Welcome the eighth official bulletin for the 2006 YAPC::Europe Perl Conference in Birmingham, UK.

The Preliminary Schedule

We have been blessed with a wealth of quality talks and over the last week we have been having a hard time trying to schedule everything and avoiding conflicts for speakers and themes. It's not been easy, but we think we have got a schedule we can let you see. So here it is....

• YAPC::Europe::2006 Schedule

Please bear in mind everything is subject to change.

Our Sponsors

We'd like to introduce you to a few of our sponsors.

1. Shadowcat Systems

   Our first Gold Sponsor, Shadowcat Systems, will be sponsoring the Workshop Room at the conference.

   Shadowcat Systems is a developer of open source software projects and a keen supporter of community software. Shadowcat also provides consultancy and support for automated systems, network frameworks, open source software and internet components, and develops proprietary solutions for clients and its own, licensed, proprietary software.

   Shadowcat Systems are based in the United Kingdom but we deliver solutions, consultancy and support to a global community of clients via onsite supervision along with traditional and internet based communications.

2. The Positive Internet Company Ltd.

   Media Sponsor Positive Internet have donate a server to us, in order for us to host the Conference Website, along with the Conference Wiki, Birmingham OpenGuides and the Birmingham Perl Mongers website.

3. UKUUG

   UKUUG, also a Media Sponsor, have very kindly been publicising us to their members online and via their printed newsletters.

   UKUUG - the UK's Unix and Open Systems User Group - is a non-profit organization and technical forum for the advocacy of open systems, particularly Unix and Unix-like operating systems, the promotion of free and open-source software, and the advancement of open programming standards and networking protocols. It uniquely caters for the needs of people in this area. Formed in 1976, it is totally funded by membership subscriptions and is completely independent of specific hardware and software vendors. All profits are used to further the activities of the organization.

4. Apress

   Book publishers Apress have signed up as Media Sponsors, and have long been supporting the publication of Perl and Open Source Software books, and we are delight to have them supply books for the conference auction.

We are in touch with more sponsors and aim to announce them in forthcoming bulletins. Many thanks to everyone who helped with sponsorship so far, but we're still looking for anyone else who can help, no matter how little you think you can contribute. So if you'd like to sponsor us, please get in touch.

Contact

Should you wish to contact us, there is an email address available for direct contact, where you can mail us with your questions and suggestions. There is also the regular YAPC::Europe conference mailing list, which is open to all. That's all for this release. Look out for more news and announcements in the future.

Thanks,
The Birmingham 2006 Organisers
www.birmingham2006.com