Forward Into the Past 23| Date | April 6, 2013 |
| Place | Wilfrid Laurier University |
| Adult Pre-Reg Price | $15.00 whole day |
| Student/Senior Pre-Reg Price | $10.00 whole day |
| Child Pre-Reg Price | $5.00 whole day |
| Adult Day-Reg Price | $20.00 whole day |
| Student/Senior Day-Reg Price | $15.00 whole day |
| Child Day-Reg Price | $10.00 whole day |
| Site Cost | $ 0.00 |
| Speakers Cost | $ 556.35 |
| Advertising Cost | $ 0.00 |
| Other Costs | $ 168.03 |
| Profit | $855.35 |
Interesting Stats Class Statistics Comments from Attendees
# - Session has attendance limits
$ - Session has a materials fee
| Class (Full List) | Speaker (Full List) | Time | Attendence |
| 50 Shades of History - a look at non-traditional sexual practices in history | Bernie Roehl | 10:30 | 9 |
| Algebra as Geometry | Nathan Kronefeld | 4:30 | 5 |
| An ancient art, a long absence | William Ernoehazy | 11:30 | 3 |
| Anglo - Saxon Bread and Bread making | Nina Bates | 12:30 | 17 |
| Art: Pots & Rocks | Jennifer Laughton, Natalia Handziuk | 12:30 | 4 |
| Barbarians at the Gate | Victoria Nagy, Simon Newcombe | 3:30 | 6 |
| Beads: Open Torch Time I | Jean Ross | 1:30 | 1 |
| Beads: Open Torch Time II | Jean Ross | 2:30 | 1 |
| Bone and Antler Carving | Steven Strang | 1:30 | 22 |
| Bookbinding | Patrick Miller | 10:30 | 12 |
| Brocaded Tablet Weaving | Rob Schweitzer | 2:30 | 5 |
| But I don't know how to present... | Neil Peterson | 12:30 | 5 |
| Chainmail - Beyond the Basics | Jerry Penner | 3:30 | 9 |
| Chainmail for Beginners | Jerry Penner | 11:30 | 11 |
| Children: Create your own Shield | Katrina Lauzon | 2:30 | 2 |
| Children: Dragon Egg-Hunt and Goblet Ring-Toss | Katrina Lauzon | 11:30 | 3 |
| Children: Dragon Painting | Katrina Lauzon | 10:30 | 3 |
| Children: Face Painting and Colouring | Katrina Lauzon | 9:00 | 6 |
| Children: Medieval Board Games | Katrina Lauzon | 4:30 | 5 |
| Children: Playdough Runestones | Katrina Lauzon | 1:30 | 2 |
| Children: Wand Decorating | Katrina Lauzon | 3:30 | 4 |
| Conflicts of the pre-modern Islamic world | Adam Ali, Sajjad Nejatie | 4:30 | 1 |
| Costuming Research (1000 - 1800 A.D) | Amy Menary | 4:30 | 10 |
| Counted Cross Stitch - Learn to Make Your Own Heirlooms | Ellen Mervin | 12:30 | 5 |
| Court Dances from 15th-c. Italy | Sue Kronenfeld | 12:30 | 1 |
| Courtly Love: a Medical Condition, or Merely a Social Disease? | Sue Kronenfeld | 2:30 | 5 |
| Crafting a 'Faire' Presentation | Karen Oddson, Nick Oddson, Linda Derderian, Ginevra Brown | 3:30 | 4 |
| Cultures and Offerings | Rachel Dewan, Sarah Schellinger | 11:30 | 4 |
| Dances from Arbeau (1588) | Sue Kronenfeld | 11:30 | 1 |
| Dances from Tudor England (Gresley Dances) | Richard Schweitzer | 10:30 | 3 |
| Decorated mediaeval floor tiles | David Clarke | 4:30 | 7 |
| Don't Try This At Home: Victorian Pesticides and General Garden Poisons | Victoria Bick | 4:30 | 5 |
| Dress for Life and Death: The Archaeology of Common Nineteenth-Century Buttons | Anatolijs Venovcevs | 11:30 | 3 |
| Early timber frame building in the UK | David Clarke | 11:30 | 14 |
| Fingerloop Braiding - Intermediate | Karina Bates | 3:30 | 8 |
| Fingerloop Braiding - beginner | Karina Bates | 10:30 | 13 |
| Food and cooking methods in the Viking age | Beth Patchett | 10:30 | 12 |
| Grappling techniques when corps-a-corps -- ringen am Schwert | William Ernoehazy | 1:30 | 9 |
| Gryphon Medieval Brass Rubbings (I) | Colleen Moynham, Alexis Cooke | 10:30 | 9 |
| Gryphon Medieval Brass Rubbings (II) | Colleen Moynham, Alexis Cooke | 11:30 | 5 |
| Hávamál: Viking Words of Wisdom | Neil Peterson | 2:30 | 23 |
| Heraldry in the Middle Ages | David Stamper | 1:30 | 3 |
| Herbal Workshop | Paddy Gillard-Bentley | 4:30 | 1 |
| Historic Unmentionables: The Evolution of the Woman's Undergarments during the Victoria Era | Sheila Johnson | 9:00 | 50 |
| How it Was and How It Wasn't | Peter Monahan | 1:30 | 5 |
| I'll Huff and I'll Puff - Observations on Air Delivery in Bloomery Iron Furnaces | Darrell Markewitz | 1:30 | 8 |
| In their own right: Women and Power in Medieval Europe | Mila Little | 2:30 | 17 |
| Introduction to Tablet Weaving | Laura Stein | 12:30 | 13 |
| Introduction to Troubadours | Melanie Burrett | 4:30 | 2 |
| Living in 1865: Lessons learned with Livestock | Ken Cook, Margaret Trainor Cook | 2:30 | 4 |
| Meaningful Scratches | Steven Strang | 12:30 | 9 |
| Measure twice, Scribe once | Peter Westergaard | 12:30 | 8 |
| Medieval Sewing Pins | Laura Stein | 10:30 | 10 |
| Monster Mash: Evidence of Monsters in the Archaeological Context from the Middle Ages and Beyond | Simon Newcombe | 1:30 | 10 |
| Morris Dancing | Tara Bolker, Roy Underhill | 1:30 | 24 |
| Music and Monsters | Peter Knezevici, Marie-Luise Schega | 3:30 | 4 |
| Naalbinding: An Introduction | Karen Peterson | 11:30 | 9 |
| Naalbinding: Beyond York Stitch | Lynette Pike | 12:30 | 4 |
| Norse Sagas - the Bloody, Bawdy and Bizarre | Richard Schweitzer | 1:30 | 11 |
| Out of the grey: archaeological investigations of the Motel 5 site in Kingston Ontario | Nathan Laanstra | 11:30 | 5 |
| Period Fencing Demonstration | David Stamper | 3:30 | 8 |
| Pole Lathe | Mark Patchett | 2:30 | 8 |
| Return of the King, the grave of Richard III | Catherine Ollerhead DeSantis | 1:30 | 18 |
| Saints and Sinners: Early Tudor Puppet Players | Nell Coleman, Ildiko Csermely, Peter Csermely, Magda Nusink | 12:30 | 5 |
| Soldiers of God - Servants of Michael: Crusaders and the Medical Profession | Melina Chestley | 1:30 | 9 |
| Sprang - Circular | Judy McKay | 2:30 | 8 |
| Textiles 101: Colour and Pattern in Historical Fabrics | Jo Duke | 10:30 | 15 |
| Textiles 201: Historical Dress Design From the Ground Up | Jo Duke | 11:30 | 10 |
| The Church of Joan: Fact or Fiction? | Nichole Sotzek | 4:30 | 4 |
| The Conquest of Siberia | Jordan Burrows | 4:30 | 6 |
| The Cutting Edge : Considering Blades | Darrell Markewitz | 3:30 | 17 |
| The Good, the Bad, and the Annoyed: the not-quite-living Dead in Old Norse literature | Sarah Backa, Rachel Backa | 10:30 | 18 |
| The Longship Company: Things We Think We Know | Bruce Blackistone | 4:30 | 22 |
| The Modern World | Ashley Lefler, James Rimmer | 10:30 | 6 |
| The Story of the Cubic Equation (or The Secret Sordid Lives of Mathematicians) | Nathan Kronefeld | 3:30 | 5 |
| The Strange World of Human Sacrifice | Cancelled | 10:30 | |
| The life and times of Richard the Third | Tracy Bryce | 12:30 | 12 |
| Tiny Flowers in the Margin | Peter Westergaard | 3:30 | 18 |
| To the Hilt: The Development of Sword Hilts from the Late 15th Century until the End of the 16th Century | David Stamper | 12:30 | 4 |
Attendence figures are wrong - day registrations are estimated, and which sessions were attended by those attendees was lost. Attendance at each session was likely higher than these numbers.
Summary of 48 Feedback Forms (plus some email)
Spelling and grammar are that of the participants, editorial notes are in [these brackets]What session did you like the most?- Richard III
- Fencing. Nice combo of thought, demo, new-to-me content, and hands-on
- Bone carving / Victorian Underwear!
- Brass Rubbing
- Runes & Ogham - very well prepared
- Bookbinding - hands-on, practical
- All of it, more knowledge
- Courtly Love - presenter was in persona
- DARC speakers - engaging and informative
- Norse Sagas - entertaining and very interesting
- Grappling - physically learn about swords
- In Her Own Right, Women and Power - awesome topic & presenter
- The variety of classes / lectures, meeting people
- Not possible to choose - they were all excellent
- Fingerloop braiding - I like practical, and it was effectively taught, well explained
- War of 1812 - How it was / how it wasn't
- Also, Viking Wisdom (ed. Havamal) - good research, relevant to re-enacting
- Crafting sessions (chainmal, Meaningful Scratches)
- I enjoyed all of the sessions I attended
- I really liked the content of "offering" student papers. They were well-presented & it was great to see diverse topics going back to ancient periods
- All I attended.
- Richard III - relevance, high interest, captivating
- Presenting (ed. How to Present class) - I needed it
- Chainmail, Runes & weaving - they were hands on. Oh, and the Faire one
- The Havamal class - the focus was tight & the discussion of the meaning was interesting. Another 15 minutes could have been very good.
- Bone and Antler Carving, Decorated Medieval Floor Tiles, and others.....
- 50 Shades, Richard III, Student papers
- Little Flowers - Had fun painting and Peter is a good teacher
- Richard III - an incredible opportunity to see photos of the dig site
- Viking Stuff was cool!
- Anglo-Saxon Bread - great info. Pole Lathe was the best - Hands-on
- Intro to Tablet-Weaving - 2cnd teacher, Rob, was great and knowledgeable
- Victorian Pesticides - great info and presenter
- Textiles 101 - friendly, knowledgeable presenter, relevant material, many examples, variety of info
- Book Binding - I have wanted to try for ages
- Bone and Antler Carving - I've been wanting to learn the skill for awhile
- Ones where I got to swing swords
- Naalbinding - it's surprisingly easy to do
- Return of the King
- 50 Shades of History - I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it
- Conflict Islam World - real papers in progress
- Havamal: Words of Wisdom - preparation and comprehensiveness
- Blade Class - I like topics on smithing
- In Their Own Right
- Tile Making - informative demonstration
- Mamluks
- Counted Cross-Stitch - learn to make your own heirloom, a lot of fun and interesting
- Medieval Medicine - Good, but also my only class
- Mosaic Tile
- I really enjoyed Sheila's key note. bring her back, please!
- '50 Shades of History' was odd, but entertaining. He said that he is not an historian but I was still a bit surprised that he hadn't heard of The Decameron or Boccachio [ at least one audience member had and seemed quite knowledgable on historic SMDB.]
- The young man who did the button presentation had good info. and a fairly dry delivery, but was obviously knowlegabel and interested in his topic. He'll probably become a good speaker with practice.
What session did you like the least? Why?
- Norse Sagas - the presenter needed to have an organizational structure and give the class more idea of the importance of these aspects of the sagas
- None
- Motel 5 Excavation - very new presenter, 45 minutes of reading
- Courtly love - felt disorganized
- Norse Sagas - Not prepared and a very poor reader with no direction
- None
- They were all good. I was less interested in fencing and the speakers had a very soft voice
- Courtly Love - unclear point
- None
- None - all were wonderful
- N/A
- When presenter is not well prepared it is annoying
- I liked them all
- Food and Cooking Methods in the Viking Age - short, not a lot of information
- None
- Norse food - seemed not about Norse at all, but Anglo-Saxon. Not necessarily a problem, but course description misleading. Very short, not much info.
- They were all interesting!
- None
- I liked the "Courtly Love" the least because I felt like I was watching a play than a historical presentation
- Life and Times of Richard III - not enough time for all facts / story - mild peeve
- None (really all were interesting)
- All good
- Didn't have one
- N/A
- The ones I checked out - they were all good
- Women in M.A.
- Keynote would have meant more if there was either a dressmaker's dummy or mannequin to dress, or if there was a slide/pictures of the "outer fashions" that would be over each item displayed
- Brocaded Tablet Weaving - teacher too disorganized
- Illuminated MSS - copies was a real stretch, but an eye-opener!
- Medieval Pins - misrepresented - was to be sewing needles, was gluing beads onto pins
- Really, I enjoyed them all
- Sprang - as I did not get supply list in a timely manner
- All sessions were interesting
- The Arbean Dances - mainly because it had few people, hard to dance
- Historic Documentation
- Pins - because you made me pick one. I actually liked it
- Norse Sagas - rushed
- Bead making - bored. I taught it
- From Chretian to Harper
- The 1865 'Living With Livestock' was a grave disappointment. 30 minutes on problems with chickens is just plain boring! The fact that, as came out in the question period, that the speakers still use an electric fridge, washer and dryer detracts, IMHO, from their over all credibility too. Just a personal observation that, buy in general I think that particular has been to well enough. Three years worth is plenty.
What other sessions would you like to see?
- More on recreation arts - living the ages
- This was my first time and I am amazied by the breadth of knowledge.
- Celts
- Sword making
- Sessions on music and food
- Crusade topics
- Celt topics - everyday life, technologies, etc.
- More practical
- More on food or daily living
- More 1812 'cuz Canada has history too.
- More food based sessions?
- More how-to classes
- Sessions from a wider range of history, not simply the medieval period with a few from other periods
- Celtic Life
- Bronze - Iron Age culture, state, etc
- Not sure
- Practice combat or leather work
- Fabric Terminology (period) with modern fabric swatch equivalents (yes, I realize Jo's course was close to this)
- Casting metal in soapstone molds with Darrell Markewitz
- Vandy's class on food/cooking as experimental archaeology
- More hands-on demos
- More wood / bone carving sessions
- More scribal (not so much on illumination as calligraphy)
- Voice Projection
- Beginner Sprang
- Inkle Weaving
- Things about other continents/histories
- More language / linguisitics presentations
- More Norse Sagas
- More sessions about making stuff
- Bone and Antler Carving
- Archaeology
- Pottery
How did you hear about us?
- Norsefolk E-list
- from a SCAdian
- Facebook
- Attended last year - from a friend
- My son
- Medieval Studies Society
- SCA
- Member of SCA
- Friends (Sam and Leslie)
- Long time attendee
- SCA
- Posters and Class - medieval studies
- On a yahoo group I belong to
- Laurier Medieval Students Society
- mailing list
- You're kidding, right?
- Word of mouth
- I came with a friend who invited me
- Website
- I spoke last year and was a student at Laurier
- Neil leaned on us again
- School clubs (Archaeology Society)
- SCA
- Facebook
- :)
- from the Morris dancers
- I helped plan
- Neil
- SCA
- Friends involved in re-enactment
- previously attended
- SCA, former attendee and speaker
- SCA
- email blitz
- Last year's event, SCA members
- Neil et al.
- internet
- Came 2 years in a row / am an Archaeology student
- I work here. :)
- SCA
- some guy told me
- SCA
- Ragnarr
- Laurier Archaeology
- SCA
Other Comments- An excellent day - I look forward to coming back and teaching. The Sacred to Secular Music class was also very good. Peter did an excellent job and didn't become flustered when confronted by technical hiccups. The Anglo-Saxon Bread class was very good - informal, chatty, very informational. The Drauger class was fun for me. Sarah's presentation could use some polishing, but her information was very good. I learned new stuff that will inform my class on the Drauger in the future. The Monstrous Births class was not in my area of interest, but proved very informative. Marie did a great job! The Things We Think We Know session by Bruce Blackistone - very entertaining, assuming prior knowledge. A fun talk.
- You should have a Twitter account.
- A wonderful day.
- Would love to come back next year.
- Great idea with the coffee.
- There were too many to choose from.
- Excellent conference!
- I almost have an idea.....
- This was fun!
- The Tudor dances was interesting, but was unfortunately underprepared, which the presenter fully admitted. Really enjoyed the "Monsters in Arch. context" as it was quite interdisciplinary. The "Courtly Love" lecture was more of a re-enactment then a lecture and I felt I couldn't ask questions because someone within the historical context couldn't answer. The presenter read from a script rather then lecture notes/presenter notes. The music lecture (Sacred to Secular) was really well done, and used examples very well. There was a great range of topics this year, which made me Happy. However, I'd like to see the continuation of the widening of the range of time periods discussed.
- Forms are too small.
- It was lovely, thanks.
- Thanks for coffee, but it ran out [actually the silver urn was still full at the end of the day] and lunch ran out before I got there.
- Please have tea at the coffee table. :-)
- A better period focus for demos.
- Really enjoyed the day! Your volunteers are all great! Lunch was expensive.
- My kids enjoyed the kids classes!
- :-)
- Good.
- I had a wonderful day at Forward Into The Past. The only downside is that it is not possible to attend all the sessions of interest because there are too many of them.
- Good conference, by the way; very enjoyable.
- [a speaker] didn't sign up for anything and then I lost the schedule. The one thing you didn't have this year were copies of the schedule taped to the wall. I recall that one year you also had the schedule for each room taped to the door. For those of us who are disorganized, these reminders are helpful. [Sorry about that - they got missed this year]
