The PyCon US Blog

Thank You! It seems like only yesterday that the first-ever PyCon Canada was announced... And now the second installment has already come and gone! From Aug 9-13th, 400 Pythonistas gathered in Toronto to learn, do, and share with one another. Thanks to the amazing team of volunteers and organizers that donated their time and energy to the cause, everything went off without a hitch! There were many high points throughout the weekend, but perhaps the most consistent praise we heard was how welcomed everyone felt to be there, regardless of background or experience level. Thanks to Google and PyCamp, we were able to greatly increase our diversity grant program this year, and to make PyCon Canada accessible to a large group of attendees who otherwise would have had difficulty attending - many thanks to the both of them! PyCon Canada Videos If you weren't able to make it out to Toronto, but find yourself wishing you could have seen the talks -- never fear! The videos are being...

We're now inside the final month of our Call for Proposals for PyCon 2014, with talk and tutorial proposals due on September 15. The conference takes place April 9-17 in Montréal, but we've been hard at work to prepare the event, and we're looking forward to putting together another great schedule. To do this, we need you, the community, to submit your best ideas for talks! We know you're all up to awesome stuff -- we see it all the time. The Python world is as active as ever, with great projects popping up all the time on Hacker News and Reddit, then passed around on Twitter, and making their way to the mailing lists. So not only should you submit a proposal, you should tell your peers to submit them as well! We want to put together not just a schedule we like, but one that you'll like even more, so we can always use help from the audience by bringing us the people and topics you want to see on stage. If you have any topic ideas or speakers you want to se...

We're pleased to announce that we've opened our Financial Aid program for PyCon 2014! The conference takes place April 9-17 in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, and we're going to be opening up registration this Fall. While we strive to keep PyCon affordable for everyone, the organizers know it's not cheap to spend several days away from home, halfway across the country, continent, or the world. This is a volunteer-led conference where everyone pays, from the attendees up to the chair, so we're all in the same boat. With PyCon's low and long unchanged registration costs, we think it's an incredible value, and with the Python Software Foundation's help, the Financial Aid committee aims to make the experience a possibility for as many people as possible. Take a look at our  assistance philosophy to learn how we go about distributing our budget. In short, we aim to help more individuals over fully funding a smaller amount of individuals, with an edge towards...

PyCon 2014 us.pycon.org/2014 Hello, Python Community! I figured it was about time for a PyCon 2014 status update from the chair. It's pretty long, but can be summed up with this call to action:  Please actively encourage all corners of our community and beyond to submit proposals for PyCon 2014 in Montréal. The deadlines are fast approaching. Do it now! Proposal Deadlines You can submit four different kinds of proposals for PyCon 2014. Please spread the word at your regional user group meetings, at other conferences, during outreach events, on twitter, and in blog posts, etc. 30 & 45 minute  talks  (deadline September 15th ) 5 minute  lightning talks  (deadline October 15th ) 3 hour  tutorials  (deadline September 15th ) posters  (deadline November 1st ) Brian Curtin has written a couple of great blog posts you can link to, more information can be found on the PyCon call for proposals page, and we have new...

A new thing we're trying for PyCon 2014 is the pre-acceptance of some lightning talks. Lightning talks have been a staple of PyCon since the beginning, and if you're not familiar with them, they're 5 minute talks. We typically have two podiums setup, an emcee coordinating the session, someone with a 5 minute timer (really, it's strict!), and a big list of speakers who jump in, setup their laptop, give their quick talk, jump out, and another one jumps in. It's an awesome way to see a ton of topics shared in a short amount of time. We're not removing the on-site signup that has been ubiquitous with lighting talks at PyCon and elsewhere, because plenty of great spontaneous ideas have been generated at dinner one night, and presented about the next day. Lighting talks have also been a great venue for followups to talks from the previous day. They're also the perfect duration for a ton of other topics, including ones that our community is thinking about right...

This year we're featuring 2 keynotes: Michael Foord, the father of mock and the testing libraries in Python, as well as Jessica McKellar, one of the people behind the largest Python User Group in the world, Boston Python, as well as a proponent of using Python to teach computer programming to beginner programmers. As with other years, there will also be an excellent line up of talks and the schedule is now available online to be perused . This year, we're also featuring for the first time some exciting new events, such as a full day of tutorials on the Friday prior to the conference, as well as a Recruitment Track, where companies seeking Python developers and people looking for Python-related work can meetup. The event is going to be held at the Sir Paul Reeves Building  at Auckland University of Technology, in the Wellesley Street campus. For further information and to register, please go to http://nz.pycon.org . Post by Tim Knapp

Originally announced as a press release at  http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/-1807968.htm On the heels of yet another sold out success in PyCon 2013, the conference organizers are happy to announce the new website and Call for Proposals for PyCon 2014. http://us.pycon.org/2014/ is now live and accepting talk, tutorial, and poster proposals for the April 9-17 conference taking place in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. The first time north of the border brings a change to the call: lightning talk proposals are now being accepted in advance. PyCon’s first trip into Canada, not to be confused with PyCon Canada, ventures into Quebec for a great week at the Palais des congrès de Montréal , in the Old Montréal area. Unlike years past, the conference center isn’t tied to a specific hotel, so the organizers have currently worked out group rates with the Hyatt Regency and Westin hotels in Montréal. Attendance for 2014 will be limited to 2000 attendees, and the organizers look forward...

The third PyCon DE October 14 - 19, 2013 in Cologne, Germany is calling for proposal for talks and tutorials . The deadline for submissions is July 15, 2013. Talk about what you do with Python. The range of topics is very wide. Talk presenters will get a ticket discount and tutorial instructor free conference entry.

We are glad to announce that PyCon India would be held this year during August 30 to September 1 at NIMHANS Convention Centre , Bangalore. A purely volunteer effort, it is being hosted for the fifth time in India. The last edition was conducted at Bangalore, India during Sep 2012. The Call for proposals (CFP) is open till July 15. Please submit your talk/workshop proposals and spread the word. Registrations are also open and early bird registrations at discounted prices are available till 30th June. Any questions, email us at (contact AT in DOT pycon DOT org) .

The 4th annual PyCon APAC 2013 will be held at Kogakuin University in Tokyo. The first three events were hosted in Singapore, and this year’s event for the first time in Japan. The schedule is as below. Tutorial: 2013-09-13(Fri) Conference: 2013-09-14(Sat)-15(Sun) Development Sprints: 2013-09-16(Mon / Publich Holiday in Japan) Now, we are seeking proposals for talks for this year’s PyCon APAC. Visit the PyCon APAC 2013 CFP page for more information. Submission deadline is 30 June . Since we are holding PyCon APAC, which is a conference for the entire Asia-Pacific region, we are expecting many international participants. Therefore, we are seeking a large number of English talk proposals. This is your chance to introduce your topic to Pythonistas in Asia! For more information on http://apac-2013.pycon.jp/index.html . Any questions and comments are welcome, email to us (2013 at pycon dot jp).

PyCon Canada 2013 https://2013.pycon.ca Heads up! You have just three more weeks to submit your talks, tutorials, and 5 minute lightning talks to PyCon Canada 2013. The deadline is June 21st 2013. Create an account and submit a talk! The second annual PyCon Canada will be held in  Toronto  on  August 9th - 13th 2013 .  We sold out a full month in advance last year, so be sure to buy your tickets soon! Student/Étudiant ($25.00) Individual/Individu ($99.00) Corporate/Entreprise ($199.00) We'll be announcing our featured speakers and keynotes , one at a time, over the coming weeks. Here are just a few to pique your curiosity: KAREN BRENNAN Karen Brennan is Assistant Professor of Education at Harvard University in the Graduate School of Education, having completed her PhD at the MIT Media Lab. Her research is primarily concerned with the ways in which learning communities support young people's development as co...

French translation:  http://montrealpython.org/fr/2013/05/pycon-day-sponsors/ It's that time again! Planning for PyCon 2014 is well underway, and we're currently preparing for the launch of our new site. With the launch comes a unique opportunity: Is your organization interested in being a launch day sponsor? PyCon 2013 launched on July 9, 2012 with 21 sponsors pledging support, leading the charge that drew over 150 organizations to pitch in to the biggest and best Python conference yet. We're planning a similar go-live date for the 2014 site, and we're building up our cadre of supporters for the April 9-17 conference taking place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Your organization's support enables PyCon to do the awesome things that it does. 2013 introduced a number of new events that we've heard great feedback on, so we'd like to keep doing those things and more. For example, the inaugural Young Coders tutorial was such a hit that there are already plans...

The EuroSciPy conference will have its sixth edition this year August 21 - 25 in Brussels, Belgium. Two days of tutorials, two days of talks and one day of sprints make a great gathering of Pythonistas with diverse scientific backgrounds in Europe. While the tutorial program is already online, the deadline for the call for abstracts just got extended to May 5, 2013.  So there is still about a week to submit an interesting topic for a talk or a poster. You use Python for interesting scientific projects? Please consider presenting your work in Brussels.

At PyCon, we sprint . That is, once the conference is over, rather than peacefully going back home to recover from three hectic days of learning and networking at an unhealthy pace, we stick around and start coding with the people that we meet only once a year. Sprints are fun, and different people attend for different reasons, but they all agree that there is something special about the sprints that would be hard to replicate from the comfort of your office or your living room. Here's what some of the sprint leaders have to say about the PyCon sprints this year. Proximity One benefit of sprinting that is often reported by project leaders is the proximity of other hackers. It can be people working on the same project who get to hammer out the specification of a complex feature. Sometimes it's the availability of sprinters working on other projects who have experience with something that's common to multiple projects: porting to Python3, setting up a continuous depl...

PyCon 2013’s “Change the Future” theme was a nod to Python’s growing use in education, and to devices like the Raspberry Pi and their targeted child audience. Before 2,500 attendees descended upon the Friday through Sunday conference, which gave each of them a Raspberry Pi , kids filled a lab for two days of free tutorials on the tiny computer that taught them the basics of Python. They, too, took home a Raspberry Pi. Not only did the “ Young Coder: Let’s Learn Python ” tutorials lay the foundation for many children to go on and learn to program, they sent at least one father down that same path. 9-year-old Havana Wilson of Denver, Colo., made the trip to PyCon with her father, Bruce. After she showed interest in building video games, dad looked around the web for how to get her involved. “It was my job to turn her desire into action, so I did research on the most intuitive programming language that has the ability to produce games but also could be a wonderful gateway into progra...

tl;dr:  PyCon Australia early bird registrations are now open! Find out more at  http://2013.pycon-au.org/register/prices , including details of our accommodation programme. PyCon Australia is excited to announce that  early bird conference registrations are now available  for our 2013 conference, to be held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 6 July in Hobart, Tasmania. Early bird registration will be extended to the first 80 confirmed conference registrations, or until Friday 3 May, whichever comes first. PyCon Australia is the national conference for students, enthusiasts and professionals working with the Python programming language; it represents a unique opportunity for Python developers to meet fellow developers, and gain knowledge from experts and core Python developers from around Australia and the world. Securing your registration during the early bird period ensures your place at all of the events that PyCon Australia has to offer. Early bird registration comes with a substantial di...

Spending a few days at a conference isn’t cheap. If you’re really lucky, it’s in your hometown or a short drive away. For a majority of the attendees, it’s a plane ride away and a few nights or even a week in a hotel. For many, it’s a plane ride across an ocean, from a different hemisphere. For André Augusto of Brazil, travel alone was almost a full month’s salary, but PyCon’s Financial Aid committee helped paved the way to bring him to his first PyCon in the US. “I really am grateful for the PSF and PyCon team for helping me out on this,” said André of his grant. “I am already saving for attending PyCon next year,” he says of PyCon 2014 which takes place April 10-17 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. For 2013, the financial aid budget started with a slight increase from years past, around $50,000. As the organizers began to put all of the parts together, we quickly saw that this was going to be a huge conference. More talks, more events, more of everything. What we needed was more mo...

With a conference theme of "Change the Future," as seen in the logo and marketing materials for the event,  PyCon 2013  made good on its bet on the future by providing all 2,500 attendees with their own Raspberry Pi personal computer. The device, a fully functional computer about the size of a deck of cards, is a popular teaching tool used to get children interested in computers. At the center of it all is Python. Raspberry Pi Foundation founder and trustee Eben Upton  delivered a keynote speech  to open the conference, explaining Python's place on the computer, including its use in developing the processor at Broadcom. "The wonderful thing for us about Python as a teaching language is it gives us a story that we can tell children. We can say, learn this language in which 'hello world' is 'print 'hello world,''" said Upton. "This puts a space program in the budgetary reach of every primary school in the world," said Upt...

In a first-ever event, the PyCon organizers hosted a charity auction with the proceeds benefitting PyLadies , a mentorship group to help bring more women into the Python and open source community. Held on Saturday March 16, the evening event brought in $9,284 in two hours by auctioning items donated by many of PyCon’s sponsors. After the event, the Python Software Foundation contributed the difference to make an even $10,000. The group also raised $900 through t-shirt sales at the conference. “I was stunned at the amount we raised,” said PyLadies member and volunteer auctioneer Katie Cunningham. Just days before, with the help of Barbara Shaurette, Cunningham was running a free two-day tutorial series for children titled “Young Coder: Let’s Learn Python”, which has been covered on the PyCon blog . “It was great to see people having to stand in the room, all seats were taken,” said organizer Lynn Root of the event’s attendance. While PyCon’s formal schedule only lasts until the ea...

Throughout the planning phases of PyCon 2013, for everything we did, we did it bigger than last year. Attendance? We raised the cap to 2500 and sold it out. Talks? We added a sixth track, packing on 19 more presentations. Financial Aid? We doubled the budget to $100,000. When it came to outreach, we went bigger than ever by reaching down to the little ones: children. For the first time, we offered two days of free tutorials for kids, titled “ The Young Coder: Let’s Learn Python ” Taught by Barbara Shaurette and Katie Cunningham , the duo partnered up to introduce Python to two groups: Wednesday’s group were under 12, and Thursday’s were 13-16. As a conference center full of professional developers were busy sharpening their knowledge of web frameworks, signal processing, and computer vision, a room full of kids were peeking over their monitors to learn about algorithms constructed of peanut butter and jelly. The lab was stocked with monitors, keyboards, and mice, but no fami...