The Penny Arcade Expo announces famed designer Ron Gilbert will be the keynote speaker at PAX 2009, the gaming convention scheduled to take place at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center from September 4 to September 6. Here's the announcement, which includes word on some of the other festivities planned for the three-day extravaganza:

SEATTLE - June 29, 2009 - PAX 2009 organizers humbly announced today that industry legend Ron Gilbert will grace the stage as keynote speaker at the sixth annual gaming festival to be held Sept. 4-6 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

Legendary storyteller, game designer, programmer and producer Ron Gilbert has created countless classic video games, including the seminal LucasArts works Maniac Mansion and first two installments in the Monkey Island adventure series. His more than 20-year career in the games industry encompasses co-founding three game studios, creating the famous SCUMM scripting language and being inducted into the Computer Game Hall of Fame. He is currently creative director at independent development studio Hothead Games in Vancouver, Canada.

"This is an unbelievable moment for us," commented Penny Arcade's Robert Khoo. "I wasted an entire family vacation one year trying to figure out how to win that stupid spitting competition." Gilbert joins an illustrious group of past PAX keynote speakers, including noted geek icon Wil Wheaton and innovative game designer Ken Levine.

In addition to the highly anticipated keynote address, numerous panels and game demonstrations, Omegathon and The PAX 10 independent games showcase, PAX 2009 will offer attendees an unparalleled musical experience with performances from Freezepop, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, Anamanaguchi and Metroid Metal. As if all of this weren't enough, PAX organizers further confirmed that this year's Exhibition Hall is down to its final availability. Prospective exhibitors interested in securing these last coveted booth spaces can write to paxsales@paxsite.com for more information.