Tutorials filling up -- One full already

The tutorials for PyCon 2008 are filling up quickly. We have ten rooms set aside for tutorials: five quite large (capacity 50), one medium-plus (capacity 24), two medium (capacity 20), and two small (capacity 14). We had no idea which tutorials would be the most popular, so we're using attendance numbers to assign the rooms. Greg Lindstrom (the tutorial coordinator) and I are watching the attendance numbers carefully.

Yesterday we had to close the first tutorial as full: PM6, Faster Python Programs through Optimization and Extensions I, to be presented by Mike Müller. It's not the tutorial with the highest attendance, but we have no choice now but to put it in one of the medium-sized rooms, with a practical limit of about 20 people. There are six afternoon tutorials with larger attendance, which get the five large rooms and the one medium-plus room (and there's a battle going on there). These aren't full yet, but full enough to dictate the room assignment for PM6.

With a large number of tutorial proposals and a huge demand for more tutorials in past years, we tried something new this year: three sessions on Tutorial Day (Thursday March 13) -- morning, afternoon, and evening. We had no idea if people would go for three sessions, or whether people would get tired and one session would suffer. I'm happy to say that all three sessions are about equally attended, and about two thirds of attendees are signing up for three tutorials. That's a lot of learning packed into one day!

We'll probably have to close more tutorials as they fill up over the next few days.

Tutorials are first come, first served. So if you're interested in taking tutorials, don't delay, register today! And don't forget, early-bird registration ends on Wednesday.