Every year, the EuSpRIG chair gets to write a one or two page introduction to the conference proceedings. These are usually fairly anodyne affairs, focussing mainly upon thanking EuSpRIG volunteers for their efforts. However over the decade that EuSpRIG has been operating, the various chairs have let slip their inner most thoughts on other matters. We reproduce here the complete set of Chairs reports, so that the compulsively curious can observe how our thinking has changed over the years – principally moving from an exclusive focus on spreadsheet errors, to the more complex problem of articulating the wider issues and what to do about them. The observant will note that many of the people involved in the first conference are still involved in the recent conferences. Given that EuSpRIG is voluntary and non-profit, readers may wish to contemplate why such busy and well qualified people have chosen to stay involved.

Following each conference, Patrick O’Beirne, of Systems Modelling, a EuSpRIG veteran and former chair, has taken it upon himself to put together a paragraph summarising each of the papers presented at each EuSpRIG conference. These documents provide a useful English-Language summary of the conference and the papers presented so that interested readers can follow up in more detail via the conference [abstracts]. We also include the text of a fascinating and informative after dinner speech given by Dan Fylstra, Visicalc’s publisher and present day CEO of Frontline Systems at the Klagenfurt conference in 2004.