The PyCon US Blog

This is a guest post by Sancho Panza about his experiences at his first PyCon... Pycon... My visions of the Promised Land… I was fortunate enough to go to PyCon 2012 in Santa Clara and I cannot be more serious when I say that it was a life changing experience. I got there in time of the tutorials and was so excited that I arrived an hour early, but that didn't matter because I WAS AT PYCON!!! The tutorials were crash courses that took me from zero to hero in a few very fully packed hours of both lecture and lab work. My brain was on overload and smoked after the 2 days of classes… and I had not even hit the opening event. As a first timer to PyCon, this was when the fear and uncertainty set in.."How am I going to take all of this home with me if my brain can't reset?" The opening of PyCon was, not overstating this, an event that enthralled the mind and ensnared the senses. The atmosphere was electrified with some of the brightest minds on the cutting edge of the

Guest Post By Rupa Dachere - Founder, Chapter Lead - Bay Area, Software Developer - CodeChix.org I didn’t know about PyCon until a friend of mine mentioned it to me about a month before PyCon 2012.  At the time, I was job-hunting and figured, why not go since it’s a language I’ve dabbled with briefly and it might be interesting to see what’s going on with it.  Also, it would be a good opportunity to see if  CodeChix -Bay Area could be involved in some way. I think it was one of the best decisions I made.  I asked for and received financial aid to attend and volunteered for bag stuffing - this involved an assembly line of several layers of sorting of stickers (about 8 different kinds), stuffing bags and carrying full bags to various bins for distribution.  There were all kinds of people helping out - organizers, geeks, programmers, artists etc.  We finished stuffing almost 2500 bags in record time (I don’t remember the time) and were rewarded with Pizza, Beer and hobnob-time. I atten

Along with PyCon's cadre of veteran speakers, we always need new ones. In fact, PyCon thrives on new speakers. They provide fresh perspectives, bring up new and interesting topics, and they can pass on their speaking experience to a new generation of conference speakers. We thought a good way to help that new generation would be to release some sample proposals. The first proposal is about SpacePug , a project about a space program that launches pugs into orbit. We think it's a good proposal, but it has some faults. After laying out the proposal using the same sections you'd need to fill out in a real proposal, we include a review and summary outlining areas that need some work. Like we said, the proposal isn't perfect, and it might not be the best format for every topic. Some topics are better served by proposals with in-depth outlines, while some work well with SuperPug's paragraph style. If you check out SuperPug, it even includes a small supplementary o

Ever thought about speaking? Want to give speaking at PyCon a shot, but not sure what to talk about? Even if you have a tiny inkling that you'd want to speak, beginner level or advanced, come to our workshop to get help brainstorming ideas & learn what makes a good proposal! Join the PyLadies hangout , open to PyLadies and PyLaddies , with help from PyLadies' leaders, previous years PyCon speakers & current Program Committee members (e.g. the folks that review proposals) to ideate, write, and submit your proposal to speak, give a tutorial, or a poster session at PyCon 2013. Space is limited by the Google Hangout technology. An invite link will be sent out about 15 minutes prior to the start time. For those in the Bay Area, be sure to check out the PyLadies San Francisco meetup, Workshop: Talk Proposal Writing for PyCon , on Tuesday, August 28th. MORE RESOURCES! Click for more information in regards to speaking at PyCon. Collection of suggested ideas from the

We're almost inside of one month until PyCon 2013 tutorial and talk proposals are due. Even this guy fully dressed in a pool with his laptop is ready to submit. Are you? Check out our Speak at PyCon page as well as the official Call for Proposals ! September 28, 2012 is the deadline to mark in your calendars.

PyCon is a conference for the community. You're the audience. You're the speakers. You're the ones watching the videos. Now is your chance to speak up and let us know what you want to see. There are 37 days left to submit proposals for PyCon 2013 , so if you have a topic you want to hear about, let us know! We'll share the ideas with everyone and see if we can find speakers for everything and make this the best conference schedule yet. Some people have already started coming up with topic lists on their blogs. Daniel Greenfield put up a great post yesterday, with interest in seeing how Python is used in space exploration and research. Ned Batchelder started a thread this morning on Reddit to gauge interest in talks people want to see. He's interested in Stompy from Project Hexapod, the giant Python-powered robot. What are you interested in? Tweet us your ideas to @pycon or use the #pycon hashtag and we'll pull everything together. If you make a blo

We at PyCon India , have been busy with our preparations for the event which is scheduled on Sep 28-30 at Bangalore, India. Here are some updates on our activities at PyCon India. The PyCon India poster is up for printing/download. Please spread the word and link to it from your websites. The Call For Proposals (CFP) is ending on August 25th . We have received 53 talk/tutorial proposals so far. Regular registration deadline has been extended to August 31st . Register early to save money! With a great selection of talks, two keynote speakers and tremendous sponsor support, we are looking forward to having 3 amazing days of fun and learning here at PyCon India. Join in the celebrations ! 

Boston Python user group organizer and Systers Pass-It-On recipient Jessica McKellar teaching beginning Python programmers at the Boston Python Workshop Twice a year, the Anita Borg Institute issues $500.00 to $1000.00 USD grants to women in technology through its Systers Pass-It-On program . The awards go to technical outreach programs for women as well as individual women pursuing a career in a technology field. The program is called “Pass-It-On” because it comes with the moral obligation to “pass on” the benefits gained from the award. In the context of PyCon and the greater Python community, this grant would be a great fit for women who: Need financial assistance to attend an upcoming PyCon (including: PyCon US , PyCon Venezuela , PyCon Ukraine , PyCon Ireland , PyCon Finland , PyCon DE , the first ever PyCon Canada , pythonbrasil , and PyCon Argentina ...whew) want to do women-focused outreach in the Python community (need encouragement, resources, volunteers? Say h

A common theme - as you can see from the tagline on the  PyCon 2013 website  - that's running through everything we plan for PyCon 2013 is "Change the Future". It is our goal for PyCon 2013 to not only be the largest Python conference in history (2500 attendee hard cap ) but to also use it to help nudge Python and the community towards the future. In my eyes, this means talks on everything from Python 3, hacking with Python (on say - a  Raspberry Pi ), discussing Outreach and community growth, deep dive technical talks to expand your mind as well as gentle introductions for those new to Python who come to the conference. In that thread - we've already announced a new workshop/tutorial for kids - " The Young Coder: Let's Learn Python ". We've started planning the  Python Education Summit . We're examining the financial aid budget and working to expand it, and coordinate with all the outreach groups we can to further grow it. Also - you should b

Since we opened our doors on July 9th, proposals for the 2013 edition of PyCon have been rolling in. Through September 28 we'll be accepting proposals for tutorial, talk, and poster presentations, to be given March 13-17, 2013 in Santa Clara, California. If you're interested in presenting, check out our Call for Proposals and create your speaker profile today! Once there, we allow you to submit as many proposals in as many areas as you choose. For conference talks, we have a limit of two accepted proposals per person, but that doesn't mean you can't submit your five best ideas. Are you interested in presenting but don't know what to speak about? We heard from the community and got some talk ideas , tutorial ideas , and info on posters . Although the posts are from last year, the info is still very much the same. Submit your proposal today !