PyCon US 2022 Transparency Report

With a return to in-person events, PyCon US has taken care to maintain excellency in the safety of our events both through our Code of Conduct and our Health and Safety Guidelines. A key piece of the enforcement of these is the transparency of its outcomes. Below, you’ll find details on the reports that we received for Code of Conduct violations as well as self-reported cases of COVID-19.

Code of Conduct

PyCon US strives to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all attendees. Our Code of Conduct has been put in place as a guideline to ensure that community members feel safe during the event.

This year we continued our efforts to improve our Code of Conduct (CoC) response and reporting by offering staff, volunteers, and community members an opportunity to participate in a CoC training. In having more people trained, we established a more robust and diverse team to accept reports and respond to incidents both at in-person and online events.

We have prepared the following to help the community understand what kind of incident reports we received and how the staff responded during PyCon US 2022.
Summary of Reported Incidents

There were a total of 7 reports, all made via email. Note that all violations that occurred during the conference were reported via our Code of Conduct email address and thus, mask violations are also included here:

• 3 reports regarding the mask requirement where vendors, staff, or attendees were not following the guidelines.
• 1 report that a vendor's staff were not following the mask requirement in the session rooms.
• The vendor followed up with specific staff and required them to follow the guidelines or be sent home.
• 2 emails advised of a location where the mask requirement was not being followed. 
• Our staff went to that location to address the individuals
• 1 report of inappropriate social media direct message. The reporter asked that this not be a formal report but as an informational report should there be more.
• No action was taken
• 1 report of verbiage on an open space title that was inappropriate.
• Staff went to the open space board and removed the inappropriate card and replaced it with a shorter title version with a note as to why it was changed. The author of the card was not identified to follow-up.
• 2 reports of inappropriate comments during an event.
• 1 - Staff addressed the report with the presenter who made the comment. An apology email was sent to the reporter and a public apology was made by the presenter.
• 2 - Staff addressed the report with the presenter who made the comments. The necessity of more thoughtful approaches to addressing an international audience was made clear to the individual.

Health and Safety Guidelines

We took the health and safety of those who chose to attend PyCon US in-person very seriously. The mask requirement, vaccine verification process, and social-distance seating in all our event rooms were part of our efforts to provide a safe event. 

Our staff actively monitored our spaces and reminded attendees of the mask requirement. We made sure our meal setups were well-spaced and provided adequate seating for everyone to eat while seated.

Summary of Reported Cases

There were reports directly to our staff from 12 people that tested positive for COVID-19 either during or following the event. Our post-conference survey did ask the question of COVID-19 status, of 219 responses 16 responded they tested positive. It can not be determined if any of the 16 were also part of the 12 that contacted us directly. We are also unable to determine if the exposure occurred within the conference center space itself or external events, parties, and gatherings around the city. 

Thank you to all those who attended PyCon US 2022 and followed the guidelines put in place!