The PyCon US Blog

As we're ramping up preparations for an in-person PyCon US 2022 in Salt Lake City, the PyCon US organization wants to take a moment to talk about the decisions we made, the precautions we are taking, and what we are expecting from attendees to have a safe event. The main decision we've taken is to hold an in-person event, with significant measures to protect health and safety. We understand that there are tradeoffs to each part of the decision we've made, and that each person's decision of whether and how to participate is an individual one. Overall, given the current circumstances, we believe that we can hold a safe, valuable, and enjoyable PyCon US that benefits the community. Preparations for PyCon US Organizing a large event like PyCon US takes many years of planning and preparation. Host city selection usually starts three years before the event, with a thorough evaluation of potential sites, combined with our best estimates for conference size and needs. Salt Lake

With the in person cancellation of PyCon US 2020, the PyLadies Auction as we know, could not possibly have happened. Upon further investigation, we are deeply sad to announce we have decided to forgo the PyLadies Auction in its entirety for 2020. This decision has been a difficult one. We began the PyLadies Auction at  PyCon US 2013 in Santa Clara and have held it annually since. To not be able to celebrate PyLadies in our annual tradition together is a deep loss. 2019 PyLadies Auction Why isn't the PyLadies Auction going virtual? We considered running a virtual auction. However the mechanisms required to run a virtual auction have proven to be limited and not up to the quality that we expect for the PyLadies Auction. Additionally, we did not want to ask donors, or volunteers to violate social distancing practices by visiting a post office or other location for item shipments. In short, we want people to continue to flatten the curve by staying home and tending to themselves and th

What’s so awesome about PyCon’s Open Spaces? Open Spaces are spontaneous, grassroots, and attendee focused. While most of the conference is scheduled months ahead of time, Open Spaces are created on-site by the participants themselves! They offer groups the ability to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize in a way that often doesn’t happen anywhere else at PyCon. Open Spaces are little one-hour meetups during the three main conference days, held in free meeting rooms that PyCon provides at the convention center. Some people reserve spaces to talk about a favorite technology, whether web frameworks, neural nets, or natural language processing. Academics and scientists plan spaces around topics like astronomy, data science, and weather forecasting. Other attendees schedule actual activities during open spaces like yoga, nail painting, and board games! Any topic that two or more attendees are interested in, or an activity that more than two people would like to do, is a great

Some people love the stuff that goes on before PyCon, and with good reason. The tutorials are probably the best tech training value around, the language summit and education summit (my baby!) are amazing chances to connect with the movers and shakers, and the young coder sessions are exploding with energy and learning. So if you find yourself showing up at PyCon earlier and earlier each year, who could blame you? But as cool as the pre-conference stuff is, we all know the main conference is even better. So many quality talks that everyone wants to be in at least two places at once the entire time, the keynotes, the lightning talks, the expo hall, the posters, not to mention the open spaces, hallway track, parties, dinners, and lunches. It just goes on and on. So it's no wonder that by the time Sunday afternoon rolls around everyone is a bit overloaded. People start filtering out, to catch planes, drive home, etc., and by Sunday evening things are definitely much sparser, and on M

As PyCon 2015 gets underway with a fresh new website and a recently opened Call for Proposals , the conference organizers, led by chair Diana Clarke and co-chair Mathieu Leduc-Hamel, would like to welcome Brandon Rhodes  to the team as co-chair . Brandon has been a prolific speaker in the Python community, covering a wide array of topics in the talks he's given at PyCon US since 2008, each PyOhio since 2011, PyCon Poland, Code Mash, DjangoCon Europe, and both PyCon Canadas, as well as the presentations he's given to user groups. Along with speaking, he's volunteered in several capacities, including assisting with the A/V crew. He's also authored the second edition of Foundations of Python Network Programming, and has written a host of helpful blog posts and some quite complete Stack Overflow answers. Overall, he's a very active and helpful member of the Python community. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brandon at the PyCon 2011 sprints in Atlanta to wa

At PyCon US 2013, it was brought to our attention by an attendee that we scheduled PyCon US in conflict with Passover in both 2014 and 2015. Obviously, this kind of scheduling error is a major failure on our part, but our response to the incident was mishandled, and we'd like to fix that now, in full view of our community. Here's what happened: Planning an event as large as PyCon requires a lot of lead time. In 2012, Python Montréal (in conjunction with Tourisme-Montréal) proposed a series of dates that were available for the conference in 2014 and 15. Nobody involved in the planning phase was mindful of the major Jewish holidays. We failed to note the conflict, and proceeded to sign multiple binding contracts for those dates, each specifying stiff financial penalties for moving or breaking the engagement. When the date conflict was brought to our attention, we frantically reached out to our contacts to see if there was any way to move the conference dates. There were n

tl;dr:  PyCon Australia early bird registrations are now open! Find out more at  http://2013.pycon-au.org/register/prices , including details of our accommodation programme. PyCon Australia is excited to announce that  early bird conference registrations are now available  for our 2013 conference, to be held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 6 July in Hobart, Tasmania. Early bird registration will be extended to the first 80 confirmed conference registrations, or until Friday 3 May, whichever comes first. PyCon Australia is the national conference for students, enthusiasts and professionals working with the Python programming language; it represents a unique opportunity for Python developers to meet fellow developers, and gain knowledge from experts and core Python developers from around Australia and the world. Securing your registration during the early bird period ensures your place at all of the events that PyCon Australia has to offer. Early bird registration comes with a substantial di

As of yesterday, PyCon's Code of Conduct is now available on GitHub at  https://github.com/python/pycon-code-of-conduct ! Even though the 2013 conference has passed and the code has gone unchanged, we invite you to contribute to the future of the code. As we start our efforts on PyCon 2014, taking place in Montreal, putting the code on GitHub has already resulted in many comments and several adjustments. These changes benefit not only PyCon 2014, but the many conferences who use our document for their events.

On Sunday March 17th an incident occurred involving some inappropriate comments made during a crowded plenary session. Per the stated guidelines for  attendees  and  staff  the issue was reported to the PyCon 2013 staff and resolved privately. Both parties were met with, in private. The comments that were made were in poor taste, and individuals involved agreed, apologized and no further actions were taken by the staff of PyCon 2013. No individuals were removed from the conference, no sanctions were levied. PyCon values the privacy of all attendees above everything. Except in cases wherein law enforcement must or could be involved, all reports and actions taken are kept confidential by PyCon staff. If anyone has additional questions or concerns about this event or these sanctions, please contact Jesse Noller at <jnoller@python.org>.

PyCon Australia 2013 is pleased to announce that its Call for Proposals is now open! The conference this year will be held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 July 2013 in Hobart, Tasmania. We'll also be featuring a day of miniconfs on Friday 5 July. The deadline for proposal submission is Friday April 5, 2013, and more information can be found at  http://pycon-au.org/cfp PyCon Australia attracts professional developers from all walks of life, including industry, government, and science, as well as enthusiast and student developers. We’re looking for proposals for presentations and tutorials on any aspect of Python programming, at all skill levels from novice to advanced. Presentation subjects may range from reports on open source, academic or commercial projects; or even tutorials and case studies. If a presentation is interesting and useful to the Python community, it will be considered for inclusion in the program. We're especially interested in short presentations that will

PyCon US 2013 is just 19 days away  - scary! It feels like only yesterday we were in Santa Clara with 2300+ other Python Hackers from all over the world! Just a few announcements: PyData Registration still open We want to make sure everyone knows that PyData , which is happening during our sprints, is still open for registration. PyData is an excellent event that lets users and developers of Python tools share ideas and learn from each other how data challenges are being solved. See the PyData talk and tutorial schedule and register for the conference at pydata.org. Follow them on Twitter @pydataconf . Tutorial Registration still open That's right! Our main conference may be sold out - but the  stunning line up of tutorials  we have from seasoned instructor are far from full! You can still join us an expand your mind with this awesome lineup -  register now . Young Coders Tutorial still open Somehow, we haven't run out of tickets for " The Young Coder: Let'

PyLadies Lunch @ PyCon This year, there is such an amazing line up of talks, tutorials, events, and sponsors that we're sure you don't have enough planned. PyLadies have organized to host a lunch for women attending the conference who love Python, or who want to learn more about Python or PyLadies. What's this all about? PyLadies is a mentorship group for women in the Python community. Come join us for an opportunity to chat with your fellow female Pythonistas while taking a break from the jam-packed PyCon schedule. Who : Women who love coding in Python When : Saturday, March 16th, 12:30pm - 1:30pm Where : Second floor, Rooms 209/210 We invite any woman conference-goer to lunch at an informal, friendly meet & greet to form connections, and share Python programming stories. RSVP! Be sure to reserve your spot as space is limited! If you have any questions, feel free to contact Lynn Root .

Young Coder Registration Now Available! Back in July, we announced The Young Coder: Let's Learn Python tutorial. We've received an overwhelming response of excitement and interest. Registration is now open! About the Tutorial This free tutorial will explore how to program using Python by making games. The workshop will start with learning Python's simple data types, including numbers, letters and strings, and lists. We will also explore comparisons, if-statements, and loops. Finally, we will combined our new knowledge by creating our own game using the PyGame library. Timing The one-day workshop is being hosted on Wednesday, March 13th and Thursday, March 14th. Originally, one day was planned, but added a second day to accommodate demand. Which day should you choose? Wednesday's tutorial is for 12 year olds - 15 year olds. Thursday's tutorial is for 15 year olds - 18 year olds(ish). What is the day schedule? 9:00am - 1:00pm: Introduction + P

Oh, its getting closer - 48 days until PyCon US 2013 kicks off - you have  registered , right? One of the joys I get helping the foundation put together PyCon US is being able to tap the talents of amazing people - one of those is  Idan Gazit , who designed the non-web  artwork for PyCon 2012 , and has once again done it for PyCon 2013. Each of his designs has been unique, but I have to say, 2013's design really takes the cake:   This piece just makes me happy on so many levels - it's retro and futuristic at the same time - it incorporates the theme ("Change the Future") and hints and the surprises we have in store for the conference. It's beautiful in its simplicity. This artwork will be featured in the mobile application we will once again have, the print program and the t-shirts. Note, that t-shirts are an additional cost / checkbox when registering for PyCon 2013 - we've focused majority of the funds this year to some special projects - Financial Aid

Just a heads up - PyCon US 2013 Financial Aid emails have been sent out! Just be sure to check your spam folder; for some reason GMail chose to mark them as phishing/spam. If you're unsure; email pycon-aid@python.org!

PyCon Australia is the national conference for users of the Python Programming Language. On  5–7  July 2013, we're returning to Hobart, Tasmania, bringing together students, enthusiasts, and professionals with a love of Python from around Australia, and from all over the World. Once again, we'll have a weekend packed full of amazing content on all aspects of the Python ecosystem, presented by experts and core developers of the tools and frameworks you use every day. We're excited about the return of Friday Night CodeWars, and of course, we've got the usual conference dinner, as well as two days of developer sprints following the conference proceedings. We can't wait to share more about the conference in the coming months. Until then, subscribe to our  announcement list ,  follow us on twitter , or  add yourself to our Lanyrd page . Now with three days of talks! In 2013, before the main event kicks off, we're welcoming two new mini-conferences on the Friday

You should present a poster at PyCon. Why? Why not is more like it! I presented a poster at PyCon for the first time last year, and it was a fantastic experience. Let me tell you why. I have presented posters many times in the past at several conferences. Those poster sessions are usually the same ole' same ole'; you hang up your poster, maybe you are required to be there during a certain time period, maybe not. If you are required to be there at the poster, you might have a few people stop by and chat you up. You take down the poster, that's it. Not a whole lot to be gained, really. Well, PyCon is much, much different. Sure, you put up the poster, are required to be there for an hour and a half, and you take down the poster. What's different is what actually happens during that hour and a half you are at your poster. You actually talk to people, probably a lot of people. I'd say I probably personally talked to a couple dozen people last year during the poste

The train, it keeps on going - the  PyCon Countdown  shows us officially under 70 days until PyCon 2013 in Santa Clara! We're pleased to announce that in addition to all the other great things going on - we've added an opening reception in the sponsor expo hall on Thursday March 14th in the evening, courtesy of our amazing list of  PyCon Sponsors . Everyone is invited to attend, free of charge of course! We will have appetizers, socializing - the expo hall will be open (it opens at 6:00pm Thursday) and it will be a great way of kicking off PyCon 2013 in style. Oh. Did I mention everyone who is attending the conference gets two free drink tickets? I guess I just did! Come, join us on the evening of the 14th, meet up with all the other attendees and sponsors before PyCon proper really gets into full motion. If you're a sponsor, and you're interested in helping sponsor this event -  get in touch with us ! We've already got one sponsor helping us host the event, and

How time flies. It seems like only yesterday I was announcing that PyCon 2012 was getting close - well, PyCon 2013 is less than three months away  - that's right, March is coming! We've once again packed the house with an amazing selection of  talks ,  tutorials  - sponsor workshops are coming, and so much more. We've also gotten an amazing  amount of sponsors and supporters  for the conference - so much in fact that we're looking at once again filling the expo hall which we actually expanded  this year! That's why I'm announcing that this is the last week (you have until this time, next Wednesday the 9th) for new sponsors to sign up to support PyCon and still get expo hall booths - we may still have room for the jobs fair running Sunday, but after next wednesday booths for the  expo hall  (thursday evening through saturday) will be removed from the prospectus.  As always, we will negotiate packages without booths after this cutoff with all companies wanting

For the past two years, one of our most successful and impressive experiments has been the creation of "Startup Row", where we let Python powered startups apply for free booth space, registrations and coverage. Like all things, this has only gotten better and more impressive with time. We knew that a lot of startups used Python, but we were astounded and excited to see the number and quality of new companies that were eager to participate at PyCon and show off what they were doing. At PyCon itself, we've continually got a lot of comments from attendees that Startup Row was their favorite part of the Expo Hall. From meeting and talking with the founders of so many great companies, it was obvious that they would go far. Last year alone, we heard from several Startup Row participants that they were even approached by potential investors  - that's right, we had Angel Investors and "big boy" VCs at the conference, and the conversations that they had with the pa