The PyCon US Blog

On behalf of the PyCon Program Committee, I'm thrilled to announce the list of talks for PyCon 2012 ! It's an amazing program that's a true testament to Python's reach: we'll have talks covering embedded programming, REST APIs, GIS, cloud computing, web development, relational and non-relational databases, design, 3d printers, testing, debugging, high performance, scientific computing, and more. The unifying theme? Python makes it all possible. As you may already know, this was a very hard decision process: we had roughly 380 submissions for only 95 slots on the program. Further, the quality of submissions was very high; the committee debated each and every talk very closely. I want to sincerely thank everyone who submitted a talk: the quality of PyCon comes from our speakers, and this year you all blew it out of the water. Over the next few weeks we'll finish up and publish the conference schedule, so stay tuned. Remember: Early-bird registration closes January...

Last Friday I posted a guide for the PyCon 2012 financial aid program . Yesterday I got some good news: the deadline for applications has been extended from January 2, 2012 to January 7, 2012. The date for award notices remains the same at January 10, 2012. For more information on PyCon's Financial Aid committee and their offerings, see https://us.pycon.org/2012/assistance .

Each year the PyCon Financial Aid committee sets out to make getting to and attending the conference more affordable for those who need assistance. Whether you've got a flight halfway across the world or live down the street and have to pay out of your own pocket, PyCon thrives on the diversity of the attendees and the organizers hope make the conference possible for those who want to come. Applications for financial aid are due by January 2, 2012 January 7, 2012. New for this year's financial aid application process is an online form rather than the persuasive letter format of past years. As with any application, it starts with your name and contact info. What follows are a series of questions to figure out which conference-related expenses you'll need aid with. Rationale Here's where you sell your case for who you are and why you would benefit from assistance. Tell us where you're coming from and what you're up to. If you're unemployed, say so. If...

I'm going to take a moment to admit something - chairing PyCon 2012 is close to a full-time job. You're working constantly - negotiating, planning, thinking about ways to make the conference better than it has been in the past. There are some less-fun parts, too: legal negotiations, making hard decisions - all the things you might think come along with trying to manage a volunteer run, community-driven conference. My family and coworkers are most probably tired of hearing me talk about everything going on that's going on to make this PyCon the biggest and best yet. That said, being chair has its special moments. Even before PyCon opens in March, I get the privilege to work with an amazing community of volunteers and to act as a representative for the Python community as a whole. I get the privilege to hear about all sorts of wonderful, new places where Python is popping up. I get to have conversations with people and sponsors all over the world and to hear how Python is he...

The PyCon organizers have announced the opening of early bird registration and financial aid application for PyCon 2012. As with 2011, the conference rates are being kept the same across the board, with individual and corporate tickets selling at the early-bird rate of $300 and $450 USD respectively. Students are welcomed to purchase tickets at the reduced rate of $200. With a cap of 1500 attendees and many records already broken, taking advantage of early-bird rates will ensure you get in and at a great price. These early bird rates are valid until January 10, 2012. Also staying in line with 2011 is the tutorial rate of $150 per session, an unparalleled value which includes one three-hour class as well as lunch and break refreshments. With a total of four sessions over the two days, March 7 and 8, 2012, we’ve already heard around the web that there are “too many awesome tutorials being offered,” so you’ll need to choose wisely. The schedule includes a sampling of veterans and ne...

The tutorials team is pleased to announce that the PyCon 2012 tutorials have officially been selected and announced . The tutorials will be presented on the two days prior to the main conference - March 7th and 8th. Each year we struggle to find the best selection of tutorials that will benefit the wider Python community. We only have a few slots, so we want to find tutorials that hit the sweet spot - excellent instructors, timely material, and broad interest. Making the selection was especially difficult this year due to the amazing array of tutorials proposed - and we are grateful for each person who submitted a proposal, even those we regrettably couldn't accept. Each tutorial was reviewed by a panel of independent reviewers, followed by ten to fifteen hours of meetings where we discussed every proposal and made the hard choices of which tutorials we thought would best serve PyCon and the attendees. It was worth it, though; this year's tutorials present an astounding array ...