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Become a PyCon 2016 volunteer!

A community conference like PyCon is run by volunteers. There are many ways to get involved if you are interested in serving the community as part of the team who makes the conference possible. Here is what the volunteer calendar looks like for PyCon 2016: The two major opportunities to volunteer  before the conference  are happening right now — we need volunteers for the two program committees who work to put together PyCon’s schedule! The  Talks Program Committee  votes on which talk proposals get to become part of the conference schedule. They are currently working on the 300 talk proposals that have already been received, and will probably have several hundred more to evaluate by the time the Call For Proposals ends on Sunday January 3! If you have watched PyCon talks before and you are planning on attending PyCon 2016, then the program committee would love your help.  Volunteers get to use the cool new voting app  that the committee chair has written to streamline the proce

Your visit to Portland: Controlled substances

We know that many of you will want to see more of Portland than just a conference center and the inside of a hotel room. You will walk downtown and visit Powell’s . You will hike mountains and canyons . You will find a cozy bed & breakfast in the Oregon wine country . You will visit the Pacific coast and watch the gray whales swim past on their way back north to Alaska from their breeding grounds off the Baja peninsula. And some of you are looking forward to the marijuana. Following the 2014 legalization of recreational marijuana in Oregon, and of direct sales from dispensaries in 2015, Portland has become a popular destination for those who wish to partake. So let’s be specific about what this means for the conference: You can’t consume at PyCon.  Don’t show up at PyCon high, just like you wouldn’t show up drunk.  Simple enough. You might expect me, at this point, to quote the Code of Conduct. Or to talk about my own deep pride in the fact that we run a conference wh

The Tutorial deadline is here!

Tutorial proposals for PyCon 2016 are due today.  The submission form will close once it has passed midnight in every time zone. If you have dreamed of giving an in-depth 3-hour class to your fellow PyCon attendees, it is time to write up a description and get it submitted! What is a Tutorial? https://us.pycon.org/2016/speaking/tutorials/ The main CFP. https://us.pycon.org/2016/speaking/ The “Submit a new proposal” button is on your dashboard. https://us.pycon.org/2016/dashboard/

Tutorial proposals are due two weeks from today

There are only two weeks left before PyCon tutorial proposals are due! If you have ever dreamed about delivering a valuable 3-hour tutorial in front of dozens of fellow PyCon attendees, you can read more about the proposal process here: https://us.pycon.org/2016/speaking/tutorials/ You might have been pondering a question as you finished reading my post last week. It celebrated PyCon 2016’s more aggressive schedule, which moves the proposal deadlines closer to the date of the conference. But you might have been puzzled that there are now two separate dates: Tutorial proposals are due:  2015 November 30 Talk and poster proposals are due:  2016 January 3 The difference between the two dates is more than a month. Why aren’t talks and tutorial proposals simply due on the same day? The answer is that the tutorial selection process is not as compressible as the process for talks. To understand the difference, first consider the task faced by the talk committee: Talks are comp

Why proposals are due so many months before PyCon

“Why does PyCon make us submit proposals six whole months before the conference? They expect us to start thinking of topics for PyCon 2016 while it is still 2015!” To be honest, I used to ask the same question about PyCon myself. Now that I am the conference chair, I have the privilege of working directly with the volunteers who make the conference possible! They have been generous with their time in bringing me up to speed on how each of their committees operate, helping me see the big picture of how the conference schedule is negotiated each year. And better yet, they have proved willing to accept a challenge: we have made the schedule more aggressive this year, to close some of the gap between the close of the Call for Proposals and the start of the conference itself! I am excited about the results of their hard work: Tutorial proposals are due on 2015 November 30, which is 25 days closer to the conference than the same deadline last year. Talk proposals are due on 2016 Jan

Registration and Financial Aid are now open!

PyCon’s Registration and Financial Aid forms are now open! Their soft launch a few days ago revealed a form formatting problem on some Firefox versions, but the issue is now resolved and registration should work for everyone. Key facts: PyCon has sold out 4 times in a row. We expect PyCon 2016 in Portland to sell out as well! The first 800 tickets sell with an Early Bird discount, and go fast. If you need financial support to be able to attend PyCon, apply for financial aid. Here are the links: Registration Information Registration Form Financial Aid (Deadline: 2016 March 1) PyCon offers tremendous value for both individuals and businesses. PyCon’s three main conference days offer keynote speeches, nearly a hundred talks, Open Space rooms for meetings and workshops, and an Expo Hall where you can meet dozens of sponsor companies and open source non-profits. More than 3,000 fans and contributors to Python are expected to attend the conference! Both breakfast and lunch

We have issued our Call For Proposals

Have you ever dreamed of speaking in front of a conference crowd? Or of teaching a several-hour PyCon tutorial, that gives you the opportunity to lead an audience deep into the details of a technology so that they emerge with new and useful skills? Or have you wanted the chance to present a poster, regaling passers-by with the details of your project while being able to answer their questions one-on-one instead of under time pressure in front of a big group? Then know that the PyCon 2016 conference has issued its official Call For Proposals! PyCon 2016 — Call For Proposals Everyone, from veteran Python community members to newcomers who might never have attended a conference, is welcome to propose their idea for a talk, a tutorial, or a poster that will help share ideas, technologies, and experiences with the conference and the wider community. Note that the tutorial deadline this year is earlier than the talk and poster deadline. Because tutorials are 4 to 6 times longer t

PyConZA 2015: 1 & 2 October, Johannesburg

South Africa’s fourth PyCon kicks off in just three days' time in Johannesburg! The conference takes place at the Witwatersrand University on the 1 & 2 October, with sprints at JoziHub on the 3 & 4 October. Schedule highlights include: Pragmatic Programming for Social Change by Greg Kempe from Code4SA Python in Production -- a panel discussion on deploying and using Python in production environments Python @ CloudFlare by Gideo n  Redelinghuys Boost.Python by Bruce Merry, recent winner of Google's first Distributed Code Jam How PyPy runs your Python Programs by Maciej FijaÅ‚kowski Pycon MontrĂ©al in 30 minutes  by PJ van Rensburg  ... and, of course, lightning talks ! See  za.pycon.org for all the details and the full schedule.

Thank you to our Launch-Day sponsors

The new PyCon 2016 website is now live! The conference volunteers have worked hard to include all of the essential details about the schedule, venue, and hotels ahead of the Call for Proposals next week and the opening of Registration in mid-October. Our launch-day sponsors this year — those organizations that have already pledged support toward keeping PyCon affordable for as wide a range of attendees as possible — are from a broad array of fields that illustrate just how widely Python is used in today’s world: Our launch-day Diamond sponsor is the Caktus Consulting Group , a Django consultancy who not only supports the PyCon conference but who built our new site! Their designer Trevor Ray drew upon the colors and depths of the Portland skyline for the site’s look , while their engineers made numerous back-end feature improvements that will help our volunteer staff. At the Platinum level are two sponsors. SurveyMonkey has leveraged Python as one of their most effective tool

Sign up today or Tuesday to be a Launch Day sponsor

The long months of summer are finally at an end — for those of us in northern climes — and this Wednesday, on the first day of Autumn, the new PyCon website for Portland 2016 will launch! The conference is a bit more than eight months away, and it is time for us organizers to start sharing the details that will help community members plan their travel schedules, time, and involvement in the largest annual gathering dedicated to the Python programming language. In case your organization is interested in sponsoring PyCon and wants to already be listed as a sponsor on Launch Day when the website goes live, we have gone ahead and opened up the prospectus and application a few days before the rest of the site! https://us.pycon.org/2016/sponsors/prospectus/ https://us.pycon.org/2016/sponsors/apply/ Interested sponsors can also contact us at pycon-sponsors@python.org with any specific questions. And please do not panic if your company’s budget process or organization’s schedule does

PyCon JP 2015 Registration Open

We are pleased to announce availability of PyCon JP 2015 tickets. PyCon JP 2015 is the biggest Python event in Japan, consisting of keynotes, talks, dev sprints and tutorials (paid separately). As with every year, we expect the event to be very international. There will be sessions in both Japanese and English. You can purchase the ticket for the main conference (10-11th October) from the below website. PyCon JP 2015 Registration Information Please note that the after party is included in the price. You're all encouraged to connect and network with fellow pythonistas! We have four types of ticket. Business: 15,000 JPY(Early Bird 12,000 JPY) Personal: 10,000 JPY(Early Bird 8,000 JPY) Student with party: 5,000 JPY Student without party: 2,000 JPY We also have Patron Sponsor tickets (20,000yen). Proceedings from Patron tickets will be used to provide discounted student tickets. It is your chance to show your support for the community!

PyCon JP 2015 Call for Proposals

  The annual PyCon JP 2015 will be held at Plaza Heisei in Tokyo. The schedule is as below. Tutorial: 2015 October 9(Fri) Conference: 2015 October 10(Sat)-11(Sun) Development Sprints: 2015 October 12(Mon / Public Holiday in Japan) We are currently seeking proposals for talks for this event. Visit the PyCon JP 2015 Call for Proposals page for more information. Submission deadline is 15th July. As with every year, we are expecting many international participants to the event, so English talk proposals are absolutely essential. We plan to make at least one out of three talk tracks fully English. This is your chance to introduce the topic you love to Pythonistas in Japan! For more information visit our official website . Any questions and comments are welcome, email to us (2015 at pycon dot jp).

Update on the PSF Elections - new election starting

Due to some procedural problems with the current election for the Board of the Python Software Foundation, the Foundation has taken some steps to make sure that the elections are freely open for nominations and that there are no conflicts of interest. Specifically, today the board adopted the following resolutions: RESOLVED, due to procedural deficiencies, the Board Election ballots issued on May 1st (AOE)/May 2nd (UTC) be deemed null and void. RESOLVED, that David Mertz be removed as election administrator, and that Ian Cordasco be appointed as election administrator. David has been the election adminstrator for quite a while, and designed the "e-vote" system that we use along with Massimo DePierro. He has put in a lot of time and effort, and we thank him for it. David in particular volunteered for a complex voting administration task that needed to be handled as the PSF expanded internationally beyond a primarily US-based membership that could previously realistically

PyCon is here!

Before we get under way,  https://us.pycon.org/2015/onsite/ is your go-to for all things once you're at PyCon. Here are some important details and things coming up. WiFi: SSID is "PyCon 2015" and upon joining the network you'll be presented with a popup (you may need to try to visit a site first).  Download the Guidebook app to keep track of it all. Our schedules and events are all loaded in there, and you can build your own personal schedule, complete with notifications to keep you up to date on what talks are going on when. Head to  https://guidebook.com/getit/  and install it for your device! Lunch Menus We put together the menus for each of the lunches and breaks, and where possible, have listed ingredients. If you've made a specific meal request on your registration, be sure to ask our friendly lunch staff for the type of meal that suits you. Registration Pick up your badge starting at 7 AM the next few days! The closing hours differ by day so ch

Come to the Opening Reception on Thursday!

Come celebrate with us as we kickoff the weekend with snacks and drinks at our Opening Reception  in the expo hall, Thursday from 6-9 PM. Whether you spent the day in tutorials or you just got in town before the talks begin, join your fellow attendees in mingling around, chatting about what you're up to, seeing what our sponsors have on tap for the night, and getting ready for another great weekend of PyCon. Each attendee will get a complimentary drink ticket, and we'll have various light snacks available as well. There's no registration needed, just show up and enjoy yourself!

PyCon schedule on Guidebook!

There's a lot going on at PyCon this year. If you've paid for tutorials, you have those to keep track of. Then there's the free sponsor tutorials. Then there's 95 talks going on in 5 parallel tracks. Then there's open spaces. Then there's evening stuff. Lots of stuff! When you pick up your badge at registration we'll have paper schedules available, but as you can imagine with paper, it's not live and doesn't tell you when things update or give you reminders. That's where Guidebook comes in. We have once again partnered with them to provide an excellent web and mobile schedule for you to keep track of everything at  https://guidebook.com/guide/31995/ . They also have apps for Windows, Android, and iOS available in your platform's app store. Once you've opened the Guidebook app, search for PyCon 2015 and it'll be right at the top. Choose to get that guide and you'll be in sync. Once you have the book loaded, you can view th

For Microsoft, Python support extends far beyond Windows installers

You might have known that Python's 1.0 release came at the start of 1994, but did you know Microsoft shipped its Merchant Server 1.0 product built on Python only a few years later in 1996 ? Microsoft, this year's Keystone sponsor, has long been a user and supporter of Python, with a history of use within build and test infrastructure and individual users all around the company. There are even a few lawyers writing Python code. In 2006 they introduced the world to IronPython , a .NET runtime for Python, and later the excellent Python Tools for Visual Studio plug-in in 2011. They continue to release Python code, as it's "a must-have language for any team that releases developer kits or libraries, especially for services on Azure that can be used from any operating system," according to Steve Dower, a developer on Microsoft's Python Tools team. "Python has very strong cross-platform support, which is absolutely critical these days," says Steve. &q

Fourth annual 5K Fun Run benefitting Autism Speaks

We're really happy to be holding our fourth annual 5K Charity Fun Run on Saturday April 11 at 7 AM, before day two of PyCon kicks off. The event was introduced in Santa Clara and has been fun for everyone involved and each year has raised money for a bunch of great causes. This year's proceeds benefit Autism Speaks Canada ! Everyone is invited to come out and join us on the course which snakes along the Port of MontreĂ¡l just a short walk from the conference center and hotels. Whether you're a runner, walker, or someone who just wants to come out and support Autism Speaks, registration is available at Eventbrite for $20. In the past we've sponsored the American Cancer Society , Autism Speaks , the Epilepsy Foundation , the Electronic Frontier Foundation , and the John Hunter Memorial Fund . For more information about Autism Speaks Canada, see http://www.autismspeaks.ca/. At Autism Speaks Canada, our mission is to change the future for all who struggle wi

More Sponsor Workshops announced!

As we previously wrote , signup for our free Sponsor Workshops is open and the schedule has now been completed! While registration isn't required, it helps us plan for room sizes and for drinks and snacks, so head to Eventbrite and choose as many as you want! Wednesday morning gets under way at 9 AM with a team from Elastic taking attendees through the popular Elasticsearch distributed search engine. Honza KrĂ¡l will introduce the various Python clients for working with Elasticsearch, and will be joined by Logstash developer Pier-Hughes and Peter from their solutions engineering team. The full description is available at  https://us.pycon.org/2015/schedule/presentation/475/ . The 3:30 PM Wednesday slot features Mark Lavin, Caleb Smith, and David Ray of Caktus Group taking the stage to share their knowledge of RapidSMS and Django . We previously wrote about how they've used SMS while building a voter registration system in Libya, so come see first hand how they do it. Th

Get ready for Lightning Talks and Open Spaces!

While the majority of the greater PyCon schedule consists of events that we've had calls for proposals for, there are two other big pieces to the weekend that are organized on-site in Montréal: Lightning Talks and Open Spaces. Lightning Talks are five minute talks that take place at the beginning and/or end of the day in 30 or 60 minute blocks. We've had some amazing talks packed into such a small slot, either by people who planned them ahead, or even some that were conceived at lunch that day. The Django project was first introduced to the public in a lightning talk at PyCon 2004. Docker was first demoed in a lightning talk at PyCon 2013. It's definitely an event you don't want to miss, and there are five sessions worth of them: one Friday, and two each Saturday and Sunday. If you're interested in giving a Lightning Talk, be on the lookout for the signup boards near the registration desks that you'll need to get your name onto. Unlike last year, we're

PyCon 2015 - Explore Montreal

Explore MontrĂ©al Sponsored by Caktus Group PyCon 2015  is in the center of an exciting city full of  great food , culture, and history. It would be a shame to not check it out while you're in town! In addition to the conference's five tracks of talks, there will be a  sixth track  – an opportunity for you to explore MontrĂ©al.  These events are open to all PyCon attendees and those traveling with them to PyCon.  What When Free guided tour of  Old MontrĂ©al Friday April 10h, 10:30am - 1pm Free guided tour of  Plateau Mont-Royal Saturday April 11th, 10:30am - 1pm Your own discovery of Montreal using  Duckling Sunday April 12th, 10:30am - 1pm Guided Tour of Old MontrĂ©al (Friday) The conference venue is adjacent to  Old MontrĂ©al , the historical part of the city. This tour will take you through narrow cobblestone streets lined with buildings that date as far back as the 1600s. We'll pass by many souvenir shops, galleries, and restaurants, as well as t

Signup for Sponsor Tutorials!

Our Sponsor Tutorial schedule has come together and we've opened registration on Eventbrite ! Running Wednesday and Thursday April 8-9, these free tutorials are offered by several of our generous sponsors. While registration for these tutorials is not required, it helps us plan for food and room size. Check out the schedule at  https://us.pycon.org/2015/schedule/sponsor-tutorials/ . Each tutorial is 1.5 hours, and free ! We kick off Wednesday with David Gouldin of Heroku walking through building and deploying applications on Heroku. After lunch, Eric Feng of Dropbox introduces the Dropbox API and will take attendees through authentication to reading and writing files. There are two other open slots on the Wednesday schedule, and we'll update this post once those are known. Thursday's schedule begins with Steve Downer and Chris Wilcox showing off how to build a Django app on the Microsoft Azure cloud. The folks at Code Climate are going to be talking about a numbe

PyCon 2015: Call for On-Site Volunteers

Got a couple of hours to give? PyCon is organized and run by volunteers from the Python community. This year we're looking for over  300 on-site volunteer hours  to help make sure everything runs smoothly. Everyone who is attending PyCon is welcome to volunteer, but you  must be registered  to volunteer. All help is very  much appreciated . Thank you! Pro Tip:  Sign-up to be a Session Chair or Session Runner – it's a great opportunity to meet the speakers! Volunteer Sign-up When Session Staff Session Staff sign-up Fri - Sun Registration Desk Registration sign-up Tues - Sun Handout Swag Bags Swag handout sign-up Fri - Sat Swag Bag Stuffing Just Show Up! Stuff 10 bags! Thur (3 - 6pm) Tutorial Support Tutorial support / hosts sign-up Wed - Thurs Miscellaneous Help Miscellaneous help sign-up Tues - Sun Session Staff Volunteer:   Please read and understand the duties before you sign up to be a session chair/runner. Follow the links below for complete descript

Signup for PyCon Dinners led by Jessica McKellar and Brandon Rhodes!

While the cost of PyCon includes breakfast and lunch as well as coffee and snacks, dinner is on your own, and for good reason. It's Montréal! Get out and enjoy the city, find some good food and drink, and hang out with new groups of people. To make it even easier, this year we've organized another series of PyCon Dinners , one led by Jessica McKellar and one by Brandon Rhodes. These events are a great way to wrap up the first day of PyCon, taking place Friday April 10 at 6 PM, with a great three course meal with new and old friends. As 60% of attendees surveyed last year stated it was their first PyCon, these dinners are a great way to kick off the weekend and make new connections and setup plans for more dinners or other late night festivities. Jessica is a director of the Python Software Foundation and has been instrumental in outreach efforts around the Python community, especially when it comes to PyCon. She's also a contributor to Twisted and has worked a lot with

PyCon 2015 Education Summit - Talk Schedule

We are pleased to announce the speakers/talks for the   2015 Python Education Summit , held during   PyCon  on Thursday   April 9th, 2015 , is a gathering of teachers and educators focused on bringing coding literacy, through Python, to as broad a group of audiences as possible.  We invite educators from all venues to consider joining the discussion, share insights, learn new techniques and tools and generally share their passion for education. We are looking for educators from many venues: authors; schools, colleges, universities; community-based workshops; online programs; and government. Talk Schedule Please take a look at the full list of talks .   If you are interested in joining us please visit our  registration page . We hope to see you there! Note:   All Scheduled Speakers are eligible for 'Early Bird pricing' for attendance at PyCon.  Two Rounds of Lightning Talks In addition to the scheduled talks, we will have two rounds of Lightning Talks (morning and af