I will be speaking on the panel “Using wargames for military purposes”, and will be talking about the work done and games used on the online gaming portal for the GlobalECCO project, a website associated with the Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program.

I will also be showing or demonstrating A Distant Plain (got an advance copy to take with me, looks beautiful and weighs as much as a baby!), Dios o Federacion, 1848, EOKA, Green Beret, Guerrilla Checkers, Kandahar, and Uprising – but I don’t think all that will fit on the table at one time.

The conference is 3-4 September, but I will be doing a few other things while there. I haven’t been to Britain in almost 25 years. Among others, there is the “War Games” exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood, which looks pretty neat:

http://www.museumofchildhood.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions-and-displays/war-games

It’s excited a bit of controversy, or at least that’s what the curators seem to want you to believe – plenty of opportunity to make your sentiments and reactions known, it’s almost as if they didn’t want to do it! Kind of reminds me of the hilarious short-short story “The Toys of Peace” by Saki:

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/ToysPeac.shtml

If I have time, I will try to post from London, but no promises. I’ll be staying at the Kings College London student residences in Hampstead, about five miles from the Strand campus where the conference is but a bargain at 30 pounds a night for a single student room. Well, a bargain by London standards.

Funny story: For a long time I have had a copy of Avalanche Press’ “Panzer Grenadier” for sale on Boardgamegeek, and last week I got an email asking if it was still available, and how much would postage to Britain be. I ask where he lives – he gives a London postal code – I ask where in London that is – he lives about 300 m away from the residences, and at that moment was staring at the building through his living room window! So, he gets personal delivery… can’t do that every time.

I will be gone about a week, so be good while I’m away.