Dimitrios Chatzinas: Warhammer, Records, and the Art of Engagement

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war… and, rather surprisingly, a great deal of records management. This presentation explores how two trips to the Warhammer Conference in Heidelberg (2024 and 2025) unexpectedly became a masterclass in making records management not only engaging, but genuinely enjoyable.

Drawing on my papers Imperial Records: The Paradox of Preservation and Peril in Documenting Humanity’s Galactic Legacy and Ctrl+Alt+Deus: The Ridiculous Rise of Data in the 41st Millennium, I’ll delve into how the sprawling, catastrophically bureaucratic Imperium of Man offers a strangely useful mirror for our real-world information practices. From censored histories and politically convenient “truths” to the sacred (and occasionally explosive) treatment of data, Warhammer’s fictional archives reveal a great deal about why good record-keeping matters - and what happens when it all goes spectacularly wrong.

But this isn’t just a tour of grimdark paperwork. It’s also the story of how linking a lifelong hobby with my professional world turned out to be an unexpectedly effective tool for engagement. By framing records management through humour, storytelling, and the odd Space Marine, I discovered new ways to spark curiosity, invite discussion, and make the topic far more accessible to colleagues who might not normally leap at the chance to talk about metadata.

Whether you know your Adeptus Administratum from your Airfix instructions - or neither - I hope to show that records management doesn’t have to be dry. With the right narrative (and perhaps a Chainsword or two), it can be creative, human, and even fun.

Bio:

Dimitrios Chatzinas has dedicated 30 years to Warhammer 40K hobby through collecting, reading, painting, and playing, continually expanding their knowledge even outside gameplay. He possesses an MSc in Records Management and Digital Preservation from Dundee University and has worked as a Records Manager for the Scottish Government since 2020, both in records management as well as archival and preservation positions.