Elaine and Jon are the chair/co-chair respectively of PyCon US, the largest Python conference in North America, happening this May in Long Beach, CA. We discuss what to expect at the conference, new additions from last year, tips on where to stay, and generally how to maximize your PyCon experience.
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Will (00:00)
Hello, welcome to another episode of Django Chat. I'm Will Vincent with Carlton Gibson. Hey Carlton.
Carlton (00:07)
I will.
Will (00:09)
And we're very pleased to welcome back John and Elaine, who are the chair and co-chair of PyCon US. Welcome back.
Elaine (00:17)
Thanks for having us.
Jon Banafato (00:18)
Great to be here.
Will (00:20)
So I went to PyCon US last year. I'm going this year in Long Beach, but either one of you, like, let's start with the facts. Like, when is it? ⁓ How long? Give it a pitch.
Elaine (00:31)
As per usual, we have a lovely, lovely new venue. as some folks may or may not know, Django, Django con, PyCon us, ⁓ rotates, ⁓ basically locations every two years, ⁓ last year in Pittsburgh. So this year is our first year of one year of two in Long beach. And we'll be hanging out starting May 13th and we'll go all the way to the 19th. So.
Will (00:39)
Hahaha
Elaine (00:59)
book your tickets because it'll be a lot of fun. We start out with two days of tutorials followed by three days of talks. And then my favorite part, which is the sprints, which will be the last two days on Monday and Tuesday.
Will (01:11)
Yep. And I'm very excited. I'm going to be there for the tutorials at the booth for pie charm jet brains, but then I get to stay for the sprints too, for a change. So I'm pretty happy about that. And long beach is great. I haven't been there since a friend got married. Well, like seven years ago when we stayed on the queen Elizabeth, ⁓ out at the Harbor and long beach is really beautiful. So it's a great venue, especially in, especially in may I've already got my, my runs planned along cause you're right along the beach. You can just go and go and go.
along the paths.
Elaine (01:44)
Now, do you agree that the Queen Mary is haunted?
Will (01:48)
yeah. So for people who don't know, it's an old ocean liner that went back and forth to Europe. And now it's been parked and it's a hotel, I guess. did the reception on it. ⁓ I don't know. I didn't spend the night there. So if I spent the night, maybe I'd feel it was haunted. Didn't feel haunted just being there for a party.
Carlton (02:10)
You got to be there at 4am to get the ghosts. Go on John.
Jon Banafato (02:10)
Will, what are you?
Oh, I was just gonna ask you, do you already have a project to sprint on or are you looking to join somebody else's?
Will (02:19)
Ooh, that's
a good question. ⁓ I'm not sure. There's a Django ticket I'm supposed to work on, so maybe that. ⁓ I don't know. We'll see how it goes. I have a couple things for the community, but I'm always happy to also just work with people there. ⁓ Yeah, those are things that hopefully develop organically around being at the event. I don't know. Are you going to be able to make the sprints,
Jon Banafato (02:46)
Yeah, I'll be at the sprints. For us, think it's still a bit of, hey, there's still a lot of stuff to do, ⁓ even as the event is winding down. But I do try to find some time to work on some stuff. Usually for me, that's Pi video.
Will (02:55)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Carlton (03:06)
I think it's the
organizer, the idea you're to get something done at the sprints is the height of optimism.
Will (03:12)
Well, because Carlton, when you were fellowing, would organize, what would you call it? was like, you know, getting people to do their first PRs to Django.
Jon Banafato (03:13)
It's, you know, we try.
Carlton (03:18)
Well, do.
Well, I, yeah, I mean, so I went to, um, Jancon Europe in, uh, Copenhagen in like 2019. And, um, I basically just spent the entire day running around table to table that, you know, giving the same, you know, three minute introduction to look, here's the issue trigger. Here's this, here's that. Try to get people going. And I was like, this doesn't scale. don't scale. I was, I could hardly speak at the end of the day. I was exhausted. was like, no, no, no, this doesn't work.
So that year in Django US, ⁓ I organized a workshop where we just did getting started and we had four tables and we had some experienced hands helping and it was amazing. It went really well. And so that became a bit of a tradition to run that kind of getting started, contributing to Django workshop. Cause a lot of people turn up at the sprints and they're looking for a project to join in on, or they they've never been to a sprint before, or this is their first opportunity to contribute. And they're like, okay, what? And you can't just have people.
stood there not knowing what to do in that point. You have to have some way of ⁓ welcoming them in and concierging them into the sprint experience because it's wonderful. I honestly think it's the best bit of the conference.
Elaine (04:32)
I completely agree with you, Galton. Like ⁓ for this year, we have a lovely Sprint's chair, truck, actually she'll be running the lovely, hey, have you done Sprints before? No? Let's get started. So she'll be running the table to kind of get everyone sorted and situated. We have a lot of projects usually at Sprint. So it's a bit of just like how do you get set up? And then we'll unleash you to the maintainers of various Python packages and libraries to kind of get you all.
excited to contribute. know CPython also will have a table as well for like folks who want to contribute but haven't done it before. just to get everyone started. that way right after Monday morning, when we go through the spiel, you're in that good place where you can tackle that first issue. I know Bware in the past ⁓ actually has a buddy system. So that was my first, my first open source contribution was hanging out with the Bware folks. ⁓ And, and yeah, I had a great mentor. ⁓
And he kinda showed me ropes and I felt kinda bad because I was so new to everything and he was like, oh, do you wanna do this highly internal thing together? And I was like, sure. Yeah, you how hard it can be. But, but, yeah.
Will (05:39)
I
Carlton (05:39)
Okay.
Will (05:44)
Well, usually it's just like it gets you fired up to then
actually work on it afterwards. And then, you know, the next time you see that person, you know, ⁓ yeah.
Carlton (05:56)
think the Beware team do it really well as well though because they have little medals that you've contributed and they've clearly done the prep work so they really... Well, yeah, I don't know what you have to do to get what different grade of coin. ⁓ Challenge coin.
Will (06:02)
It's the wooden coins that Russ and the team have.
Elaine (06:09)
They also have
various coins now too. So yeah, so you gotta collect them all.
Will (06:11)
⁓ okay. okay.
Smart. ⁓ Yeah, go ahead, sorry, Carlton.
Carlton (06:16)
But as
I was just going to say, they turn up and they've got projects that are new contributor friendly prepared. And I think that's a really important thing as well. If you're maintaining a project and you're going to run a sprint to at least have thought through, well, what can I, you know, what issues can I give to people? what tickets can I point them towards? What, you know, what work is there? Because if people can turn up, ⁓ I want to work on your project. Like, ⁓ that can be an awkward moment when you haven't really thought it through in advance. speak from experience.
Jon Banafato (06:46)
Yeah, I think that's like a lot of aspects of this, right? Where if you show up to a conference not knowing about all of the work that has gone into the Sprint and the rest of ⁓ the aspects there, ⁓ it's easy to think, ⁓ it just all comes together. ⁓ But there are people who are prepping those projects with good first vids.
first issue and getting their contribution workflows defined well, well in advance.
Will (07:18)
Yeah. Well, wanted to highlight, ⁓ so PyCon US is a big, big deal, right? Like PyCon US, EuroPython, these are the two tent poles, I would say globally of the Python experience. And within that, there's all these summits that happen, you know, specifically in PyCon US. Is that something one of you could talk about? Right? Because a lot of places don't have their own summits or conferences. So they meet while they're at PyCon US.
Elaine (07:45)
Yeah, there's a lot of, so when I was doing my whole spiel about PyCon US, I really just focused on that whole, like that main kind of like, oh, there's tutorials, there's talks and summits are a huge part of it. Summits are basically kind of even more specialized kind of area where a lot of different folks will talk specifically about certain things like packaging and maintaining. And also we have an education summit. So like, it's kind of like kind of focusing
your interests or what you're really passionate about or what you're working on into these kind of like half day and sometimes full day sessions. And you can and and it's kind of like and that's a lot of and it takes a lot of work to kind of find people who can speak to these topics, convincing them to speak and also convincing them to all get in the room together. So it's it the METTANORS Summit folks are doing a fabulous job right now. They're about to they just released they're about to release I think John.
please correct me, their schedule. additionally, a lot in addition to work that other folks are doing in other aspects. So like we have a talks committee and they were in charge of like reviewing talks. And same with the tutorials folks, they had to review the tutorial proposals and we had posters and we also have charlas, which is our Spanish speaking tracks. They kind of like bubbles across. And this year we also have two new tracks, which is security and AI. And we also,
got folks to come in and share those kind of tracks and ⁓ get reviewers as well. And it's been really cool watching a lot of folks in the Python community who are specialists in these areas kind of pop up and like, let me help you pick. And kind of really shows because we got over thousand proposals this year and it's been a great year for us ⁓ seeing the community go, hey, I have something to talk about or I have something to present. And the hardest part was us getting
Will (09:35)
Yeah.
Elaine (09:43)
everyone to go through other reviews, tag them, you know, it's like, okay, here's 10, 20, 50 talks to review. ⁓ so we really appreciate everyone who's kind of done all this work to make this possible. Like you would think, you know, how hard could it be? Just a few thousand people hanging out for a couple of days, you know, you just show up, right? But that this thing has been in motion and planning. I feel like maybe.
Even during last year's conference, I feel like we started planning John and I for this year. And same with the PSS staff that agreed that have been kind of shepherding a lot of the logistics as well with the venue, catering, AV. There's so much stuff that happens behind the scenes at this conference that seems very magical. Like, walk in, you're like, everything's done. There's posters everywhere. There's signage. You just kind of like go, just point me to the coffee. Tell me where.
Will (10:35)
Yeah.
Yep, yep, we're gonna have a lot of swag.
Elaine (10:42)
I can get jet brain swag, but really,
but really even like, ⁓ you probably know this, well, just, just even setting up a booth at a conference takes a lot of work.
Will (10:54)
It takes a team. Yeah. I mean, PyCharm team, we're going to have, I should know, think, I think like at least 10 people and three or four come the day before. But then there's also, there's a whole, booth. What is it like union that, you know, gets the packages that we ship and then helps us set it up. And yeah, it's unbelievable amount of work just top to bottom. I mean, Carlton and I last week were at PyTV, which is an event, PyCharm did with 15 speakers one day.
one track and that took, you know, half a year, like for a lot of us. So to put a bunch of zeros on terms of the number of attendees and speakers at PyCon US is mind boggling.
Jon Banafato (11:40)
I'm super curious how you enjoyed the process well, because it's often different from what people think it is going in.
Will (11:45)
⁓ well...
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I, you know, I have friends who I've spoken with both of you before, you know, Jeff Triplett, uh, who's a Django con us, Stefna, uh, big wig. I, I'm not totally clueless about how much work goes into it, but, um, yeah, it's nothing like actually doing it and being responsible and shepherding all the, talent, you know, so hopefully for Carlton Carlton was one of the speakers there. Hopefully it was pretty smooth for you. Um,
Carlton (12:13)
I had
a lovely time. just sort of turned up, walked where people pointed me, did my thing, walked off again. That was all fine.
Will (12:20)
Yeah, I know. mean, we're
so happy with how it turned out, but there's just, and again, the two of you can speak to this. There's just so many steps that all have to happen and things can go awry and you have to have planning and, ⁓ working with people and. And yeah, it was, it was great for the pie charm team. Like we did at a professional studio, but even just that we, you know, there were half a dozen staff people at the studio and doing the run through and like, what if this breaks? What if that breaks and the talent, the catering again, just for like one room.
with just one event. So to do it at the scale that you all do. Yeah. So it's a lot. I, you know, I appreciate conference organizers and I appreciate them even more having done this like teeny tiny by comparison one, but ⁓ it's not something to go into, you know, and I would say, so it's a ton of work, but also it's a great way to get to know and work with colleagues, you know, so some colleagues in other departments I hadn't worked with as closely, I'm sure for the two of you, know, in doing this.
over these years, really, really get to know staff and volunteers much better.
Jon Banafato (13:28)
Yeah, for sure. I'm, I think much of my social circle over the years has become Python conference organizers. ⁓ And so it's always super fun to be able to put in some work with those folks and like see that come to life, right? It's very enjoyable to go from that like, ⁓
Will (13:38)
Yeah.
Jon Banafato (13:57)
probably when it's most noticeable is right before when you're still doing like the final setup for whatever like physical materials and you're putting up the booth and whatever. And then the door's open, right? Python US has an opening reception, as you know, Will. ⁓ And so I think that's a good...
⁓ kind of microcosm of this, right? Up until those doors open, everybody's putting the final touches on their booths, and then when the doors open, however many people flood into that room, and it goes from being before the event to right in the middle of it ⁓ in no time at all.
Will (14:40)
Right.
Well, and I know the two of you, saw both of you, you know, last year and especially you, John, you would come by the exhibit hall and it's just totally like you're scanning for danger. You come in, say hi, you know, how's it going? It's OK, you know, just just making sure everything's not on fire. Right. Like and then, you know, hopefully both of you have like a decompression period after the conference because ⁓ you must need that. Right. So it's so such an intensity of work and focus.
Elaine (15:11)
I think it's interesting because like I have so much fun. always tell my coworkers always think I'm absolutely crazy at home because I would spend my vacation hanging out with people at a Python conference for, you know, eight, nine days and then go back to work. They're like, that's not a vacation. You know that. And I keep telling them it's my summer camp. This is get to hang out with my friends. I can make new friends. We get to nerd out on my favorite things.
which apparently all are related to Python. And it's such a fabulous time. ⁓ There's always the old, you know, the old saying that, you know, you come for the language, you stay for the community. That's very true about this language. It's very beginner friendly. And then you soon as get there, I can't describe it. Every time I get so excited, like you just have such a lovely time. People are so nice and they give you such great advice and...
You learn something new all the time. remember one year I had no idea what circuit Python was. And I think we got little, got something in our swag bag from those lovely folks from made of fruit. And it was just kind of like learning like, how, how the electronics work? How do I make it run? How do I make it work? And it had so many lovely people come up and be like, you want to learn more? Yeah, of course. Happy to help. And you know, where else can you get that? It just, this seems like such.
a rare thing these days to just be in whole big giant room of strangers and come out with so many great ideas and idea for projects for stuff to implement on things to fix and kind of just going, Hey, you're cool. That's it. And you want to talk to me. This is great.
Will (16:59)
Yeah, I mean, it's not, it's not like, I don't know. I don't want to pick on a profession, but I think it's. I'd say almost unique to the tech world that, you know, people are willing to help, willing to learn. ⁓ and I think also not, not competing, cause that's something I want to get across to people is that, you know, PyTram is going to be there. I'm sure Microsoft VS code will be there. You know, the products are competing, but the people like we're all friends. We're all sharing tips and tricks. Like it's not,
I don't know, it's not this like death match amongst the people who are at all these companies and all these projects. Same thing, Django, FastAPI, Flask, we're all cheering each other on. ⁓ Carlton, you were gonna add something there, I think.
Carlton (17:44)
Well, I just want to, you've mentioned how big it is. It's a two-part question. How many people are we expecting, roughly?
Jon Banafato (17:52)
So think last year we had around 2,500 and, you know, new city. And so we'll see how many folks locally join. Right, we're in Long Beach and yeah.
Will (18:07)
Yeah, it's hard to say in advance,
Carlton (18:10)
something in like two to 3000 would be in the book. So if I'm a first time attendee, I might walk into the big, big reception at the beginning, I might be overwhelmed by two to 3000 people. did what sort of tips have you got for, you know, first time attendees who, you know, in that kind of space?
Jon Banafato (18:12)
Yeah.
I think you should plan to go to the newcomer orientation before you go to the reception, ⁓ which ⁓ a few people will get up on stage and tell you everything you need to know about. So it's your very first PyCon US. And this is, you know.
they're gonna cover lots, lots more than the like very quick bullet points. ⁓ Last year I ran around and sang to a bunch of people who were like, hey, we should talk. Yes, I have all the time in the world, but in 30 second increments. ⁓ So, you know, I can't give the full newcomer orientation spiel there for them, ⁓ but right, ⁓ you'll get tips like the Pac-Man rule, right?
Will (19:00)
Ha ha.
Jon Banafato (19:11)
When you're standing in a circle talking with people as often happens make sure to leave a space for more people to join your circle ⁓ You know that that's that's one of the one of the examples of how to make a good ⁓ Good time everybody out of your you know, your first or your 20th conference
Carlton (19:31)
People really do that right. It's just lovely when there's a group and you sort of side lap and they see you sidling up and they open up and you can sidle in and you can get a feel for what's going on and then all of sudden you're friends with people. It's amazing.
Jon Banafato (19:46)
Elaine, I'm sure there are plenty of others that are escaping me at the moment.
Elaine (19:51)
I think it's the classic, you will meet a lot of folks, don't be afraid to say hello. You never know the person to your left that you're sitting to at the talk has an interesting bit of information for you that would be totally relevant in your life. Just approach it as you would for a stay of school. Just everyone's super friendly, say hi, ask where they're from, what's your favorite Python library, see what happens.
And my classic example is always just, you're, is a pretty casual conference, don't worry about wearing your business suits. You won't need it as well as much. ⁓ Always wear comfortable shoes. This convention center, like all convention centers are larger than you think. Please, please, please wear shoes that are super comfortable because you will be spending a lot of time walking. Despite the fact you come in thinking, I'm just going to walk, know, watch a few talks. It'll be a couple of hours, right?
Just even walking around the expo hall, from talk room one to talk room two. As we all know, California is a very large state, not ⁓ super known for walkability. and when you meet a bunch of new friends, yeah.
Will (21:03)
Yeah, some of my colleagues were like,
yeah, they're like, I'm flying into LAX. Like, how do I take the train to Long Beach? And I was like, ⁓ yes, you have not been in California a lot. Maybe you can, but I was like, you probably want to take a taxi.
Elaine (21:22)
There is a train and I will say that it is, it does take a while. and you, you feel like a sardine trying to get to the train because the airport shuttle is, ⁓ is very popular to get to the LAX transit center. ⁓ if you can, ⁓ and it's not doing rush hour because then you're just full of regret, ⁓ is to try and car.
Will (21:25)
⁓ okay.
Elaine (21:52)
with friends or find ways to get there via vehicle. But I will say there are ways via public transportation. Just get ready to load up a podcast. Perhaps this one that will give you nice, nice tricks on how to get there, which is basically, I believe there's like a, a line that gets from, I want to say once you get to the transit hub there, you kind of, kind of.
Will (22:06)
Yeah.
Elaine (22:20)
I call it a subway, perhaps they don't call it a subway, but it's kind of like a metro line that gets you all the way from kind of that transit center. It's programmed, yeah.
Will (22:25)
It's above ground. Yeah, mostly. So
yeah. All right. Maybe all the way. Yeah, exactly. Like it's and I do want to emphasize like where the venue is, where Long Beach is. You're right on the water. It's the Pacific Ocean. There is like 40 miles of sidewalk along the beach. Like you can go all the way up to Malibu, you know. So, ⁓ Carlton, if you were coming, we would rent bikes and it passed Django cons in San Diego. We would go biking every morning. Like you can just bike and bike and bike and bike.
It's so beautiful. I'm planning to go running and hop in the ocean every morning before stuff.
Elaine (23:02)
Yeah, I was.
Jon Banafato (23:02)
I'm sure there are a bunch
Carlton (23:03)
So.
Jon Banafato (23:03)
of other folks that are going to do that too. ⁓ You know, this is something that often happens at these conferences is someone will say, Hey, I'm, going for a run, you know, Saturday morning before the talks wants to join me. And it be a whole, whole big group of, ⁓
Will (23:16)
Yeah, there's
like a 5K, I think, least one of the days. Yeah, I should. I know that that's grown in size in terms of people organizing stuff. Actually, that's a good question. Somebody who is attending, what's the best way to stay informed? it Discord, Slack? Like, how do they stay up to date on stuff both before and then while they're at the conference?
Jon Banafato (23:37)
The main venue is going to be the website. ⁓ The PyCon US website is pretty big because there's a lot going on. ⁓ We've got good search functionality. ⁓ And there's an events tab there that will become more and more populated as we get closer to the conference. Along with, we'll have our open spaces all listed up there. ⁓
By the time some folks are listening to this, you'll probably see lots of schedules for talks and tutorials and posters. so that's probably the main place people should be looking. ⁓ We do have an app for the conference as well. So when you're on site, you might find that ⁓ easier to navigate.
Elaine (24:31)
And I'm just going to quickly jump in to explain what open spaces are. So open spaces are a lovely way during the conference to kind of get a room and kind of get like-minded people to talk about projects. So it was kind of like a type of hallway track, more organized. So in the past, we had some fun stuff. Like juggling is always a very big, popular open space. If you don't know how to juggle, we will teach you how to juggle at PyCon. If you know how to juggle...
we have a lot of juggling balls ⁓ available for juggling. So that's always a fun one. There's always been kind of like a ham radio meetup. There's always been, for example, one of the first folks I met was at conference organizing meetup ⁓ at OpenSpace. So it's kind of a eclectic mixed bag of kind of like, hey, there's 3,000 people here and I want to talk about this. And you just sign up on the website or via our.
Hikon US app, saying, hey, at 8 AM, I want to talk about how to data scrape for investigative journalism. And you'll be surprised. A bunch of people show up, and you're like, OK, let's talk about data scraping. And so it's a great way of meeting folks outside the talk tracks and nerd out on your favorite topics.
Jon Banafato (25:51)
Yeah, when Elena and I were at Scale this past weekend with some folks ⁓ from other Python communities in Southern California, ⁓ we got an opportunity to talk with a bunch of the attendees there. ⁓ And a really good example that I saw of what would be a good open space was a...
Several people came up to us and said, hey, look, I have this hardware project and it uses Python. ⁓ And absolutely, that sort of thing ⁓ is the kind of thing that we would expect someone to put open space. I almost said on the board. ⁓ It used to be a physical thing, but we've gone digital. ⁓ Yeah.
Will (26:37)
Yeah, yep.
I think 2019 it was a board, I recall a board
way back then.
Jon Banafato (26:45)
Yeah, for a long time ⁓ it was a board with sticky notes ⁓ and ⁓ it's a bit easier to use on the website. ⁓ So that's the kind of thing that I would very much.
Will (26:50)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Elaine (26:59)
It's also way more accessible now that
we've ported it to the website.
Will (27:06)
Yeah. And you'll get subgroups. mean, there's the education track. I remember going to one again, twin, my first one, 2019, the sticky note. Um, last year in Pittsburgh, was a Python book authors group, and I think there were like 30 people there. So there was a whole bunch of published authors and then people interested in being published and, um, you know, all the top, top five, 10.
Python book authors were there. There's some publishers there. It a really interesting conversation. I mean, just as an example of geeking out on a sub genre like Carlton, that wouldn't be as interesting to you. But to me, that's like, oh, wow, everyone's here. Everyone's here.
Carlton (27:47)
I was just imagining
you in your element there when you were describing it. ⁓
Will (27:52)
Well, no,
was me just really biting my tongue as long as I could. then 30 minutes in, I burst. ⁓ I did want to, one of you mentioned the charlas. Can we talk a little bit more about that? That's two days of Spanish language talks, like a whole separate track.
Carlton (27:58)
and then you burst.
Elaine (28:15)
It's a whole separate track. We have two great folks leading that charge, Akristen and Denny. And yeah, we were super proud of it ⁓ because it came as a hatchery project. So it came as kind of like an idea that the conference decided to kind of like hatch from and kind of like a let's try to experiment with the Spanish Lamb Shack. And then it kind of grew from that. And it actually became a permanent part of our programming, which is fantastic. So it's two days, technical talks in Spanish.
there are captions available and it's a great kind of way of realizing that like, hey, everyone, not just English speakers use Python around the world and we really want to champion that and it's been fantastic. I don't know if I'm allowed to spoil the surprise, we, we, but I'll do it anyways. Why not? I'll do it live. So, so we're really proud. We're going to have a Spanish speaking keynote this year.
Will (29:07)
Do it live, do it live. Yeah, yeah.
Carlton (29:08)
It's your company, it's your life.
Will (29:15)
wow, yeah.
Elaine (29:15)
So
we're super excited about it and just kind of like really just going, hey, we really want to support folks, everyone using Python. And we're super keen on this Spanish keynote that will be super awesome. I have not a lot say anymore, so I can't really say much. But at least I can tell you that that's one of the big things this year is the fact that we really want to celebrate the fact that
Will (29:36)
OK, well.
Elaine (29:44)
there's Python users around the world who might not all speak English.
Will (29:49)
Yeah, and I know the US maybe doesn't have the best reputation these days, but even in the US, a lot of people speak Spanish, and especially in California, a lot of people speak Spanish. So it's great to see.
Elaine (30:02)
And we were telling folks at scale that, we have a Spanish speaking language talk. They were all super excited to be like, my goodness, really? That's fantastic. Thanks for being so inclusive. So we're hoping that we'll be like, look, look how great we are. ⁓ Please come. Please hang out with us.
Carlton (30:18)
It's a great example of you know, the small ways in which we can make the community better when I started out as a junior It literally was if you you know, if you didn't speak English, it was learning and it's like so I want to learn the program I'm gonna learn a second language first like this. That's a bit of a barrier, right?
Will (30:35)
Yeah. What else? We wanted to talk for about 30 minutes. mean, there's so much about organizing, calling out new things. ⁓ Maybe I'll toss a question to each of you. So what's one thing that's different about this year versus last year that you're excited about, either John or Elaine?
Elaine (30:54)
And what do you think?
Jon Banafato (30:56)
⁓ you know, this is, this is a question I can, this is an answer I can reuse every two years. We're in a new city. right. And I've, I've not spent time in, ⁓ so I've not spent time in Southern California really. ⁓ so I'm excited to be there. More importantly, I'm excited to, ⁓ be there and meet the, the local Python community, right? ⁓ lots, lots of our attendees.
Will (31:05)
Yeah, that's true.
Jon Banafato (31:24)
come from the local area, right? Of course, it's a big conference. We get people flying in from all over. ⁓ But in many, many cases, people are coming in via train or car or ⁓ when, depending on the venue, maybe they're even walking there, right? ⁓ And I'm stoked to be able to meet.
a bunch of Python community members that I might not otherwise encounter in my day to day, right? You even with all the online stuff we're doing, ⁓ it's a lot harder to just randomly bump into someone than it is in the hallway or in the expo hall or whoever happens to be sitting to your left ⁓ in the keynote, right? ⁓ And those sort of...
coincidences lead to long friendships and, you know, I've seen people ⁓ meet at a talk together and start an open source project or start a conference or, you know, go on to find a new job, start a podcast, exactly. ⁓ So that's what I'm excited about that's new. ⁓ It's, you know, I really...
Will (32:42)
Start a podcast.
Carlton (32:44)
Yeah, indeed. Exactly.
Elaine (32:44)
There we go.
Jon Banafato (32:52)
I'm looking forward to connecting with ⁓ a big community that I'm probably not all that ⁓ familiar with yet.
Will (33:03)
And I'll just say the food, like as an East coaster, like California food is so good, like so good, like, you know, the fruit has taste. I mean, Carlton, you're in Spain, so it doesn't apply to you, but in the winter in New England, there's really good food, but I lived in San Francisco for a number of years. It was better. So I'm pretty excited to get some California food, get some Mexican food. I'm excited for that.
Yes.
Elaine (33:34)
Oh, for me, I'm just like echoing John's comments. I'm super excited about being a new city. I'm super excited to meet all the lovely folks that couldn't make it out to the East coast when we're in Pittsburgh, but can be able to meet out in the West coast. I know for me, I'm a giant film nerd. So part of me is just like, I really want to meet folks who are doing Python with movies, whether it be special effects or my day job.
Will (33:59)
Mmm.
Elaine (34:01)
has been kind of just doing a lot of analytics for viewership and data. So even just meeting those folks who are using Python in maybe not non-traditional ways, but kind of using Python in more creative ways. And I feel like I remember reading an article way, way back in the day that like a popular US band called Weezer, the front man was learning Python. I remember reading, yeah, River Cuomo, hopefully River will join us. He might be in the area. ⁓ Maybe, I don't know.
Will (34:23)
River Cuomo, yeah.
Cool.
Elaine (34:31)
⁓ And also even big stage shows. I remember reading Nine Inch Nails was using Python to kind of mount very cool special effects ⁓ for one of their tours. And they made a little drum machine using Python that actually, I thought he was, they were just mimicking, he was putting his hands up to kind of start the drum pads or whatever. And it turns out it was literally mapping his hand movements and checking where his hands were going. And then using Python to kind of,
interpret what he was doing and then make the, the, the job loops start going. So, so hopefully we meet some of these folks who are usually not necessarily based in Pittsburgh, but based out West to kind of meet up and be like, Hey, that's awesome. Tell me more about what you do with Python. Because there's so many different applications that we often forget because you know, that the classic answer is always like, Oh yeah, I use Django. Oh yeah. You know, I do some scripting, but, some of those folks are just taking it like to a whole new level. So.
Can't wait to meet those folks.
Will (35:32)
For sure.
Carlton (35:32)
Good odds.
Jon Banafato (35:34)
Will, what are you excited about?
Carlton (35:35)
Yeah, good one.
Will (35:36)
Ooh, I already said food. I'm excited about, I'm always, so I sometimes go to Django events or I always like going to Python events and just getting a in-person pulse on what people are thinking. I mean, last year I was really struck by, ⁓ obviously FastAPI has tremendous mind share and trying to unpack a little bit about where does that come from? Like what do people mean? And I think,
One thing I realized last year is a lot more Python people are coming in, not just through data science, but through AI training models. ⁓ And so to them, the web is a secondary or an afterthought in a way. So they're like, well, all I need is an API endpoint, or all I need is to hook up my model to something else. So that was really interesting to have that conversation a couple dozen times and realize, okay, that makes sense. How can Django?
fit into that. So one of my talks I gave last year was around Django and AI and how to do some of these things, but I'm still just curious. Yeah. Just the conversations. mean, specifically just before this, I was on a call with a colleague, you know, AI, right? So we're all dealing with AI. We're all using AI. PyCharm, JetBrains is integrating AI. I really want to hear how people are actually using it, right? Like right now everything is about agents, agentic, this, ⁓
I want to see like, that the case? Are people using chat stuff? Like lots of people also come up and say, like on my flight back from Amsterdam, someone heard me say PyCharm. My seatmate asked me, I don't just like hold up a sign saying PyCharm. And he was like, I love PyCharm. And I was like, well, what do think about these features? And he's like, I can't use AI. in the Navy. Like, you know, it's all military. So it's only for local stuff. Right. So it's all, and there's a lot of those people, right. Who just can't use AI at all. So it's only when I go in person that I get a sense of like,
how it's actually being used. So sorry, that's a very long answer, but basically I wanna like actually see how real world people are using it. And then even you mentioned John, like students will show up, right? In Pittsburgh, there were a whole bunch of Carnegie Mellon, UPIT students will show up. There's a ton of schools around Long Beach. ⁓ They have sometimes the best questions, cause they just sort of come out of left field and make me rethink everything. So yeah, I'm excited to be there and excited to say for the sprints after, so.
Elaine (38:04)
I just imagine you have a giant, like, PyCharm sign that you just carry everywhere, actually, well, once I think about it, you probably have, a nice, like...
Will (38:09)
Well, I
think what it is I was able to fly premium economy back from Amsterdam. And so the person next to me was a CTO in Boston. so I really, as much as I like, once you get me going, you can't shut me up. try not to just like, you know, I just spent almost a week talking about Python. So it wasn't like I was trying to talk about it, but these things present themselves. And to your point, all these people in the world are using it in different ways. this specific person, he was coming back.
from Mobile World Cellular in Barcelona, Carlton, which is like this huge, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was just routing through Amsterdam, but he was based in Boston. And ⁓ so it's just like informal thing. And he was saying how Python's used in some of the cellular stuff. it's like, that's how you learn.
Carlton (38:44)
Yeah, yeah, that's giant. they, yeah.
new.
Jon Banafato (39:01)
Yeah,
I'm always really excited to hear about ⁓ all of those. I never really considered that that would use Python, but of course it does because it's such a big language. so, know, my, when we were at scale ⁓ this past weekend, ⁓ you know, we were at a booth with ⁓ some folks from SoCal Python and PyBeach. ⁓
which was awesome and I'm ⁓ very grateful that they hosted us. ⁓ My opener to a lot of the folks who came up to the booth was, do you use Python? But it should probably be how do you use Python, right? Because so, so many people are using it for ⁓ things I didn't even know existed.
And you know.
Elaine (39:55)
Yeah, we had some really great conversations with a lot of folks who just came up to us and like, Hey, I'm doing this cool thing using Python. Like I think someone was building a pipe jail or, and I was like, I don't know what that is. And then they spent a couple of minutes explaining it to me and kind of going like, we're just like stress testing to see what's going on. And I was like, I was like, so it's literally kind of, you're trying to break it and you're trying to security vulnerabilities. So like sort of, and I'm like, okay, that's cool. ⁓ And a big thing also is that, ⁓ which I will also want to highlight is that
It's actually been, I believe 2026 is 15 years since the starting of Pi Ladies. And for any of you folks who love Pi Ladies history, Pi Ladies actually originated in the Los Angeles area. So it's actually, kind of, so it's been really cool to meet when we're at Scale, which is a Southern California Lennox Expo, like the folks who started it, who were part of that original group. And to me, that was super inspiring as someone who really
found Pi Ladies as like the greatest organization ever. They really got me in this place where like, you know, about the Pi Ladies travel grant, I couldn't go to my first PyCon US. I meet all these lovely people. ⁓ My first PyCon was Portland. And I just remember, this is my favorite of all time where I don't think I hung out with a single dude for the first three days of my conference. It was...
There was this back to back Pi Ladies events and Pi Ladies folks who just take you under the wing. like, go here. we're going to have dinner here. Come with us. And I was just so shocked. I'm like, for a very male dominated industry, for male dominated event, like all these, all these women just kind of came around and went, come with us, hang out with us. And it made it super welcoming and nice for someone, you know, as a female solo traveler who didn't know anyone at the conference. was like, whoa, what's going on? And then just having that community come up to you immediately to be like, let us take you under.
our wing, make you feel safe and welcome and make you feel like you're, you are part of this community. And so for me, Pi Ladies is, is, is so great. And I'm so excited that it is their 15 year anniversary. It's a big milestone for them. And we get to have our big PiCon in their backyard in Long Beach.
Will (42:05)
And the auction,
right? think there's something, I think there might be a PyCharm item that's part of the auction.
Elaine (42:12)
Oh my goodness. I'm so excited. The auction of course is the biggest fundraiser for Proud Ladies for the year. you have never been, it is... I don't know how to describe it outside of you just have to experience it. It is a great...
Will (42:28)
Someone bought a six-foot
poster of Guido. That was one of the big things last year.
Elaine (42:34)
Yep. And I think I ended up with a signed Python logo of all the folks who worked on 3.13. rather, is it all the folks? I think it's all the CPython folks that worked on C13. So really, really fun auction items. All of it's going towards ensuring that PyLadies can do great work with their chapters. And also ⁓ it is also our main fundraiser for the PyLadies travel grant, which allows
more folks who might not be in a to attend PyCon US in the future. Highly recommend it. is one of the most ⁓ hilarious moments you can get at a conference if only to watch a lot of people fight over a pen. Which is a very, very popular auction item. If you ever win the pen, kudos to you. It is a
It is a well-thought battle, so...
Will (43:35)
Yep, I'll just do a quick self-promotion. Last week, there was a Pi Ladies panel at Pi TV with Georgie Una and, oh gosh, Jessica. Sorry, Jessica Green. So I'll put a link to that where they talk about Pi Ladies, the fact that every chapter really does handle things differently, even as it's a global organization. So that was a really good conversation.
Carlton (43:44)
Jessica.
Jon Banafato (43:59)
Yeah, we touched on a whole bunch of the kind of big temple aspects of the conference, but Will, I know we could talk forever. I do want to mention some of the other the other.
events that people might not know about that happen at Python US. So we talked about talks, tutorials. I think maybe we briefly mentioned posters. So on the third day of talks in the expo hall, there is a poster session where people will be presenting their posters. You can come ask, read about what they've been working on, ask questions. ⁓ We've also got... ⁓
Will (44:21)
Yeah.
Jon Banafato (44:47)
I already mentioned the newcomers orientation and the opening reception that happens on the the day before talks start So try to get to ⁓ Get to the conference a day early if you can because opening reception is always always a blast. You know, it's it's where if you've been coming for a long time, you'll you'll You'll see you know your friends who have just just gotten into the city for the first time in you know, maybe a year, right?
⁓ And if it's your very first event, there's a ⁓ ton of energy in that room, right? Everybody's just really, really excited for those next days of talks and sprints. ⁓ The two days before that, we have tutorials. So if you've got something you're looking to learn more about, ⁓ maybe there's an AI topic, maybe there's a security topic. ⁓
You know, maybe you've got some, you're looking for, hey, this AI stuff is really cool. How does all that machine learning work under the hood? Right? We've got all sorts of content for you there. ⁓ And then.
Will (45:52)
And those are usually three
hours each, right? Tutorials. So you can do two in a day if you want.
Jon Banafato (45:58)
Yeah, yeah, you can do two in a day.
⁓ And then ⁓ several times throughout the conference also we have lightning talks and for folks who don't know what lightning talks are they are very short they're hard limited to five minutes. ⁓ Much as we would like to see people you know go give a longer talk we do only have five minutes per lightning talk ⁓ and you can go give a presentation on maybe something that inspires you while you're at the conference.
Will (46:09)
Yeah.
Jon Banafato (46:32)
Right. Hey, I've been working on this project. I see that some people are interested in the same kinds of things as I am because maybe I attended an open space and we talked a little bit about it and I want to introduce the rest of the conference to it. Right. It's a it's a really ⁓ good example of why someone might give a lightning talk. They're also ⁓ often things that people will prepare well in advance just just as a ⁓ fun, ⁓ you know.
a fun way to present a topic that people ⁓ might not already know about.
⁓ We talked about the auction. There are a couple of lunches that happen ⁓ on the same day as the posters. There's also a job fair. So if you've met a bunch of folks throughout the expo hall ⁓ while that was open.
⁓ Many of them will also have job fair tables, some other companies too. So if you're looking for ⁓ work and you do Python, this is a really good place to find people who are hiring. Elaine, I'm sure that I'm missing some stuff. There's so much that happens at this conference ⁓ and especially so, so many people that... ⁓
that make it all happen, right? You know, we get the opportunity to talk with you here, but there are, ⁓ you know, dozens and dozens of people who are working behind the scenes to make sure that, right, all of this does go off without a hitch. What did I miss, Elaine?
Elaine (48:15)
feel like you forgot Startup Row.
Jon Banafato (48:18)
I did forget startup where, what's startup bro?
Will (48:19)
⁓ yeah.
Elaine (48:24)
So Startup Row happens during the expo hall. It's a great highlight of the up and coming companies that would like to showcase some of the great work they're doing. ⁓ At PyCon, we usually have about eight folks that kind of come up and some of the good ⁓ and kind of say like, hey, check out our work is a great way for them to kind of meet the community also.
say like, hey, check out my products, what you think. it's a great way to kind of get like, of course, the classic, I need testers, I need feedback. ⁓ So I feel like I always default to like one of my favorite folks from, from, ⁓ from startup rose is lovely company called anvil. they kind of make kind of Python accessible. Like basically all you have to worry about is writing code. They're kind of deal with all the deployments for you and kind of
make it super easy. you're just like, you want to concentrate on one thing. don't have to like, they want to all the friction goes away. You just write the code and magically appears and then it runs. So that does my classic example of like a company that started Startup Row has done quite well. Great product. They come back every year to sponsor, ⁓ you know, shout out to the folks at Anvil. They're fantastic folks. I believe they're based in the UK. ⁓ John, probably have a few more examples of folks who are from Startup Row that
Jon Banafato (49:47)
⁓ Yeah, I mean, ⁓ I had the pleasure of, this was some years ago now, ⁓ helping out one of the startup row ⁓ selection processes.
Elaine (49:47)
gone on to do nice things.
Jon Banafato (50:01)
which was a lot of fun. And so to give maybe a little more insight into some of the behind the scenes work that I was talking about, ⁓ I, as a local meetup organizer, ⁓ worked with some of the startups in New York to put on a pitch event ⁓ in coordination with PyCon US Startup Row. ⁓ And so this...
This is like a lot of things in Python communities, right? A lot of this is like sort of local up, right? And so it was super, super exciting to get to coordinate with Jason and now Shay on that process, that year that I helped out because there was, we essentially had
Will (50:37)
Mm-hmm.
Jon Banafato (50:59)
you know, a local meetup that was startups talking about how they use Python and what they're building. you know, that ⁓ back then that was one of the ways in which ⁓ startups got in through that process. ⁓ Elaine, I did want to ask, what if I'm a community organization and not a startup?
Elaine (51:25)
We do have lovely, ⁓ what's really nice about PyCon US is that we do give some space for community folks to showcase all their good work via our community boosts, I guess, row. It's another row. ⁓ And we usually accept about, depending on how much space we have in the expo hall, about eight to 10 boosts per year. So folks in the past have been like PyLadies. So if you want to get a PyLadies exclusive.
We also showcase a lot of communities like your Python. ⁓ This lovely Django software foundation I believe also had a booth in the past. We also showcase ⁓ other lovely folks like last year we had the Carpentries, is a lovely nonprofit that kind of teaches folks how to code ⁓ in a more academic setting.
So we have that lovely space going. And we also have a community showcase that also happens during the job fair. So a lot of other folks come on that Sunday. So if you're looking for a job, if you're looking for looking at those lovely posters, you can also look at a lot of local groups who will be there to of showcase their projects and say, hey, have you heard of Civic Band or have you heard of Pi Beach? It's just kind of like projects that
have cool stuff that they want to show you in a more informal setting.
Will (52:53)
Yeah.
I always come away with a long list of things to follow up on after. ⁓ And I think, I mean, we could easily keep talking. I think we're almost at an hour, so I might try to wrap it up. But the main action items for people is the Python website is amazing. The PyCon US website is amazing. It has all the information right on how to travel, how to ⁓ register. That's where people should go, right, for further questions.
Elaine (53:22)
PyCon US website is probably the best way to go. You can find John and my contact information there. If you have any additional questions and you want to ask one of us or you can, and there's also other contact information for stuff like if you want to sponsor, always love sponsorship. So please, if your company has a few dollars to spare and would love a great PyCon experience, ⁓ we're here to help. ⁓ But yes, website is probably the best way of communicating or
slash getting all the relevant information. The schedule is going to come up later this week. Fingers crossed. Yeah, by the time this episode comes out, the schedule will be out. So check out all the fun talks that our poor talks committee had to whittle down. There was a loss of missions this year and they did a fantastic job. So kudos talk committee. ⁓ There was so many people to name, but quickly, Felipe, Sarah, Christian, Zach, Solona. ⁓
Will (53:57)
Okay, by the time this comes, this episode comes out, yeah.
Elaine (54:20)
I'm sorry, but shouldn't your name Juanita, Seth, and Christian and Denny. ⁓ They did a fantastic job. And this is not just talks committee, this is also tutorials and posters. This has been a very, very, very large operation this year to make everything work. And ⁓ they were really the true backbones to make this conference successful because without content, why hang out?
Carlton (54:44)
Thank
Will (54:46)
Exactly. ⁓
Jon Banafato (54:47)
Yeah, couple more
things on the website. ⁓ When you sign up for an account on website, ⁓ if you're interested in hearing exactly when the schedule comes out and when open space signups are live, those sorts of things, we do have a newsletter. ⁓ So you can check that box and you'll get the email with the schedule announcement and with the all of the day of. ⁓
they have info, ⁓ any other events that are happening and added to the web page. ⁓ We do try to send that out. ⁓ And another thing that will be opening up at some point as we get closer to the conference is ⁓ on-site volunteer sign-ups. So in addition to all the people who work year round and then some to make this thing happen, ⁓
Will (55:39)
Mm, yep.
Jon Banafato (55:47)
we rely on lots and lots of on-site volunteers. ⁓ Will, think ⁓ I stepped away from the DjangoCon US ⁓ registration desk for a little bit last year to ⁓ chat with you, but ⁓ I had such a fantastic time ⁓ volunteering at the registration desk there. ⁓
Will (56:04)
Yes, yes.
Yeah, it's the
best way to meet people is to help out for sure.
Jon Banafato (56:13)
It's such a good way to meet people. It's a great way to, ⁓ know, if you're looking to be in a talk room ⁓ and you want to help make that, you know, that space happen, we've got lots and lots of ⁓ places for people to pitch in. So that'll be open on the website. There's also a mailing list that I think we can probably share in the show notes.
Will (56:38)
Okay, for sure, we'll have all that in there. And yeah, if you can make it, make it, all the talks are available online after. And yeah, can't highly recommend it enough. So.
Jon Banafato (56:51)
Yeah,
Elaine (56:51)
and
I...
Jon Banafato (56:51)
there's a pretty quick turnaround for the talks getting uploaded to YouTube.
Will (56:54)
yeah, super
fast sometimes, yeah.
Elaine (56:56)
Yeah,
it's super fast. Just one last thing, because I always forget to plug this. We actually have a, when you register, you can also register for hotel rooms that are very, very close to the convention center. And we actually got really great deals. We've been negotiating a lot back and forth with these folks. And this actually helps keep our conference costs down is by partnering with these hotels. So if you can, when you register for your ticket.
⁓ Please register with one of the hotels that we've partnered with. It will help the conference a lot ⁓ in terms of just costs and also you don't have to walk as much. And after a long day of walking back and forth in the convention center, trust me, you'll be thanking yourselves by not having to walk additional 30 minutes back to your Airbnb.
Carlton (57:41)
You're good, go ahead.
Will (57:44)
Yep, exactly. So ⁓ we'll have all the links. We are DjangoChat.com and on YouTube and John and Elaine. Thanks so much for coming on again and it'll be fun to see both two months in person. All right, two months.
Elaine (57:59)
Can't wait and thank you again.
Jon Banafato (57:59)
Yeah, looking forward to it.
Carlton (58:01)
Have a good point.
Elaine (58:01)
Thank you again for having us. Have a one, everybody.
Will (58:05)
All right. Bye bye, everyone.
Elaine (58:07)
All right, thanks a lot.