The PyCon US Blog

Startup Riot is a one-day conference taking place in Atlanta on Feb. 17. If you have an interest in business startups - and can pull yourself away from PyCon's first tutorial day - it might be a perfect opportunity to make a trip to Atlanta do double-duty. Startup Riot takes place at the Fabulous Fox Theatre, just down the street from PyCon. View Larger Map

Thanks to Doug Napoleone, PyCon's online schedule application is now online. Picking among all the amazing possibilities at PyCon is incredibly hard, but the online scheduler at least helps you keep track of what you've decided. If you get confused, scheduler help is here . You can (and should) also use the scheduler to volunteer as session staff ! Session staffing is an easy but important job that helps the conference runs smoothly, lets you meet the speakers you're most interested in, and gives you that open-sourcey pride of ownership in your PyCon.

As has been mentioned before , this year we're adding a poster session to PyCon. For 90 minutes on Sunday, Feb 21, 18 presenters will be answering questions and receiving input from PyCon attendees on posters covering a wide range of topics. Posters are suited to interactively presenting new ideas and more specialized projects, allowing people a chance to browse the whole range and to stop and spend more time on the ones they find interesting. If you want to start thinking about which posters you definitely don't want to miss, visit http://us.pycon.org/2010/conference/posters/accepted/ and start making your picks. As for me, my "don't miss" list is here , and covers Unicode, DVCS in the classroom, robots and more. Which ones will be on your "don't miss" list?

The END is NEAR!* (*the end of early bird registration for PyCon 2010.) Register now! Registration at the early bird rate is still good as long as it is January 6 somewhere in the world.

Early-bird registration discounts end TOMORROW (Wednesday, Jan. 6). Register now .

The early bird deadline for PyCon 2010 is January 6th. Have you registered yet? There are only a couple more days!

PyCon has arranged a special incentive for .NET programmers registering for PyCon. (Of course, all attendees are eligible for the promotion - but it will have a special interest for those in the .NET world.) Please pass the notice on to .NET programmers you know. We'd like to see new legions of .NET users introduced to the joys of IronPython! * * * * * .NET's Dynamic Language Runtime has brought new prominence to the role of .NET dynamic languages like IronPython, and many .NET programmers are looking for ways to get up-to-date on this growing aspect of the .NET environment. PyCon, the world's largest conference of Python and IronPython programmers, is an unparalleled learning opportunity. For $450 or less, attendees can spend an entire week learning from and working with Python and IronPython programmers from raw beginners to the creators of Python and IronPython themselves. This year, PyCon offers a bonus to .NET programmers - a free one-year subscription to CODE mag...

It seems that I missed Jesse Noller's contribution: jessenoller.com: PyCon 2010: Talks I want to see; Keynotes, registration open: I thought I’d share the talks I’m pretty jazzed about, as well as some other bits of PyCon-related news. First up – early bird registration is open – early bird reg nets you a decent discount on registration fees for PyCon, and will run until January 6th. Next – for those of you who didn’t see the news, Mark Shuttleworth will also be doing a Keynote at PyCon – this is awesome news. I think both keynotes, his and Antonio Rodriguez’ will be great. I don’t want to speak as to the content just yet – but with two high caliber entrepreneurs/founders, I’m dead sure it will be awesome. As for the talks I want to see – well, this is criminally difficult. I pretty much want to see almost every single invited talk we have (I’m especially excited about Alex’s, Jack’s, Joe’s and Ned’s talks. I think our invited speakers this year will be very, very popular. ...

The deadline for getting early-bird pricing at PyCon is coming up ( register by January 6! ), and people are starting to see just how great the schedule is for this year's PyCon. From around the web: PyOraGeek: PyCon pre-favorites : When I look over the PyCon 2010 talk list , I'd like to be at about half of them (a physical impossibility, until I master self-multiplexing). Still, these are the ones that I'll move heaven and earth to be at. What about you - what are your favorites? Click through for the whole list, but Catherine highlights (among others) Extending Java Applications with Jython ... IronPython Tooling ... Python in the Browser .... and others, and then ends with the magnificent: An Underwater Python: Tortuga the Python Powered Robot because, deep down inside, people everywhere are the same; we all want to be loved, and Python-powered robot submarines . Carl Trachte then weighs in: pyright: PyCon pre-favorites, the Carl T. edition : These are my picks (not ...

A quick reminder that the deadline for submitting a financial aid application for PyCon 2010 is today! Please see http://us.pycon.org/2010/registration/financial-aid/ for details & instructions.

The PyCon 2010 organizing committee has decided to extend the deadline for financial aid applications to December 22, 2009. If you or anyone you know is interested in attending but cannot afford it, we may be able to help. There are two financial aid funds available: the PSF Grant and the Financial Assistance Grant for Women. PSF Grant The PSF Grant is open to anyone and can help cover: • registration for PyCon • hotel room at the conference hotel • flight or other transportation Financial Assistance Grant for Women The Financial Assistance Grant for Women is geared specifically toward helping women who are interested in using Python in their research, school work, careers or other avenues. It includes help with: registration for PyCon tutorials at PyCon hotel room at the conference hotel flight or other transportation Please see http://us.pycon.org/2010/registration/financial-aid/ for details & instructions. The deadline for applications is December 22, 2009.

World's Largest Python Conference Comes to Atlanta ATLANTA - December 18, 2009 The Django Pony made her sparkly public debut. The infamous Beards of PyCon were captured on film. Guido van Rossum announced the beginning of his gradual retirement as Python's Benevolent Dictator for life - then kidnapped the Django Pony. Backseat language drivers were threatened with the terribl(y silly) fate of being Van Lindberg'd. PyCon 2009 drew nearly a thousand Python programmers from around the world, representing projects on all seven continents - including Antarctica! They gathered for serious learning, discussion, and strategizing... and for not-so-serious fun. PyCon 2010, the eighth annual conference of the Python programming community, promises even more on all counts: more talks, more education, more creativity; more work and more play. Interest in PyCon is growing along with the use of the Python language itself. This year alone has seen a 50% increase in the number of talk propo...

Financial aid for PyCon 2010 has just gotten even better. Because of some very generous donations from the community, we are adding a second grant fund called the Financial Assistance Grant for Women. This fund is geared specifically toward helping women who are interested in using Python in their research, school work, careers or other avenues. It includes help with: registration tutorials lodging transportation The existing Python Software Foundation Grant will continue to be funded at the same level and can provide assistance for: registration lodging transportation Please see http://us.pycon.org/2010/registration/financial-aid/ for details & instructions. The deadline for applications is December 18, 2009.

As the financial aid coordinator for PyCon 2010, I'm pleased to announce that the Python Software Foundation has created a fund to help people attend PyCon 2010. If you're interested in attending but cannot afford it, we may be able to help. Financial aid can help cover: • Your registration for PyCon • Your hotel room at the conference hotel • Your flight or other transportation Please see http://us.pycon.org/2010/registration/financial-aid/ for details & instructions. The deadline for applications is December 18, 2009.

Registration for PyCon 2010 is open! You should register for PyCon 2010 here (and don't forget to make your hotel reservations here ). We are doing a number of things this year to make this the biggest and best PyCon ever. To start with, there is more PyCon to love. We will be having five separate tracks of talks, covering everything from Python in space to Python on Wall Street . There should be something for everyone. Interested in Java? You can see how to extend Java applications with Jython or how the military is using Jython to model real-world battlefield scenarios . Interested in .NET? You can learn about what Microsoft is doing to support IronPython in their tools or how to use Silverlight to run applications in your browser . Are you a scientist or do you need to crunch big data? Python is being used to crunch data from telescopes and for natural language processing with Hadoop . You can also brush up on algorithmic optimization , agent-based modeling of systems , and...

PyCon registration has opened! Registering early gets you early-bird registration rates, guarantees you the tutorials you want ( here's the tutorial schedule ), and helps the PyCon volunteers plan better. We'll see you in Atlanta! Spread the word!

The deadline for PyCon poster proposals is coming up soon - November 30! Poster Sessions are a new PyCon feature for 2010. Poster sessions provide an alternative presentation mechanism that facilitates more one-on-one communication between the presenter and the audience. Poster sessions are particularly suited for topics of interest to a subset of the community, and we anticipate these sessions will provide an "incubator" for further discussions. More information about the what, how, when, and why of poster sessions is at http://us.pycon.org/2010/conference/posters/cfp/ .

Last week I met Van (PyCon Chair) and Ewa (PyCon Coordination Angel) in Atlanta to get more familiar with the Hyatt Regency floor plan and the sponsor coordination issues that I am responsible for this year.  While I was there I got to participate in some behind the scenes meetings.  I will blog about these issues in the following weeks. I will start with one of the really fun tasks - meeting the Hyatt Sous Chef ,who will be working on PyCon with us, and sampling the various choices for salads, entrees and desserts. I remember the 'good ol days' when we ate box lunches in DC that consisted of ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, apple and a cookie.  So, I am still blown away while sitting down to plan a nice catered lunch menu.  WOW!  1000 Python developers dining together in a huge banquet room.  It is amazing how far PyCon has come - and I hope PyCon attendees appreciate how well they are treated for their registration investment - and the effort by t...

The PyCon program committee has announced an unprecedented program of 95 talks for PyCon 2010. Talk abstracts can be browsed at http://us.pycon.org/2010/conference/talks/ . With a record-breaking pool of submissions to choose from, the committee has assembled a program of enormous variety and quality, representing topics across the whole range of Python programming. Talks cover not just Python's traditional CPython implementation, but newer Python implementations on a variety of platforms, including Java, .NET, Parrot, and Python itself. As always, scheduled talks are only the tip of the PyCon iceberg, which also includes tutorials, Open Spaces, keynotes, Lightning Talks, poster sessions, development sprints, hands-on lab, exhibit hall, and no end of unscheduled discussion and fun. PyCon 2010 takes place Feb. 17-25 in Atlanta, GA; see us.pycon.org .

RuPy is the strongly dynamic conference concerning mostly Ruby and Python programming languages (7 & 8 November, in Poznan, Poland). Registration has been open for some time, and now we have also completed the agenda . There will be a load of talks and many stars of the geek world will come to talk about their experiences. After the first day of talks, we invite all attendees to join the Geek Party on Saturday night, where one can discuss Ruby and Python-related issues while holding a glass of cold beer. The list of speakers and talks include: Michael Dirolf - "An Introduction to MongoDB" Obie Fernandez - "Rapid Application development with Rails and MongoDB" David Goodger - Community-oriented talk Charles Oliver Nutter - "JRuby: Pushing the Boundaries" Paolo Negri - "RabbitMQ" Tarek Ziade - "The Python Packaging Ecosystem" Scott Chacon - "Mastering Git" Check out the complete list of speakers at http://rupy.eu/speakers/ ...