Symposium has begun! We had our first board meeting just this last
weekend and began setting out our vision for next year's conference to
be held February 16 - 18, 2013. This will be the second time we have
run this conference in Vancouver and our inaugural event came off with
rave reviews. You can see the reviews and information on last year's
event at the VISS website here.
Over the next month we will be setting out our slate of instructors
and we'll start posting up more information about what to expect next
year. Right now our plan is to continue with an already successful
formula that includes both historically grounded martial tracks as
well as a series of sessions on combative application and martial
principles as they are approached in different WMA systems. Last year
we had workshops on how to approach the principles of Measure,
Control, and Time as viewed through German, Spanish, and Italian
traditions, we also invited three excellent instructors to bring
students through techniques and exercises for bringing knowledge from
the classroom into active sparring. Expect more of these this year
from new and interesting perspectives.
Most of the same organizing committee are joining us for our event
this year but we do have a few spots that are open. We are looking
for a PR/Marketing Coordinator, Facilities Coordinator, Treasurer, and
Registrar.
The PR/Marketing Coordinator will help us plan and coordinate
the marketing activities for our event to get the word out both in
Vancouver and into the broader Western Martial Arts community.
The Facilities Coordinator is in charge of helping us find and
secure venues for our programming and coordinating facility related
logistics during the event.
The Treasurermanages and coordinates the VISS budget.
The Registrar handles member sign-up and logistics both before
and at the beginning of the event.
This is a very fun event to be a part of and provides tons of
opportunities to connect with excellent instructors and students in
the broader Western Martial Arts community. Being on the board also
gets you into the event for free! If you're interested in helping us
organize this next event, please contact our secretary at
info@vancouverswordplay.com and let us know.
Devon Boorman is the Co-Founder and Director of Academie Duello Centre for Swordplay, which has been active in Vancouver, Canada since 2004. Devon’s expertise centres on the Italian swordplay tradition including the arts of the Renaissance Italian rapier, sidesword, and longsword, as well as knife and unarmed techniques. Read more from Devon Boorman.