The PyCon conference prides itself on being affordable. However, registration is only one of several expenses an attendee must incur, and it’s likely the smallest one. Flying, whether halfway around the world or from a few hundred miles away, is more expensive. Staying in a hotel for a few days is also more expensive. All together, the cost of attending a conference can become prohibitively expensive. That’s where PyCon's Financial Aid program comes in. We’re opening applications for Financial Aid today, and we’ll be accepting them through February 12, 2019.
To apply, first set up an account on the site, and then you will be able to fill out the application here or through your dashboard.
For those proposing talks, tutorials, or posters, selecting the “I require a speaker grant if my proposal is accepted” box on your speaker profile serves as your request, so you do not need to fill out the financial aid application. Upon acceptance, we’ll contact the speakers who checked that box to gather the appropriate information. Accepted speakers and presenters are prioritized for travel grants. Additionally, we do not expose grant requests to reviewers while evaluating proposals. The Program Committee evaluates proposals on the basis of their presentation, and later the Financial Aid team comes in and looks at how we can help our speakers.
We offer need-based grants to enable people from across our community to attend PyCon. The criteria for evaluating requests takes into account several things, such as whether the applicant is a student, unemployed, or underemployed; their geographic location; and their involvement in both the conference and the greater Python community.
Our process aims to help a large amount of people with partial grants, as opposed to covering full expenses for a small amount of people. Based on individual need, we craft grant amounts that we hope can turn PyCon from inaccessible to reality. While some direct costs—like those associated with PyCon itself—are discounted or waived, external costs such as travel are handled via reimbursement, where the attendee pays and then submits receipts to be paid back an amount based on their grant. For the full details, see our FAQ at https://us.pycon.org/2019/financial-assistance/faq/ and contact pycon-aid@python.org with further questions.
The Python Software Foundation & PyLadies make Financial Aid possible. This year the Python Software Foundation is providing $110,000 USD towards financial aid and PyLadies will contribute as much as they can based on the contributions they get throughout 2018.
Our Call for Proposals is open! Tutorial presentations are due November 26, while talk, poster, and education summit proposals are due January 3. For more information, see https://us.pycon.org/2019/speaking/.
*Note: Main content is from post written by Brian Curtin for 2018 launch
*Note: Main content is from post written by Brian Curtin for 2018 launch
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