PyCon US 2026 with Elaine Wong & Jon Banafato

Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to another episode of Django Chat. I'm Will Vincent with Carlton Gibson. Hey Carlton.

Speaker 2: Hello, Will.

Speaker 1: And we're very pleased to welcome back John and Elaine, who are the chair and co-chair of PyCon US. Welcome back.

Speaker 3: Thanks for having us.

Speaker 2: Yeah, great to be here.

Speaker 1: So I went to PyCon US last year. I'm going this year in Long Beach. But either one of you, like let's let's start with the facts. Like when is it? Uh how long? Give the pitch.

Speaker 3: As per usual, we have a lovely, lovely new venue. As some folks may or may not know, Jang um Django Cup. PyCon US uh rotates uh basically locations every two years. Uh last year we're 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.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And I'm very excited. I'm going to be there for the tutorials at the booth for PyCharm JetBrains, 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 um out and 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 because you're right along the beach. You can just go and go and go along the paths. N

Speaker 3: now do now did do you agree that the Queen Mary is haunted?

Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Um so for people who don't know, right? It's an old ocean liner that went back and forth. uh to Europe and now it's it's been parked and it's it's a hotel, I guess. We did the we did the reception on it. Um I don't know, I didn't spend the night there. So if I spent the night maybe I would feel it was haunted. Didn't feel haunted just being there for a party.

Speaker 2: You could be there at 4 a. m. to get the ghosts. Go on, John.

Speaker 4: Oh, I was just gonna ask you do you already have a project to sprint on or are you are you looking to join somebody else's?

Speaker 1: Ooh, that's a good question. Um I'm not sure. There is well, there's a Django ticket I'm supposed to work on, so maybe that. Um I don't know. We'll s we'll we'll see how it how it goes. I ha I have a couple of 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 gonna be able to make the the sprints, John?

Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll be I'll be at the sprints. Um, you know, for us I think it's still a bit of hey, there's still a lot of stuff 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 Py Video.

Speaker 2: I think it's the organizer, the idea you're gonna get something done at the sprints is the height of optimism.

Speaker 1: Well, because Carlton, when you were fellowing, you would organize what would what'd you call it? It was like you're getting people to do their first PRs to Django.

Speaker 2: Jangcon Europe in uh Copenhagen in like 2019 and and um I basically just spent the entire day running around table to table the you know, giving the same, you know, three-minute introduction to look, here's the issue trigger, here's this, here's it uh 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 JangCon 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 n looking for a project to join in on or they they've never been to a sprint before

Speaker 2: or this is their first opportunity to to contribute and they're like okay what and you you can't just have people l stood there not knowing what to do in that point. You have to have some way of um welcoming them in and concierging them into, you know, the the sprint experience because it's wonderful. I I honestly think it's the best bit of the conference

Speaker 3: I I completely agree with you, Carlton. Like uh for this year we have a lovely sprints chair truck and actually she'll she'll be r 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 uh it's a bit of just like how 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 you're in that good place where you can tackle that first issue.

Speaker 3: Uh I know beware in the past um actually has a buddy system. So that was my first my first open source con contribution was hang out with the Beware folks. Uh and and yeah, I had a great mentor um 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, you want to do this like highly internal thing together? And I was like, sure. Yeah, you know how hard it could it be

Speaker 1: 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. Uh Yeah.

Speaker 2: I think the B Ware team do it really well as well though, because they have m m little medals that you've contributed and they've clearly done the prep work. Yeah, I don't know what you have to do to get what different grade of coin I

Speaker 3: They also have various coins now too.

Speaker 1: Oh okay. Oh

Speaker 3: yeah, so you gotta collect them all.

Speaker 1: Smart. Uh yeah, go ahead, sir Carl.

Speaker 2: I was just going to say, like that 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 what um tickets can I point them towards? What you know, what work is there? Because if people can turn up, oh I you I want to work on your project, you're like, ah That can be an awkward moment when you haven't really thought it through in advance, I speak from experience.

Speaker 4: 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 the work that has gone into the sprint and and and the rest of the uh the rest of the aspects there. 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 bit first issue and uh and getting their their contribution workflows defined. you know well well in advance.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Well I wanted to highlight um 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.

Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of so when I was doing my whole spiel about PyCon US I I really just focused on on that whole like like that main kind of like, oh there's tutorials, there's talks, and and summits are huge part of it. Summits are basically kind of even more specialized kind of area where um 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 kinda 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.

Speaker 3: So it's it um the McCanners Summit folks are doing a fabulous job right now. Um they're about to they just released um they're about to release I think John 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 Charlest, which is your Spanish speaking track. So you kind of think 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

Speaker 3: 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, um 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, take, okay, here's 10, 20, 50 talks to review. Um 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?

Speaker 3: But but this thing has been in motion and planning. I feel like maybe even during last year's conference. I I feel like we started planning John and I for for this year. And and same with the PSS staff that we that agree that have been kind of shepherding a lot of the logistics as well with the venue, catering, A V. There's so much stuff that happens behind the scenes at this conference. That seems very magical. Like like you walk in, you're like everything's done. There's posters everywhere, there's signage. You just kinda like go, just point me to the coffee, tell me where I can get jet brain swag.

Speaker 1: Yep, yep. We're gonna have a lot of swag.

Speaker 3: But really even like you you probably know this. Well just does even setting up a booth at at a conference takes a lot of work.

Speaker 1: Well it takes a team. Yeah, yeah. We I mean Pie Charm team, we're gonna have, I should know, I think I think like at least ten people and three or four come the day before, but then there's also there's a whole uh 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 it it's unbelievable amount of work just top to bottom. I mean Carlton and I last week were at Pi TV, which is an event um PyCharm did with fifteen 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.

Speaker 1: Um

Speaker 4: I'm super curious how you enjoyed the process well, because it's uh often different from what people think it is going, you know, going in.

Speaker 1: 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 DjangoCon US DEFNA uh bigwig. 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 the talent. You know. So hopefully for Carlton, Carlton was one of the speakers there. Hopefully it was pretty smooth for you.

Speaker 2: Oh I had a lovely time. I just sort of turned up, w walked where people pointed me, did did my thing, walked off again. That was all f

Speaker 1: Yeah, I know I mean we're s 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 um working with people and and yeah, it was it was great for the PyCharm 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 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.

Speaker 1: 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 I in other departments I hadn't worked with as closely. I'm sure for the two of you, you know, in doing this f over these years you really really get to know staff and volunteers m uh much better.

Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure. I mean I'm I think much of my social circle uh over the years has has become Python conference organizers. Um and so it 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

Speaker 4: open, right? Uh PyCon US has has an opening reception um as as you know well. Um and so I think that's that's a good uh kind of microcosm of 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, uh, and it goes from from being before the event to right in the middle of it in no time at all.

Speaker 1: Right. Well and I know the the two of you, I saw both of you, you know, last year and especially you John, you would come by the 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 okay, you know, just Just making sure everything's not on fire. Right. Like and then you know, hopefully both of you have like a a decompression period after the conference because um Y you must need that, right? It's so it's so such an intensity of of work and focus.

Speaker 3: I think it's interesting because like I have so much fun. I 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, 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. Um There's always the old, you know, the old saying that, you know, you come for the language, you stay for the community. Um, that's very true about this language. It's very beginner-friendly, and then you as soon as

Speaker 3: get there. I I I can't describe it. Every 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 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 um uh got something in our swag bag from those lovely folks from Ada. fruit and it was just kind of like learning like oh how how do electronics work how do I make it run how do I make it work and it had so many lovely people come up be like, oh you want to learn more? Yeah of course, happy to help. And you know, where where else can you get that? It it just just seems like such a rare thing these days to just h be in a whole big giant room of strangers

Speaker 3: and come out with so many great ideas and idea and for projects, for stuff to implement on, things to fix, and and kind of just going, hey, you you're cool. That's results. And you want to talk to me. This is great.

Speaker 1: 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. Um and I think also not not competing, because that's something I want to get across to people, is that you know, PyTRM's gonna 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 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 were gonna add something there, I think.

Speaker 2: Well I was just wondering you've mentioned like how big it is. It's a two-part question. How how many people are we expecting first, like roughly

Speaker 4: So I think last year we had around 2500 um and you know new city um and and so we'll we'll see how many uh how many folks Yeah, it's hard to say in advance

Speaker 1: too.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Speaker 2: But something of like two two to three thousand would be in the in the ball. 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 d what sort of tips have you got for, you know, first time attendees who, you know, in that kind of space.

Speaker 4: I think you should plan to go to the newcomer orientation before you go to the reception, 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 PyCon US And and this is you know they're gonna 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 it for them. Um but Right. 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.

Speaker 4: you know that that's uh that 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 twentieth conference.

Speaker 2: And people really do that right. And it's it's it's just lovely when th there's a group and you 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 amazing.

Speaker 4: Elaine, I'm sure there are plenty of others uh that are are are escaping me at the moment.

Speaker 3: I I I think it's the classic, uh, you will meet a lot of folks, don't be afraid to say hello. Um, you never know the person to your left that you're sitting to at the talk. Um um has an interesting bit of information for you that would be totally relevant in your life. Just you know, just approach it as as you would first day of school. Just everyone's super friendly. Say hi. Ask where they're from, what's your favorite Python library, see what happens. Um and my classic example is always just if it's if you're this is um Pretty casual conference. Don't worry about wearing your business suits. You 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.

Speaker 3: 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 gonna walk, you know, watch a few talks, it'll be a couple hours, right? Just even walk around the expo hall walking. Walking from talk room one to talk room two. As we all know, California is a very large state. Not what what not super known for for walkability. So

Speaker 1: So my colleagues were like Yeah, they were like, oh I'm flying into LAX, like how do I take the the train to Long Beach? And I was like, Oh, yes, you have not been in California. A lot.

Speaker 3: There is a train and I will say that it is it it it does take a while. Um and You you you feel like a sardine trying to get to the train because the airport shuttle is um is very popular to get to the LAX transit center. Uh if you can, um, and it's not doing 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. But I will say there there are ways. Via public transportation. Just get ready to load up a podcast. Uh perhaps this one that will give you nice

Speaker 3: nice tricks on how to get there, which is basically I believe there's like a uh a line that gets from Um I want to say once you get to the transit hub, there there you kind of kind of I 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. from kind of that transition.

Speaker 1: It's above ground, yeah, mostly. So yeah. All right. Maybe all the way. Yeah, exactly. Like it's and I 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's like forty miles of of sidewalk along the beach. Like he can go all the way up to Malibu, you know. So Um Carlton, if you were coming we would rent bikes and at past DjangoCons 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 and hop in the ocean every morning before stuff. So

Speaker 4: I'm sure there are a bunch of other folks that are gonna 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, wants to join me. And it would be a whole whole big group of uh

Speaker 1: Yeah, there's like a five K, I think, at least one of the days. Yeah, I should I know that th that's that's grown in uh in size in terms of people 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 while they're at the conference?

Speaker 4: Uh the main venue is gonna be the website. Um there's uh the the 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

Speaker 4: 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.

Speaker 3: And I'm just gonna quickly jump in to explain what open space So open spaces are a lovely way through the conference to kind of get a room and um and kind of get like-minded people talk about projects. So it's 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 big very big popular open space. You will if you don't know how to juggle, we'll 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 heart like a ham radio meetup. There's always been For example, one of my one of the first folks I met was at conference organizing meetup um

Speaker 3: open space. So it's it's kind of a collectic mixed bag of kind of like, hey, there's three thousand people here and I want to talk about this and you just sign up sign up um on on the website or via Hycon 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 be like, okay, let's talk about data scraping. And so it's it's a great way of kind of meeting folks outside the talk tracks um and kind of nerd out on your favorite topic.

Speaker 4: Yeah, when when Elaine and I were at uh scale this past weekend uh with with some folks uh um from other Python communities in in Southern California. We got an opportunity to talk with a bunch of the attendees there. And a really good example that that I saw of what would be 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. Um and absolutely, you know, that sort of thing um is is the is the kind of thing that we would expect someone to put put a open space. Um Uh I almost said on the board. Uh it used to be a physical thing, uh, but

Speaker 4: we've gone digital, you know. Um

Speaker 1: I think 2019 it was a board. I recall a board way back then.

Speaker 4: Yeah, for a long time uh it w it was a board with you know sticky notes. Um It's a bit easier to uh easier to use on the website. Um but so that's the kind of thing that 's

Speaker 3: also way more accessible now that we've ported it to the the website.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And you'll get subgroups. I mean there's the education track. I remember going to one again, twin my first one twenty nineteen, the sticky note. Um last year in Pittsburgh there was a Python book authors group and I think there were like thirty 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, ten Python 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 that that wouldn't be as interesting to you, but to me, that's like, oh wow, like everyone's here. Oh

Speaker 2: , you and your element there, as you were describing it.

Speaker 1: Well no, it was you know, it was me just really biting my tongue as long as I could and then

Speaker 2: you burst.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Um I did want to One of you mentioned um the uh Charlas. Um can we talk a little bit more about that? That's two days of Spanish language talks, like a whole separate track.

Speaker 3: It's a whole separate track. We have two great folks leading that charge, Christian and Denny. And yeah, we were super proud of it because it came as a hatchery project. So it came as 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 land shot and then kind of grew from that and it actually became a permanent part of our program. which is fantastic. So it's two days technical talks in Spanish. There are captions available. And it's a great kind of of way of realizing that like, hey, everyone, not just English speakers, use Python around the world and we really want to champion in that and it's been fantastic.

Speaker 3: I don't know if I'm allowed to spoil the surprise, but we we but I'll do it anyways. Why not?

Speaker 2: Do it live. Do it live.

Speaker 3: Do it live. So so we're really proud we're gonna have a Spanish speaking keynote this year. Oh

Speaker 1: yeah.

Speaker 3: So we'll be we're super excited about it and just kind of like really just going, Hey, we we really want to support folks everyone um using Python and we're we're super keen on this Spanish keynote that um will be super awesome. Don't I'm not saying any more so we can't say much. Well but at least I could tell you that that one that's one of the big things this year is the fact that we really want to celebrate the fact that there's Python users around the world who might not all speak English.

Speaker 1: 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 It's great to see.

Speaker 3: Yeah, and when we were telling folks at scale that, hey, we have a Spanish-speaking language talk, they were all super excited to be like, oh my goodness, really? That's fantastic. Thanks for being so inclusive. So we're we're we're hoping that that uh we're like look look how great we are uh please come please hang out with us

Speaker 2: It 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 learn English. And it's like, so I want to learn the program, I've got to learn a second language first. Like there's that's a bit of a barrier, right?

Speaker 1: Yep. Um what else? We're we wanted to talk for about 30 minutes. I mean there's so much about organizing, calling out new things. Um maybe I'll toss a question to you. 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?

Speaker 3: John, what do you think? Um

Speaker 4: you know, this is this is a a question I can this is an answer I can reuse every two years. We're in a new city. Uh right, and I I've not spent time in So I've not spent time in 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 in many many cases right people are people are coming in you know via train or car or um Uh when

Speaker 4: depending on the venue, maybe they're even 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? 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 than it is in the hallway or in the expo hall or yeah whoever you 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

Speaker 4: 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 start a podcast start a podcast exactly So that that's that's what I'm excited about that's new. Uh it's is you know I re I really I'm looking forward to connecting with uh a big community that I'm um probably uh not all that um all that familiar with yet.

Speaker 1: And I'll just say the food, like as an East Coaster, like California food is so good. Like so good. I mean Carlton, you're in Spain, so this 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 I'm excited for that.

Speaker 2: A line.

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 3: Oh for me I'm just s 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 could make it out to the east coast when we're in Pittsburgh, but can be able to 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, uh whether it be special effects or um 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 are using Python in not 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, way back in the day that like A popular US band called Weezer, the front

Speaker 3: man was learning Python. I remember reading.

Speaker 1: River Cuomo, yeah.

Speaker 3: Yeah, River Cuomo. Hopefully River will join us. He might be in the area. Um maybe, I don't know. Uh and and also uh um even big stage shows. Like I remember reading like Nine Inch Nails was using Python to kind of mount like very cool special effects. um 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 synth the 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.

Speaker 3: Tell me more about what you do. Python because there's so many different applications that we often forget because you know the the classic answer is always like, oh yeah, I use Django, oh yeah, I you know, I do some scripting, but but s some of those cr folks are just taking it like to whole new level. So can't wait to meet those folks.

Speaker 2: Okay. Good answer.

Speaker 1: Sure.

Speaker 4: Will what are you excited about?

Speaker 2: Yeah, good one.

Speaker 1: Oh I already said food. Um 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 What people are thinking. I mean last year I was really struck by um obviously Fast API has tremendous mind share and trying to unpack a little bit about where does that come from? Like what 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. Um 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.

Speaker 1: So that was really interesting to have that conversation a couple dozen times and realize, oh, okay, 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. PyTRAM 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. Um 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 pie

Speaker 1: charm. My seat mate asked me, I don't just like hold up a sign saying pie charm. And he was like, I love Python, dah dah da. And I was like, well what do you think about these features? And he's like, Oh, I can't use AI. I'm I'm 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 want to like actually see how pe 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, UPIT 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.

Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm excited to be there and excited to stay for the sprints after. So

Speaker 3: I just imagine you have a giant like LED pie charm sign that you just carry everywhere. actually will. Once I think about it, you probably have like a nice one.

Speaker 1: I think what it I think what I I think what it is is I was I was able to fly premium economy back from Amsterdam and so the person next to me you know, was a CTO in Boston and so I really as much as I like once you get me going you can't shut me up. I like I d I try not to just like you know, I just spent a 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. So this specific person, he was coming back from Mobile World Cellular in Barcelona, Carlton. Which is like this huge huge.

Speaker 2: That's giant. They they yeah.

Speaker 1: Yeah, 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 , who

Speaker 2: knew

Speaker 1: that's how you learn.

Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm I'm always really excited to hear about um All of those, oh I never really considered that that would use Python, but of course it does because it's it's such a big language. Uh and and so you know uh my my uh when we were at scale uh this this this past weekend um you know we we were at a booth with uh with some some folks from SoCal Python and Pi Beach , which was awesome and and I'm very uh very grateful that they they hosted us. My opener to a lot of the folks who came up to the booth was, you know, do you use Python? But it should probably how do you use Python, right?

Speaker 4: Because so so many people are using it for um things I didn't even know existed. And you know ,

Speaker 3: yeah, we had some really great conversations with a lot of folks who just came up to us like, hey, I'm doing this cool thing using Python. Like I think someone was building a PyJail 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, oh, we're just like stress testing to see what's going on. And I was like, um, 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. Um and the big thing also is that um Which I w also want to highlight is that it's actually been I believe twenty twenty-six is fifteen years since the starting of Pylades. And for any of you folks who who love Pylades history, uh Pylades actually originated in the Los Angeles area. So actually um it kind of so it's been really cool to meet

Speaker 3: um when we were at scale, which is the Southern California Linux Expo, like the folks who who started it, who were part of that original group. And to me that was super inspiring as someone who really found PyLades as like the greatest organization ever. They really got me in in this place where like, you know, without the PyLades travel grant, I couldn't go to my first PyCon. US I meet all these lovely people. Um my first PyCon was Portland and I just remember this is my favorite of all time where I 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 Pie Ladies events and Py Lades folks who just take you in the wing like oh go here oh we're gonna have dinner here come with us and I was just so shocked being like oh for a very male dominated industry

Speaker 3: 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 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 whoa 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 you are part of this community and so for me pie 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 pie con in their backyard

Speaker 1: And the auction, right? I think there's something I think there might be a pie charm item that's part of the auction. Oh

Speaker 3: my goodness. I'm so excited. The auction, of course, is is the biggest fundraiser for Pra Ladies for the Year. If you 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 um it is

Speaker 1: someone bought like a six foot poster of Guido, that right that was the one of the big things last year.

Speaker 3: Yep, and I think I ended up with a signed Python logo of all the folks who worked on 313. Or rather the all I is it all the folks are I think it's all the all the all the C Python folks that that worked on C thirteen. So really really fun auction items. All of it's going towards ensuring uh that PyLadies can do great work. with their chapters and also um it is also our main fundraiser for uh the Pilates Travel Grant which allows more folks um who might not be in a position to attend uh to attend PyCon Yu US in the future. Um highly recommend it. It is one of the most uh hilarious moments you can get at a conference if only to watch a lot of people fight over a pen.

Speaker 3: But which is a very, very popular auction item. If you ever win the pen, kudos to you. It is uh It it is a well-fought battle. So

Speaker 1: I'll just do a quick self-promotion. Last week there was a Pi Ladies panel at Pi TV with um Georgie, Una, and um

Speaker 2: Jessica.

Speaker 1: Oh gosh. Jessica. Sorry, Jessica Green. Um so I'll put a link to that where they talk about Pylades, the fact that every chapter really does handles things differently, um, even as it's a global organization. So that was really good. conversation.

Speaker 4: Yeah, we touched on a uh a whole bunch of uh the kind of big temple aspects of the the conference, but uh Will I know we could talk forever. Um I do want to mention some of the other the other um events that people might not know about that happen at Pacon US. So we talked about um talks, tutorials, 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 uh people will be presenting their um uh their their posters you can come ask uh you know read about what they've been working on ask questions We've also got

Speaker 4: 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 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 if it's if it's your your very first event, uh there's there's a a ton of energy in that room, right? Uh Everybody's just really, really excited for the those next days of uh of talks and sprints. Um the two days before that, though, we have tutorials.

Speaker 4: So if you've got something you're you're looking to learn more about, uh maybe Maybe there's an AI topic, maybe there's a security topic. Maybe you've 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. Uh we we we've got all sorts of content for you there. Um uh and

Speaker 1: those are usually three hours each, right? The two tutorials? So you can do two in a day if you want.

Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you can do two in a day. And then several times throughout the conference also we have lightning talks Uh and for folks who don't know what light lightning talks are, uh they are very short. They're hard limited to five minutes. Um 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. 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.

Speaker 4: to it, right? It's a really uh good example of why someone might give a lightning talk. There are also uh often things that people will prepare you know well in advance just just as a uh a fun um you know uh a fun way to present a topic that that people uh 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. Um so uh if if you've met uh a bunch of folks at uh uh you know through throughout the expo hall.

Speaker 4: while that was open. Many of them will also have job prayer tables, some other companies too. So if you're looking for uh for work um and and do 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 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 without a hitch. What did I miss, Elaine?

Speaker 3: I feel like you forgot Startup Row.

Speaker 4: I did forget Startup Row, what's Startup Row?

Speaker 1: Yeah. So

Speaker 3: 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 at the Pi at PyCon, uh, we usually have what, about eight folks that kinda come up and and some of the good um and kind of say like, hey, uh check out our work is a great way for them to kind of move. meet the community, also say like, hey, check out my products, see what you think. And it's a great way to kind of get like, of course, the classic goes, I need testers, I need feedback. Um so I I I feel like I always default to like one of my my favorite folks from from um from Startup Row is this lovely company called Anvil. Um that

Speaker 3: 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 d 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 wanna all the all the friction goes away. You just write the code, it magically appears and then it runs. So that that is my classic example of like a company that started and start row, has done quite well, great product. They come back every year to sponsor. You know, huge shout out to the folks at Anvil. They're they're fantastic folks. I believe they're based in the UK Okay. John, you probably have a few more examples of folks who are from Startup Row that have gone on to do nice things.

Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean uh I I had the the pleasure of uh this was some years ago now, um helping out uh one of the startup row um selection processes. uh which 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 PyCon US Startup Row. Um and And so, you know, that this this is like a lot of things in in Python communities, right? A lot of this is like

Speaker 4: uh sort of local up, right? Um and and so Um it was it was super super exciting to get to uh to coordinate with uh with Jason um and now and now Shay. Um on uh on that process, you know, that that year that I helped out because there was we we essentially had um you know, a a local meetup that was startups talking about how they use Python uh and and what they're building and uh and you know that um back then that's uh that that was one of the ways in which um startups got got in through that process um Elaine, I did want to ask, what if I'm a community organization and not a startup?

Speaker 3: Well we do have lovely um what's really nice about PyCon US is that we do give some space for community um folks to to showcase all their good work via our community boost um I guess row the row um and we usually accept about depending on how much space we have in the in the expo hall, about eight to ten booths per year. So folks in the past have been like Pie Ladies. So if you want to get a Pie Ladies exclusive t-shirt that's that's the way to go. We also showcase a lot of communities like uh your python, uh this lovely Django Software Foundation, I believe, also had a boost in the past. Uh we also showcase um other lovely folks like uh last year we had the Carpentries, which is a lovely nonprofit that kind of teaches folks how to code

Speaker 3: in a more academic setting. So we have that lovely uh space going and we also have a community showcase that also happens during the job fair. So uh a lot of other folks come on that Sunday. So if you're looking for a job, if you're looking for uh looking at those lovely posters. You can also look at a lot of local uh groups who will be there to kind of and kind of showcase their projects and see like, hey, have you heard of Civic Band? Or have you heard of Pi Beach. Like it's just kind of like projects that have cool stuff that they want to show you. um in a more informal setting.

Speaker 1: 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 um wrap it up. But the main action items for people is the Python website is a ma the PyCon US website is amazing. It has all the information right on how to travel, how to uh register, um that's where people should go, right, for further questions.

Speaker 3: PyCon US 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 a sponsor. We always love sponsorship. So please, you if if you if your company has a few dollars to spare and would love a great PyCon experience, uh, we're here to help. Um but yes, website is probably the best way of communicating or slash getting all the relevant information. The schedule's gonna come up later this week. Fingers crossed. Okay.

Speaker 1: By the time this come this episode comes out, yeah.

Speaker 3: 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. Um there's so many people to name, but quickly, Felipe, Sarah Christian, Zach, Solona, I I'm sorry, but you know 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 they were really the true backbones to make this conference work successful because without content, why hang out?

Speaker 1: Exactly.

Speaker 4: Sign up for an account on the website if if you're interested in in hearing exactly when when the schedule comes out and when you know open space signups are live, those sorts of things. We do have a newsletter. So the 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 web page, um you know we we do try to try to send that out. And another thing that will be opening up at some point as we get closer to the conference is uh on-site volunteer sign-ups.

Speaker 4: 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 on-site volunteers. Um Will I I think Uh I I stepped away from the the DjangoCon 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.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the best way to meet people is to help out for sure.

Speaker 4: It's 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 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. So that'll be open uh on the website. Uh there's also a mailing list that I I think we can probably share in the show notes.

Speaker 1: Okay, for sure. We'll we'll have all that in there. And and yeah, if you can make it make it, all the talks are available on uh online after and um Yeah, can't highly recommend it enough.

Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a pretty quick turnaround for for the docs getting uploaded to YouTube.

Speaker 1: Oh yeah, super fast sometimes. Yeah.

Speaker 3: And and I 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. um 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 in the convention center, trust me, you'll be thanking yourselves. Right, not having to walk additional 30 minutes back to your Airbnb.

Speaker 1: Yep. Exactly. So um 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 you both uh two months in person.

Speaker 4: Yeah, looking forward to

Speaker 3: you again for having us.

Speaker 1: All right. Bye-bye, everyone.

Speaker 3: All right, thanks a lot.