Whats the possibility of trying to get someone from the FSF to do a stand in the Hive at the same time?
You probably can't afford FSF's travel costs, but this ex-UEA student and Treasurer of the UK Asssociation for Free Software http://www.affs.org.uk/ would love to get someone from AFFS (either myself or another executive member) to come and talk to SYS students. Who is organising the Microsoft talk? Please email me offlist with the details and I'll approach them.