**UPDATE:** Go and [Digg this story](https://digg.com/linux_unix/LugRadio_Live_UK_2008_19_20_July_Wolverhampton)!
Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I am pleased to announce the first collection of confirmed speakers for the legendary [LugRadio Live UK 2008](https://lugradio.org/live/UK2008/) that is happening on the 19th and 20th July 2008 at The Lighthouse Media Center, Chubb Buildings, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1HT – astute readers may have noticed the venue has changed – thats right, we are now back at The Lighthouse.
If you are unfamiliar with LugRadio Live, where have you been living? LugRadio Live is the leading open source, free software and free culture event in the UK, and every year brings together three stages full of incredible speakers, a raft of exhibitors and a lot of fun. LugRadio Live is a very different event, and something often described as a “rock conference” – it presents an incredibly social and fun event where the focus is on meeting cool and interesting people and having a great time. And all of this costs just **£5** for the full weekend to get in.
## First Confirmed Speakers and Exhibitors
So, lets get started with the first batch of confirmed speakers and exhibitors. Work is progressing apace to continue, but we can announce the following so far:
Speakers:
* Chris DiBona (Google)
* Max Spevack (Red Hat) – The Fedora Project
* Christian Schaller (Collabora Multimedia) – GStreamer
* Steve Lamb (Microsoft) – Green IT
* Robert Collins (Canonical) – Bazaar
* Benjamin Otte (GNOME) – swfdec
* Rob McQueen (Collabora)
* Edward Hervey (Collabora Multimedia) – PiTiVi
* James Hooker – Taming the Dragons
* Kevin Sandom – Grouphug – Clustering with an evil twist!
* Barbie (MessageLabs) – Understanding Malware
* Daniel James – Mobile multimedia production with Free Software
* Emma Jane Hogbin – Form an orderly queue, ladies
* Bruno Bord – Baguette on Snails
* Ben Thorp – Supporting World Domination
* Rufus Pollock – FFFI
* Sam Birchall – Philosophy and AI: Modelling Human Cognition
* John Carr – Laying Down the Pipes: connecting your desktop with Conduit
* William J Giddings – Tcl/GTK bindings, using the GNOCL extensions for Tcl
* Agostino Russo – Wubi, the Windows Ubuntu Installer
* Martin Meredith – Keysigning Party
* …and another 10 or so to confirm…
Exhibitors:
* Bytemark
* Icculus
* Ubuntu UK
* Open Rights Group
* www.tinker.it
* KDE
* Linux Outlaws
* 64 Studio
* Linux Emporium
* Chris Hayes
* …and many more…
Call for speakers and exhibitors is still open – contact us at show AT lugradio DOT org if you would like to speak or exhibit, but get in quick, space is filling up. Oh, and exhibiting is completely free, just in case you wondered. 🙂
## Other Fun Stuff
Not only do we have a rip-roaring schedule of speakers and a juicy collection of exhibitors packed into the venue, but we have lots of other fun stuff too such as:
* **
* **The Mass Debate** – again we will put together some leading lights in the free software world to bang heads and debate the important topics that you can ask about.
* **LugRadio Live and Unleashed** – the LugRadio team will again present a live show in front of the LugRadio Live UK 2008 audience, and in this show…anything can happen!
* **Nutsacks** – becoming something of a staple part of LugRadio Live, we will again provide bags of incredible swag that you get for free when you enter the venue. We are working on some excellent nutsack fun and games. 🙂
* **Partaaaay!** – on the Friday and Saturday evenings there will be parties in which you can have a few drinks, talk to other attendees and get to know the speakers, the LugRadio presenters and the crew.
* **LAN Gaming** – we will have a large LAN gaming setup where you can go and blow the crap out of other geeks…
* **Much, much more** – we have lots of things up our sleeves, rest assured…you will have a great time…
## Travel and Hotels
If all of this is sounding like a lot of fun to you and you want to come along, thankfully Wolverhampton is a pretty easy place to get to. It is very well connected by trains and has an airport (Birmingham International) 30 minutes away. There is also a large car park opposite the LugRadio Live UK venue which makes parking very convenient too.
in terms of accommodation, we have a raft of hotels, most of which have special deals for LugRadio Live UK 2008 visitors. Go and see [this page](https://lugradio.org/live/UK2008/travel) for more details.
## Spread The Word!
LugRadio Live UK 2008 is very much a community event, and we are looking for as much help as possible to spread the word about it – if you are planning on coming along, put one of these rather nice buttons on your website and link it to [https://lugradio.org/live/UK2008/](https://lugradio.org/live/UK2008/):
More information as we get it…
