The PyCon US Blog

I am very pleased to announce the second (and final) PyCon 2012 Keynote speaker - Stormy Peters . Stormy is the Head of Developer Engagement at Mozilla . She is also an advisor for HFOSS , IntraHealth Open and Open Source for America , as well as founder and president of Kids on Computers , a nonprofit organization setting up computer labs in developing countries. Stormy joined Mozilla from the GNOME Foundation where she served as executive director. Previously, she worked at OpenLogic where she set up their OpenLogic Expert Community as well as founding the Hewlett-Packard Open Source Program Office. Stormy graduated from Rice University with a B.A. in Computer Science. She is passionate about open source software and educates companies and communities on how open source software is changing the software industry. She is a compelling speaker who engages her audiences during and after her presentations - and has spoken at OSCON, GUADEC and other conferences. Her talk " Would ...

The PyCon team is honored and proud to announce a new  Diamond Sponsor for the conference and also that the record-breaking  call for proposals has closed. We are very proud to announce that  Heroku — a premiere Platform as a Service provider — has joined PyCon as our final Diamond level sponsor. Heroku joins Google and Dropbox as the premier sponsors of PyCon 2012. Heroku recently announced first-class Python support on their platform;  their blog post announcing this support shows that they care about Python and have a long term dedication to the language and its community. We thank and welcome Heroku, and we look forward to their involvement in PyCon and the Python community. Just as amazing as a new Diamond sponsor is the fact the PyCon 2012 Call For Proposals is now closed. Speaking as a team, we can say: “This. Is. Amazing.” We broke all records on the number of talks (374 as of this writing) and tutorials (89) submitted. Further, the quality, breadth, and depth of those...

What a conference. 200 Pythonistas met for the better part of the last week in Leipzig. We started out with a tutorial day. More than 80 people took advantage of the opportunity to attend 13 tutorials covering diverse topics including algorithms, database programming, web frameworks, scientific data analysis and Python introduction. In parallel to the tutorials we had a barcamp with about 30 people that discussed different topics and had lightning talks. Topics included web frameworks and SQL/NoSQL compassions. The core conference had three parallel tracks with 30-minute and 60-minute slots. Our rather rigorous time management worked out: all presenters stayed within their allocated slots. It is a German conference after all. ;) Over three days we had 55 talks. The topics covered a wide range. Web development and scientific applications were the two largest themes but many other topics such as teaching Python, migration to Python 3 or Python compiler were covered. All talks are on vide...

We're pretty lenient around here and don't mind if you start your work the night before, unlike some of our teachers in college. In fact, we don't even mind if you turn in incomplete work by the deadline, as long as you work with us to fill in your details. If it's October 12 somewhere in this world, we'll take whatever proposals you have for PyCon 2012 and we'll start working through them to plan the 2012 conference, taking place March 7-15. PyCon's new home is Santa Clara, CA for the next two years, and we hope you can join! If you want to be a part of the show but haven't nailed down an idea, don't worry, we already did some research. After emailing over 100 Python user groups and other Python related communities, we sifted through the results and came up with lists of talk and tutorial ideas. PyCon is a great platform to share your projects, ideas, thoughts, or whatever else you have. The Wednesday October 12 deadline is for all tutorial and...

Yup! Time is running out for PyCon 2012 talk and tutorial submissions. The call for proposals ends in 4 days! The good news is that if it is Oct 12th anywhere in the world, you will still be able to submit proposals to the system - but you shouldn't wait until the last minute to get your proposal in. Proposals can be in rough draft form - the program committee can, and will help you refine and improve your submission as needed. This includes talks and tutorials. Remember - accepted talk and tutorial speakers/instructors do get guaranteed registration - we've set a hard cap on registrations of 1500 attendees again this year, and by all estimations we're going to hit that cap very quickly! If you need help thinking of ideas - check out our posts on Posters , Talks , and Tutorial ideas - there's also a post about reaching out to people you'd love to have speak at the conference. There's also the #pycontalksiwant search on twitter. We're looking forward...

You really should. The poster session is perhaps the most interactive portion of the conference, putting the presenters and the audience on the same stage (well, the floor). As the audience comes and goes amongst the rest of the posters, your presentation could go in any direction. The creator of one of your dependencies might show up. One of your competitors might show up. People who don't know anything about your project might show up. People who maximize your project to its fullest extent might show up. Guido van Rossum might show up. You never know. The layout of the event is very open, with rows of 4'x4' poster boards, leaving plenty of room for gatherings at each board and allowing attendees to flow from poster to poster. Find one you like? Stop by, listen in on the conversation, and chime in with your questions and comments. Not interested in one? Grab a snack and check out another poster. (The delicious daily snack stations usually run near the poster room.) W...

As we step within one week of the PyCon proposal deadline , we're hoping the community can help make sure we put together the best conference possible. We've been reaching out to plenty of groups and people we know around the world, and Doug Hellmann recently posted about another approach: having you, the community, reaching out to the speakers you want to see. His post, titled Choose Your Own (PyCon) Adventure , explains his experience as editor of Python Magazine and how he went about getting writers. One of his most successful ways was to win over potential writers was contacting them directly as individuals. With that said, suggest away. Got a speaker you want to see? Contact them and see if they'll submit a proposal. Don't know how to get a hold of them? We'll try and track them down and see if they'll propose a talk. Feel free to leave a comment here on the blog, use the #pycontalksiwant tag on Twitter, or email the program committee . We'll see w...

There will be three keynotes with different perspectives on software development and Python. Jan Lehnardt, a CouchDB developer, looks at Python from the outside and analyzes why some people tend to be religious about programming languages and what could be done about it for the benefit of the whole programming community. Paul Everitt of Zope and Plone fame provides a deep inside into the development of Zope and other long-running, successful Python projects in general. Andreas Schreiber from the German Aerospace Center sees the future of software engineering in the field of science and engineering in Python-based solutions. Examples from high performance computing demonstrate the power of Python in this field.   The first PyCon DE will be held October 4-9, 2011 in Leipzig, Germany. A tutorial and barcamp day is followed by three days with talks in three parallel tracks and two days of sprints. More details can be found on the PyCon DE website. Please pass this post...

There are only 25 Tickets left. Online ticket sales will close September 30. So hurry to get yours now.   The first PyCon DE will be held October 4-9, 2011 in Leipzig, Germany. A tutorial and barcamp day is followed by three days with talks in three parallel tracks and two days of sprints. More details can be found on the PyCon DE website. Please pass this post on to those you feel may be interested.

The conference program is now available as an App . There are 54 talks plus three keynotes and three lightning talk sessions spread over three days. The topics cover a wide range. There should be something interesting for everybody interested in Python. The first PyCon DE will be held October 4-9, 2011 in Leipzig, Germany. A tutorial and barcamp day is followed by three days with talks in three parallel tracks and two days of sprints. More details can be found on the PyCon DE website. Please pass this post on to those you feel may be interested.

To follow-up with last week's post on talk ideas , we've done some digging into what topics would make for good tutorials. The resulting lists contain a lot of the same topics as talk ideas, with a few interesting requests, including "anything from [ plenary speaker ] David Beazley". We're now 15 days away from the October 12 deadline for proposals, and we don't want to start the review process without your proposal. PyCon's success depends on you, the community, to keep cranking out the great presentations you're known for. Tutorials are an especially great time at PyCon, as they're an excellent chance to expand your skill set thanks to the great educators of the community presenting their three-hour sessions at a bargain price. If you're interested in flexing your teaching skills but need help narrowing down a topic, we recently polled the Python community to find out what they want. When asked, "Are there any particular subjects tha...

As you may know, the deadline for PyCon proposals is approaching. We're within 20 days of the October 12 deadline , so start finalizing your drafts, or for some of you procrastinators in the group, start thinking about what you want to submit! If you're just getting started, have a look at our call for proposals . We're accepting proposals for tutorials, talks, and posters, so think about where your ideas fit in and submit away. For 2012, we've imposed a limit of two accepted proposals per person, but there's no limit to how many you can submit. We want to hear all of your ideas, but realize that we all need to share the stage. If you're looking for ideas, we recently ran a survey of the Python community and found some interesting results which we've curated below. We've done some massaging of the data to pick out the core ideas and come up with what we feel is an accurate list of topics that people were asking for. When asked, "Are there any pa...

I am very pleased to announce our first Plenary talk for PyCon 2012 - David Beazley. David should be very familiar to everyone in the Python community - he's a prolific trainer, developer, author and, well - mad genius. He is the brain behind the mind blowing Python GIL talk at Chicago Chipy meeting and the followup PyCon 2010 talk on understanding the Python GIL as well as his diabolical PyCon 2011 " Using Python 3 to Build a Cloud Computing Service for my Superboard II ". David is an independent software developer and book author living in the city of Chicago. Primarily working on programming tools, provide custom software development, and teach practical programming courses for software developers, scientists, and engineers. He is best known for his work with the Python programming language where he have created several open-source packages (e.g., Swig and PLY) and authored the acclaimed Python Essential Reference. I've written David a blank check on subject ma...

I am pleased  to announce the first keynote speaker for PyCon 2012 - Paul Graham of Y Combinator and Lisp/Arc fame. PyCon 2012 represents the 10th annual PyCon US - and on this special occasion, I am proud to have Paul back as a keynote speaker (he did the keynote at PyCon 2003). Paul Graham is an essayist , programmer, and investor, and recently well-known as one of the founders of Y Combinator . With PyCon held right in the heart of Silicon Valley, it seemed fitting to welcome Paul back for not just that it is the 10th anniversary, but also to celebrate the many startups and entrepreneurs that have come out of PyCon. One of Paul’s signature essays is “ The Python Paradox ” - describing his experience that people doing interesting and innovative things are frequently attracted to Python. Paul’s insight has proven true, as Y Combinator has funded and advised numerous Python-using companies, from Dropbox to Disqus , to Reddit , Justin.tv and Convore . The list is sure to expand ...

The timetable of talks is online . There are 54 talks plus three keynotes and three lightning talk sessions spread over three days. The topics cover a wide range. There should be something interesting for everybody interested in Python. The first PyCon DE will be held October 4-9, 2011 in Leipzig, Germany. A tutorial and barcamp day is followed by three days with talks in three parallel tracks and two days of sprints. More details can be found on the PyCon DE website. Please pass this post on to those you feel may be interested.

One of the things that the PyCon team struggles with each year is how to maximize the visibility of our sponsors - not only do they financially support PyCon, but many of them contribute back to our open source community, hire you - members of the community - and overall help lift all of us up. Maximizing visibility though, can be difficult. There are lines we should not cross due to the community and people focus of PyCon - it is a fine line to walk between maximizing sponsors' return on investment, and the needs and interests of attendees, and the community. This is why I am happy to announce today, we, the PyCon team feel that we have found another great way to both showcase our sponsors, without whom the conference would not be possible, and also provide something of need and interest to the Python/PyCon community. Today, we're unveiling the " PyCon Jobs Fair " page. This is a new page on the PyCon website dedicated to job listings from our sponsors and will li...

As you may know, the call for proposals for PyCon 2012 is open, and we're waiting for you to submit your best talk, tutorial, and poster ideas at http://us.pycon.org/2012/speaker/ . If you haven't submitted yet, don't worry, you have 42 days and we'll give you some tips along the way. If you already submitted, take a chance to fine tune your proposal with some tips on each section of the proposal form. Title The first and sometimes last thing your prospective audience will see is the title. With PyCon being a multi-track conference, no matter what kind of proposal you're writing, you're going to be up against others when it comes time for the big show. Tutorials usually run two at a time, talks run five at a time, and posters run all at once. If you want to attract attendees, you'll need to hook them with a solid title. Kind With this year's call for proposals being a unified format, we're using a unified proposal page for all types. Each type ...

There are only two days left to take advantage of the early bird rate for PyCon DE 2011. Don't forget to register for the conference and for tutorials by August 31, 2011. There is a very interesting  program with a variety of talks. The talk schedule will be announced in a few days. The first PyCon DE will be held October 4-9, 2011 in Leipzig, Germany. A tutorial day is followed by three days with talks in three parallel tracks and two days of sprints. The program will be announced in a few days. More details can be found on the PyCon DE website . Please pass this post on to those you feel may be interested.

from community import awesomeness PYCON FINLAND 2011 Mon - Tue October 17th to 18th @ ICT Building, Turku! Python Finland association welcomes you to the second annual PyCon Finland conference! The coolest Finnish PyCon is to be held at ICT Building, Turku on October 17th and 18th! At PyCon Finland you’ll find out what’s going on in the Python world right now. The conference spans two days: first day is for talks and the second day for tutorials and sprints. There will be great speakers from Finland as well as from abroad, and you’ll have an excellent chance to get to know the Finnish Python scene! Conference is both for people new to Python as well as for people with superior Python skills! Go to http://fi.pycon.org and enroll now! PROGRAM Monday October 17th Two tracks of of talks, lightning talks and keynote by Mike Bradshaw (see details on web page) Tuesday October 18th Sprints & Tutorials on various topics and the bi-annual meeting of Python Finland organization The detaile...

Maybe you’ve been to PyCon before, maybe you’ve seen the videos online, maybe you’ve even seen our Call for Proposals for PyCon 2012. Maybe you asked your boss for time off March 7-15, 2012 to join us in Santa Clara, CA for PyCon. Well, maybe you’re not that far along, but maybe you’re thinking about it. Here’s one thing you should think about: You should propose a talk. Yes, I said it. You, the reader, should propose a talk at PyCon. You’re probably thinking, “I don’t even know this guy and he thinks I should propose a talk?” Nope, I probably don’t know you, but you probably know something I don’t know. You’ve probably had experiences I haven’t had. You probably work on some really cool stuff that I don’t work on. You’re what PyCon needs. We’re looking for members of the Python community to talk about what they’re up to. New or old, beginner or expert, the conference starts and ends with you . Each year, PyCon’s schedule is not only made up of a wide array of topics, but of ap...