Transcript: PyCon US 2026 - Elaine Wong & Jon Banafato

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Hello, welcome to another episode of Django Chat. I'm Will Vincent with Carlton Gibson.

Hey, Carlton.

Hello, Will.

And we're very pleased to welcome back John and Elaine, who are the chair and co-chair of PyCon US.

Welcome back.

So I went to PyCon US last year. I'm going this year in Long Beach.

But either one of you, let's start with the facts.

When is it? How long? Give the pitch.

As some folks may or may not know,

DjangoCon, PyCon US rotates basically locations every two years.

Last year, we were 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 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.

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,

and 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 runs planned along because you're right along the beach.

You can just go and go and go along the paths.

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.

We 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 you could be there at 4 a.m to get the ghosts oh

to join somebody else's oh that's a good question um i'm not sure there is well there's a django

couple things for the community but i'm always happy to also just work with people there um

yeah that those are things that hopefully develop organically around uh being at the event i don't

know do you are um are you going to be able to make the the sprints john yeah i'll be i'll be

to do uh even even as the event is winding down but um i do i do try to uh find some time to work

on some stuff uh you know usually for me that's pie video i think it's the organizer the idea

copenhagen in like 2019 and um i basically just spent the entire day running around table to

tables that, you know, giving the same, you know, three minute introduction to look, here's the

issue trigger. Here's this, here's that, trying to get people going. And I was like, this doesn't

scale. I don't scale. I was, I could hardly speak at the end of the day. I was exhausted. I was

like, no, no, no, this doesn't work. So that year in, um, Gen Con US, I, um, 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, you know,

run that kind of getting started contributing to Django workshop because 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 you can't just have people stood there not knowing what to do in that point that

you have to have some way of um welcoming them in and concierging them into you know the sprint

experience because it's wonderful I honestly think it's the best bit of the conferences

For this year, we have a lovely Sprint chair truck.

And 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.

I know CPython also will have a table as well

for like folks who want to contribute

but haven't done it before.

So just to get everyone started.

So 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 Beware in the past actually has a buddy system.

So that was my first open source contribution

was hanging out with the Beware folks.

And yeah, I had a great mentor and he kind of showed me ropes.

And I felt kind of bad because I was so new to everything.

And he was like, oh, do you want to do this highly internal thing together?

And I was like, sure.

Yeah, how hard can it be?

And then, you know, the next time you see that person.

it's the wooden the wooden points right that russ and the team have well yeah i don't know what you

have to do to get what different grade of coin they also various coins challenge oh okay oh okay

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 what um tickets can i point them towards what you know what work is there because if people can

tell them oh i want to work on your project like ah that can be an awkward moment when you haven't

really thought it through in advance i speak from experience i think that's like a lot of

has gone into the sprints and and and the rest of the uh the rest of the aspects there um you know

it's easy to think oh it just all comes together um but there are people who doing you know prepping

those projects uh with good first first issue and uh and getting their their contribution workflows

deal right like pycon us euro python 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 yeah there's a lot of so

like that main kind of like oh there's tutorials there's talks and and summits are a huge part of

it summits are basically kind of even more specialized kind of area where um a lot of

different folks um 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 um 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 um convincing them to speak

and also convincing them to all get in the room together so it's it um the maintainers summit

folks are doing a fabulous job right now they're about to they just released um they're about to

release i think john please correct me um their schedule and it's additionally more a lot in

addition to work that other folks are doing in other aspects. So like we have a talks committee

and they're 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 Charlist, which is your 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

um 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 like oh let me help you pick and kind of really

shows because we got over a 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 just getting everyone to go through all the 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, oh, 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 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 are great, 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 you 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 I can get JetBrains swag.

We're going to have a lot of swag.

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.

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 um working with people and yeah it was it was great for the

pie charm team like we did 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 um yeah so it's a lot i i you know i appreciate conference organizers

and i appreciate them even more having done this like teeny tiny by comparison one but um 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 you know in doing this over these years you

really really get to know staff and volunteers uh much better yeah for sure i mean i'm i think

um and and so it's it's it's always super fun to be able to put in some work with with those folks

and like see that come to life right um it's it's it's very enjoyable to uh to go from that like um

probably when it's most noticeable is, is right, right before when you're still doing like the

final setup for whatever, whatever, like physical materials and, you know, you're putting up the

booth and whatever. Uh, and then, and then the doors open, right. Uh, Python US has, has an

opening reception, um, as, as you know, well, um, and so I think that's, that's a good, uh,

a kind of microcosm of of this right up until those doors open.

Everybody's putting the final touches on their booth at booths.

And then when the doors open, you know, however many people flood into that room and it goes from from being before the event to right in the middle of it in no time at all.

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.

I always tell my coworkers, I 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, oh, 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 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 you 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.

I remember one year I had no idea what CircuitPython 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, oh, how do electronics work?

How do I make it run?

how do I make it work? And I had so many lovely people come up and be like, oh, you want to learn

more? Yeah, of course. Happy to help. And, you know, where else can you get that? It just seems

like such a rare thing these days to just be in a whole big giant room of strangers and come out

with so many great ideas and for projects, for stuff to implement on, things to fix, and kind

of just going, hey, you're cool. And you want to talk to me. This is great. Yeah, I mean, it's not

unique to the tech world that, you know, people are willing to help, willing to learn. And I think

also not competing, because that's something I want to get across to people is that, you know,

PyCharm 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

um i don't know it's not this like death match amongst the people you know who are who are at

all these companies and all these projects same thing you know django fast api flask like we're

all cheering each other on um carlton you're gonna add something there i think well i just

um and and so we'll we'll see how many uh how many folks locally join yeah it's hard to say

in in the ballpark so if i'm a first-time attendee i might i might walk into the big

big reception at the beginning i might be overwhelmed by two to three thousand people

how do what sort of tips have you got for you know first-time attendees who you know in that

uh which uh you know a few a few people will get up on stage and tell you everything you need to

know about so it's your very first pipe on us um and and this is you know they're going to cover

lots lots more than the like very quick bullet points um last year i ran around and saying 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 um so you know i i can't i can't give the full newcomer orientation spiel

there for you for them um but right uh you'll get tips like the pac-man rule right where uh 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 um you know that that's uh that's one of the one of the examples of

how to make a good um good time out of your uh you know your first or your 20th conference

sort of sidle up and they see you sidling up and they open up and you can sidle in and you can

you know get a feel for what's going on and then all of a sudden you're friends with people it's

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, you know, just approach it as you would for a stay at 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,

if this 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, oh, I'm just going to walk, you know, watch a few talks.

It'll be a couple hours, right?

Just even walk around the expo hall, walking from talk room one to talk room two.

As we all know, California is a very large state, not super known for walkability.

So, and when you meet a bunch of new friends, yeah.

Like, how do I take the train to Long Beach?

And I was like, oh, yes, you have not been in California a lot.

Maybe you can, but I was like, you probably want to take a taxi.

And I will say that it does take a while.

And you feel like a sardine trying to get to the train because the airport shuttle is very popular to get to the LAX Transit Center.

Uh, if you can, um, and it's not during rush hour, because then you're just full

of regret, um, is to try and carpool with friends or car or find ways to get, get

there via vehicle.

Um, but I will say there, there are ways via public transportation, just get

ready to load up a podcast, perhaps this one that would 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 i call the subway

perhaps they don't call it a subway but it's kind of like a metro line that gets you all the way

the way yeah exactly like it's and and i i do want to emphasize like where the venue is where

long beaches you're right on the water it's the pacific ocean there's like 40 miles of of sidewalk

along the beach like you can go all the way up to malibu you know so um carlton if you were coming

we would rent bikes and past django cons in san diego we would go biking every morning like you

can just bike and bike and bike and bike um like it's so beautiful i'm i'm planning to go running

going to do that too um you know this is something that often happens at these conferences is

someone will say hey i'm i'm going for a run you know saturday morning before the talks who wants

to join me and it will be a whole whole big group of uh yeah there's like a 5k i think at least one

organizing stuff actually that's a good question so somebody who is attending what's the best way

to stay informed is it discord slack like how do they stay up to date on stuff both before and then

pycon us website is is pretty big because there's there's a lot going on um but you know we've got

we've got good search functionality um and there's an events tab there that will become more and more

populated as we get closer to to the conference um along with uh you know we'll have our open

spaces all listed up there um uh by the time uh some folks are listening to this you'll probably

see lots of schedules for for uh talks and tutorials and and posters uh and so um that

that's probably the the main place people should be should be looking um we do we do have an app

for the conference as well.

So when you're on site, you might find that, uh, easier to navigate.

So open spaces are a lovely way during the conference to kind of get a room and,

um, and kind of get like-minded people to talk about projects.

So it was kind of like a type of hallway track, but more, um, more organized.

So in the past we had some fun stuff like juggling is always a

bit, very big, popular open space.

You will, 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, um, available for juggling.

Uh, so that's always a fun one.

There's always been kind of like, like a ham radio meetup.

There's always been, uh, for example, one of my, one of the first folks I met was at

conference organizing meetup, um, uh, open space.

So it's, it's kind of a eclectic mixed bag of kind of like, Hey, there's 3000 people

here and I want to talk about this and you just sign up on the website or via our Tycon

US app saying hey at 8 a.m. 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 okay let's

talk about data scraping and so it's a great way of kind of meeting folks outside the talk

tracks and kind of nerd out on your favorite topics.

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this past weekend, uh, with, with some folks, um, from other Python communities in, in Southern

California, um, we got an opportunity to talk with a bunch of the attendees there. Um, and

And a really good example that I saw of what would be a good open space was several people came up to us and said, hey, look, I have this hardware project and it uses Python.

And absolutely, you know, that sort of thing is the kind of thing that we would expect someone to put an open space, I almost said, on the board.

It used to be a physical thing.

Yeah, yeah.

it's a bit easier to uh easier to use on the website um but so that's the kind of thing

And you'll get subgroups.

I mean, there's the education track.

I remember going to one, again, my first one, 2019, the sticky note.

Last year in Pittsburgh, there 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, you know, all the top five, 10 Python book authors were there.

There's some publishers there.

It was a really interesting conversation.

I mean, just as an example of, you know, geeking out on like a subgenre, like Carlton, that wouldn't be as interesting to you.

But to me, that's like, oh, wow, like everyone's here.

Everyone's here.

I was just imagining you in your element there.

Well, no, it was, you know, it was me just really biting my tongue as long as I could.

and then 30 minutes in, I burst, yeah.

I did wanna, 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.

We have two great folks leading that charge,

a Christian 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 language check and then 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, but I'll do it anyways.

Why not?

Do it live.

Yeah.

I'll do it live.

We're going to have a Spanish-speaking keynote this year.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So we're super excited about it.

and just kind of like really just going,

hey, we really wanna support folks,

everyone using Python.

And we're super keen on this Spanish keynote

that will be super awesome.

I'm not allowed to say any more,

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 wanna celebrate the fact

that there's Python users around the world

who might not all speak English.

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 going to learn a second language first like

mean there's so much about organizing calling out new things um 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

this is an answer i can reuse every two years we're in a new city uh right and i've i've not

spent time that's true um so i've not spent time in southern california really um so i'm excited

to be there more importantly i'm excited to uh be there and meet the the local python community

right um lots lots of our attendees come from the the local area right of course it's a big

conference we get people flying in from all over um but in in in many many cases right people are

people are coming in you know via train or car or um uh when depending on the venue maybe they're

been walking there right um and i'm i'm stoked to to be able to meet a bunch of python community

members that i might not otherwise encounter in my day-to-day right um you know even with

uh all the all the online stuff we're doing um it's a lot harder to to just randomly bump into

someone to, uh, you know, um, then it is in the hallway or in the expo hall or yeah, whoever,

whoever happens to be sitting to your left, uh, in, in the keynote. Right. Um, and those

sort of coincidences, uh, lead to long friendships and, and, uh, you know, I've seen, I've seen

people uh meet at at a talk together and start a start an open source project or start a conference

or uh you know go on to start a podcast job start a podcast exactly there we go

so that's that's what i'm excited about that's new uh it's is you know i really i'm looking

forward to connecting with a big community that I'm probably not all that familiar with yet.

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.

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 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

U.S. band called Weezer, the front man was learning Python.

River Cuomo, yeah.

Yeah, River Cuomo.

Hopefully River will join us.

He might be in the area.

Maybe, I don't know.

And also even big stage shows.

I remember reading like Nine Inch Nails was using Python to kind of mount like 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, like he was putting his hands up to kind of like start the, start

the, the drum pads or whatever.

And it turns out it was just literally like mapping his hand movements and like checking

where his hands were going and then using Python to kind of interpret what he was doing

and then make the drum loops start going.

So, so hopefully 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 i you know i do some

scripting but but some of those folks are just taking it like to a whole new level so can't

So 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 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, oh, OK, that makes sense.

You know, 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.

I 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?

Right now, everything is about agents, agentic this.

I want to see, like, is 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, dah, dah, dah. And I was like, well, what do you think about

these features? And he's like, oh, I can't use AI. I'm in the Navy. Like, you know, it's all

military. So it's only for local stuff, right? 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 want to like actually see how

real real world people are using it and then even you mentioned john like students will show up

right in pittsburgh there are a whole bunch of carnegie mellon you pit students will show up

there's a ton of schools around long beach um they have sometimes the best questions because

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 save for the sprints after so i just imagine you have a giant like led

so i really as much as i like once you get me going you can't shut me up i like i 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 and to your point all these people

in the world are using it in different ways so this specific person he was coming back from mobile

world cellular in barcelona carlton which is like this huge huge yeah that's giant they yeah yeah

so he was just routing through amsterdam but he was you know based in boston and um you know so

it's just like informal thing and he was saying how python's used in some of the cellular stuff

And it's like, well, that's how you learn.

Oh, I never really considered that that would use Python.

But of course it does because it's such a big language.

And so when we were at scale this past weekend,

we were at a booth with some folks from SoCal Python and PyBeach.

which was awesome. And I'm very, very grateful that they 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.

up to us like, Hey, I'm doing this cool thing using Python, like I think someone was building

a Pi jail. 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, oh, we're just like stress testing to see what's

going on. And I was like, so it's literally kind of, you're trying to break it and you're trying

to find security vulnerabilities, like sort of. And I'm like, oh, okay, that's cool. And the 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 PyLadies. And for any of you folks who love PyLadies history,

PyLadies actually originated in the Los Angeles area. So it's been really cool to meet

when we were at SCALE, which is the Southern California Linux Expo, the folks who started it,

who were part of that original group. And to me, that was super inspiring as someone who

really found PyLadies as like the greatest organization ever.

They really got me in this place where like, you know,

about the PyLadies 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,

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 PyLadies events

and PyLadies folks who just take you under the wing.

They're like, oh, go here.

Oh, we're going to have dinner here.

Come with us.

And I was just so shocked being like,

oh, for a very male-dominated industry,

for a male-dominated event,

like 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,

I 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 are part of this community.

And so for me, Pie Ladies 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 pie con in their backyard in Long Beach.

I think there's something, I think there might be a pie charm item that's part of the auction.

I'm so excited.

The auction, of course, is the biggest fundraiser for Pie Ladies for the year.

If you have never been, it is, I don't know how to describe it outside of you just have to experience it.

It is, it is a great.

That was the one of the big things last year.

And I think I ended up with a signed Python logo of all the folks who worked on 3.13.

Or rather, is it all the folks?

I think it's all the C Python folks that worked on C 13.

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 position

to attend PyCon US in the future.

And highly recommend it.

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, but which is a very, very popular

auction item if you ever win the pen kudos to you it is uh it is a well-fought battle so

georgie una and um oh gosh jessica sorry jessica green um so i'll put a link to that where they

talk about pie ladies the fact that every chapter really does handle things differently um even as

it's a global organization. So that was a really good conversation. Yeah. We touched on a, a whole

talk forever. Um, I do want to mention some of the other, the other events that people might not

know about that happen at PackinUS. Um, so we talked about, um, talks, tutorials. Uh, I think

maybe we briefly mentioned posters. So on the, on the third day of, uh, of, of talks in the expo

hall, there is a poster session where people will be presenting their, um, uh, their posters. You

can come ask, uh, you know, read about what they've been working on, ask questions. Um,

we've also got, uh, uh, I already mentioned the newcomers orientation and the opening reception

that happens on the uh the day before talks start uh so try to get to uh get to the conference a

day early if you can because uh opening reception is always always a blast um you know it's it's

where if you've been coming for a long time uh 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 um and

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 those are usually three hours each, right?

Those tutorials?

So you can do two in a day if you want?

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, go give a longer talk. Uh, we, we do only

have five minutes per lightning talk. Um, uh, and you can, you can go give a presentation,

uh, on maybe something that inspires you while you're at the conference, right? Uh, Hey, I've

been working on this project. I, I see that some people are, 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 um it's a it's a really uh good example

of why someone might give a lightning talk um they're also uh often things that people will

prepare you know well in advance just just as a a fun um you know a fun way to present a topic that

that people uh might not already know about we talked about the auction uh there are a couple

of lunches that happen um uh on the on the same day as the uh the posters there's also a job fair

um so uh if if you've met a bunch of folks at uh you know through throughout the expo hall

um while that was open uh many of them will also have job fair tables some other companies too so

if you're looking for uh for work um and and you do python this is a really good place to

to find people who are hiring. Elaine, I'm sure that I'm, I'm, I'm missing some stuff.

There's so much that happens, uh, at this conference and, uh, and especially, uh, so,

so many people that, uh, that make it all happen. Right. Uh, you know, we, we get the opportunity

to talk with you here, but, uh, there, there are, uh, you know, dozens and dozens of people who,

who are working behind the scenes, uh, to make sure that, right. All, all of this does go off

what's startup row oh yeah 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

um at at the at pycon uh we usually have what about eight folks that kind of come up and and

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.

And it's a great way to kind of get like, of course, the classy, I need testers, I need feedback.

So I feel like I always default to like one of my favorite folks from Startup Row is this lovely company called Anvil.

that kind of make kind of python accessible like basically all you have to worry about is just

writing code they're kind of deal with all the deployments for you and kind of make it super

easy so you're just like you don't you want to concentrate on one thing you don't have to like

they want to all the friction goes away you just write the code it magically appears and then it

runs um so that that is my classic example of like a company that started start row has done quite

well great product they come back every year to sponsor um you know huge shout out to the folks

at anvil they're fantastic folks i believe they're based in the uk um john you probably have a few

more examples of folks who are from startup bro that have gone on to do nice things yeah i mean

row um selection processes uh which was a lot of fun and and so to give maybe a little more uh

insight into some of the behind the scenes work that i was talking about um uh you know i i as a

local meetup organizer um worked with some of the the startups in uh in new york to to put on a

pitch event uh in uh in coordination with python us startup row um and and so you know this this

is like a lot of things in in python communities right a lot of this is like uh sort of local up

Right. And and so it was it was super, super exciting to get to coordinate with with Jason and now and now Shay on that process, you know, that year that I helped out because there was we essentially had, you know, a local meetup that was startups talking about how they use Python and what they're building.

And, you know, 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?

for community folks to to showcase all their good work via our community boosts um i guess row

it's another row um and we usually accept about depending on how much space we have in in the

expo hall about eight to ten booths per year so folks in the past have been like py ladies so if

If you want to get a PyLadies exclusive t-shirt,

that's the way to go.

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.

Last year, we had the Carpentries,

which 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 kind of showcase their projects

and say like, hey, have you heard of Civic Band?

Or have you heard of Pie Beach?

It's just kind of like projects that have cool stuff that they want to show you in a more informal setting.

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, 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

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 we always love sponsorship so please you if you if your company has a few dollars to

spirit 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. Schedule is going

to come up later this week. Fingers crossed. Okay. By the time this episode comes out.

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 lot of submissions this year

and they did a fantastic job so kudos talk committee uh there are so many people named but

quickly felipe sarah christian zach salona i'm sorry but you didn't get your name juanita seth

and christian and denny um says um they did a fantastic job and and this is not just talks

committee this is also uh tutorials and posters this is this has been a very very very large

operation this year to make everything work and um they were really the true backbones to

to make this conference successful because without content why hang out yeah exactly a couple more

interested in in hearing uh exactly when when the schedule comes out and when you know open space

signups are live, those sorts of things. Uh, we do have a newsletter. Um, so you can, you can

check that box and, uh, and, and you'll get the email with, with the schedule announcement and,

uh, and with the, you know, all of the day of, um, day of info, uh, any, any other events that

are, that are happening and added to the webpage. Um, we, we do try to try to send that out. Um,

Uh, and, uh, another thing that will be opening up at some point, um, is as we get closer to the conference is, uh, onsite volunteer signups. Uh, so, uh, in addition to all the people who work, uh, year round and then some, uh, to make this thing happen, um, we rely on, uh, lots and lots of onsite volunteers.

um will i i think uh i i stepped away from the the django con us uh registration desk for

for a little bit last last year to uh to to chat with you but um you know i had i had such a

fantastic time uh volunteering at the registration desk there um yeah it's the best way to meet

people is to help out for sure it's such a good way to meet people it's a it's a great way to uh

you know, if you're, if you're looking to, to be in a talk room, um, and, and you want to,

you want to help make that, uh, you know, that, that space happen. Uh, we've got lots and lots of,

uh, places for, for people to pitch in. Um, so that'll be open, uh, on the website. Uh,

there's also a mailing list that I think we can probably share in the show notes.

make it all the talks are available on uh online after and um yeah can't highly recommend it yeah

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

and on YouTube. And John and Elaine, thanks so much for coming on again. And it'll be fun to

see you both two months in person. Yeah, looking forward to it. All right, two months. Thank you

again for having us. Have a good point. All right. Bye-bye, everyone. Thanks a lot.

Thanks again to Six Feet Up, the Python, Django, and AI experts you call for the hardest software

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