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This year saw the first of our conferences at the Lowther Pavilion, a 400+ seat auditorium which would be our conference home for the rest of the decade. Master of ceremonies on the day was Sam Wright (now of UK Probe International).

This was also the year we invited our first international speakers. We had met quite a few likely candidates in late 1995 when six members of LAPIS travelled to the US to attend the week long 5th International UFO Congress in Nevada. 

The 1996 flyer originally named Jordan Maxwell as a speaker but he dropped out and was subsequently replaced by Michael Lindemann who spoke on conspiracy related matters. We extended the invitation to Jordan again in 1998 which he accepted and travelled to give a couple of memorable lectures.

In addition to the advertised line up there were 3 bonus speakers.

• Marcus Allen - who spoke first on Saturday talking about Nexus magazine articles.
• Simon Lewis (from the Morecambe group) - who spoke on Sunday about strange shaped craft which had been seen in the Morecambe Bay area.
• Doris Sims (wife of Derrel) - who spoke on Sunday about handwriting analysis and how it can be applied as a tool in abduction cases.

This was quite an amazing conference for us. We had a TV crew in attendance recording an interview with Nick Pope but who also took an interest in other proceedings. We nearly filled the 400 seat Pavilion due to the fortunate line up of speakers talking about the en vogue topics of the day (alien implants / the autopsy footage). A memorable year!  

It was also the year when head honcho Janet Walkey attended the conference as delegates and were so impressed they joined the group and have been with us ever since! 

Finally, it was the year when Joseph Dormer stormed the stage and famously called Harry Harris a "shit stain on the underpants of ufology". A golden moment which will be recorded in the annals of British ufology forever!