Jonathan,
Forgot to address the middle-of-the-week issue.
The date picked both last year and this year was up to the keynote speaker. Neither Stallman or Perens are receiving a dime (from us) to come speak here, so we can't really say "we want you to come on this day". All we can say is "we have this big (for us) free software/Linux event that we'd love to have you speak at. Would you like to come, and if so, when would it be best for you?"
It'd be great if we could have it in a saturday, but unless you have someone coughing up money, it is entirely up to the speaker, so we take whatever we can get, because one forum is better than none.
Regardless, Bruce Perens' keynote speech is at 7 PM, so if you leave SLC at 5:00 PM after your work, you'll get here in time for the speech.
