DjangoCon Closing Remarks by Lacey Williams Henschel

Speaker 1: All right, hello, Django Khan family. We're here to close out our 10th Django Con US. And some of you may know from a talk I gave a couple of years ago. I'm an English major. I could not figure out the proper way to pluralize Django Con USs So we're just gonna go with that and call that good. You can tweet me a correction if you get that. But given that this is the 10th DjangoCon US, I thought it would be a little bit fun to um take a trip down memory lane To prior Django Cons in the United States. So if we go back to 2008, we can see on the Django Project blog the announcement that there will be a DjangoCon US Over the past couple of months we found volunteers who've taken on the task of planning a Django

Speaker 1: Con. And again, as an English major, I really appreciate the quotes. Like we weren't really sure what this was going to be yet. And then unfortunately the the website for the 2008 DjangoCon has not, its CSS has not survived, its content has survived. But as this is this is all we have. I looked in like web archive, you know, Jeff helped. We were not able to find a better thing than this. However, there is a project going on right now where we're trying to restore the old websites of prior DjangoCon. prior DjangoCon Europe 's. So if you would like a Sprint project, you can, you know, chat about that at the sprints. That's a wonderful thing that you can do. There's been some wonderful blog posts that I've, again, Web Archive and Google and very kind people on Twitter have

Speaker 1: led me different places. So Barbara Charette, who I think that many of you know and who's not able to be here this year, um, wrote about her excitement about being able to attend the very first Django Con US. And she said, I was up at 4 frickin' 30 this morning on the off chance that I might be able to get in on the first round of Django Con tickets. I believe that that first year they were free and from what Barbara says on her blog that it was a good thing she was up at 4. 30 because by 445 the website was erroring because so many people were trying to get those tickets The very first DjangoCon US was hosted in Mountain View, California at the Google headquarters. And so this is what that venue looked like. And thank you, James, for your links to some photos. I've using your photos pretty heavily, along with a lot of others. This is a picture of a panel.

Speaker 1: I think this is the core dev team. And let me see here. So yeah, pictured here is Adrian Holivati, James Bennett, Simon Willison, Jacob Kaplan Moss, Russell Keith McGee, and Malcolm Trednik, several of whom are with us here today. And one of the keynotes that year was given by a man named Cal Henderson. And one of the lovely things in that keynote that I learned is that in 2008, the website on the internet with the most traffic was Ya One of the other things that I found whenever I was looking at the old Django Kind websites is the the number of keynotes and the way that keynotes are described has varied tremendously. tremendously throughout the years. So for that very first DjangoCon, we had five keynotes. It was a two-day conference. It was supposed to be two-track, but I feel like you can only call it about one and a half track because so much time was spent in keynotes.

Speaker 1: Those keynotes were given by Robert Lofthouse, Guido Van Rossom, Cal Henderson, Mark Ram, and then Adrian and Jacob Kaplan Moss did a joint keynote. Keynote together. So six speakers, five presentations. And then here they are. I just wanted you to know how much of the schedule was taken up by keynotes. People were pretty excited about the first DjangoCon US. Eric Florenzano, who gave a keynote in a later year, said, DjangoCon, great conference or greatest conference ever? I think we know the answer to that. Also, Brian Veloso wrote a blog post where he he says that inspired by um something in Cal Henderson's first keynote at the Django Con in 2020. In 2008, he said Django needed a mascot, one that was awesome and had magical powers. Where somewhere in my, well, somewhere in my head, I agreed.

Speaker 1: And that's how we got the Django pony. In 2009, DjangoCon was hosted in Portland, Oregon. We were down to a more respectable keynote count of three. Those keynotes were given by Avi Bryant, even um Ian Bicking, and Ted Lung. And I was looking through the schedule today, actually, um, before I came to see Russell's talk. this afternoon and I noticed that he sort of broke some sort of space-time thing. He apparently was giving two simultaneous talks. Um between 255 and 355 355 Russell gave no bad pony and also getting the most out of the test client. I would really like to hear how that feat was accomplished. In 2009, Django was also featured in Wired. Wired referred to Django as our favorite web development frame

Speaker 1: framework. So Wired talked about Django and also Django Con, which is pretty exciting. And here's another panel. This one features Justin Braun, Joseph Kokerhans, am I pronouncing that right? James Bennett, Russell Keith McGee, Simon Willison, and Brian Rossner. And the pony. Oh, and also the pony. And also cannot forget the pony. Thank you. I also do want to mention that the precursor to DjangoCon Europe, Euro Django Con, was introduced. In 2009. I was this is where the Internet Archive failed me. I was unable to find anything but the Lanyard website for that. But this is part of the project restoration. So if that one exists in some data, that's a thing you can work on. 2010 brought us back to Portland. And then we have a a

Speaker 1: keynote mystery. There were a couple of double track talks that were not tagged as keynotes. There is a keynote slot on the schedule, and then there is a distinguished guest on the schedule in the blog and also on the schedule those names are never mentioned. I have no idea who they were. Um oh Russell is indicating that it is good that this has been wiped from the from the internet history. So yes. Ms mysteries that we we won't go into while I'm on stage. Anyway. Bar later. Daniel Roy Greenfeld said the conference was like a family gathering. And that's something that I'm I was I was really proud to hear set several of our attendees say that to me and to our other organization. So I feel very proud that we've been able to keep that spirit of family alive since at least 2010.

Speaker 1: Scott Hacker also said that this DjangoCon brought several surprises from a pony in the swag bag. to the discovery that you could get full to the point of bursting at a vegan restaurant. I live in Portland, so I'm I'm proud to see that vegan Portland food is is treating people right and was in 2010. And here's a photo of Russell with a um, I believe that that's a Django Con hat that was the swag that year, and then also a large python and the pony. I do wonder, is this the pony that appeared in all of the swag bags?

Speaker 2: Oh no, no.

Speaker 1: No, oh no, yeah. 2011 continues the tradition of Django Khan being in Portland. We were really excited about Portland there for a few years. We were back to five keynotes. David Eves, Russell Keith McGee, Brad Fitzpatrick, Idan Gazit, and Glyph Lefkiewitz were our keynote speakers that yeah. And DjangoCon used to have this tradition where we gave a couple, or I guess they at the time. I wasn't involved, gave a couple of keynote slots to um a Django BDFL or to the DSF to give a keynote. So that kind of explains the extra keynotes a little bit, but I still think it's funny. But that year we also had a bonus session, a fireside chat. And that was with a BDFL, but that BDFL is unnamed. So again, another DjangoCon History Mystery.

Speaker 1: That's the year that Pie ladies also organized themselves and came to Django Con. If you look through the Django Con schedules for the first few years, you notice that while there were some amazing talks by some wonderful speakers, those speakers were largely men. And in 2011, the Pi Ladies decided to organize and they wrote a blog post about how they were encouraging women to speak. They had workshops, they encouraged women to s to sit. Submit talks and the result was amazing. The result was that that year there were five women speakers at DjangoCon US. And also one of those speakers was our keynote speaker from today, Tracy Osborne. The Pie Ladies also helped out at a tutorial. Um and then yes, like I said, they gave five talks But that year we still had no code of conduct at DjangoCon.

Speaker 1: When you look back through the early DjangoCon schedules, code of codes of conduct weren't really a thing yet. So I I noticed this. I was wondering when was the year that the code of conduct was introduced? So then we bring to 2012 where we were no longer in Portland. Finally, we went somewhere else, somewhere other than the West Coast. We were in Washington, DC. And as a personal note, this was my very first Django Con. And we had a code of conduct at that Django Con, which maybe explains why I had a fantastic and lovely time at that Django Con. The code of conduct is here, but that was also the first year that tutorials became part of Django Con US. And I remember taking a couple of those tutorials. I've never known a Dango a DjangoCon without tutorials, so I'm very, very happy that explicit learning, that a deep dive for three or three and a half hours is a part of what we do here at DjangoCon.

Speaker 1: And this was pretty funny, someone wrote in a blog post this event that year in 2012 had exactly 404 attendees. I trust I don't need to explain that joke to anyone here. We did have five keynotes again that year. We were just really excited about a lot of keynotes. Eric Sterling, Russell Keith McGee, Selena Deckelman, so our first woman keynote speaker. Adrienne Holivati and Jeff Schmidt were our speakers that year. 2013 brought us to Chicago. Oh, and I had intended to do something and I got kind of nervous whenever I got up here. So I'm gonna stop now and I'm I'm gonna backtrack and I'm gonna ask, if you were at the DjangoCon in 2008, will you raise your hand? Oh my gosh, not very many. This is actually this is this is more exciting than I thought it would be. Okay. If you were at the DjangoCon

Speaker 1: in 2009, can you raise your hand And I know from Russ's talk and from Adrian's introduction that there are two hands that are just gonna get tired. So if you were at the DjangoCon in 2010, let us know. Okay, man, all right. Uh 2011. We get a few more hands this time. 2012, that was the DC year. We had a couple hands dropped, some of y'all didn't want to go all the way out there. And now 2013. A few more. Okay. I really love it. You can put your hands on now. I'm gonna do the others as we get to them. So you get to rest. You get to rest. I do love that there are actually so few hands raised because that means that over the past five years we have introduced a lot of new people to our community. community. So that's another thing I'm really proud of for DjangoCon.

Speaker 1: One thing about 2013 was really interesting, there was only one keynote. It was Russell Keith McKee. He gave the DSM keynote. But that can't possibly be right, right? That's one keynote is not nearly enough for a DjangoCon US. No, we had two plenary sessions that year. So we distinguished between the keynote and the plenary session. session. I'm not really sure the difference and I was there, so I'm not sure. Jacob Kaplan Moss and Amarick Augustin um gave the plenary sessions that you're been authorized. keynotes. I do also want to mention that 2013 was the year that we welcomed DjangoCon Australia to the DjangoCon family. I know we have a couple of the DjangoCon Australia organizers with us here today. I do want to um switch tones for just a moment to a a more serious tone. In 2013, we lost a man named Malcolm.

Speaker 1: Treadnik. I never got to meet Malcolm, but I've heard wonderful things about him, and so I did want to take a moment to acknowledge him. He was uh part of the very early stages of Django. He had a wonderful reputation. As a friendly person, as someone who was actively encouraging to new people. And so in 2013, the Django Software Foundation established a memorial prize in his honor. So Russell wrote in the blog post announcing this prize, with Malcolm's memory in mind, the DSF is proud to announce that with the blessing of his family, we will be establishing an award in Malcolm's name. The prize will be awarded annually to someone who welcomes, supports, and nurtures newcomers, freely gives feedback and assistance to others, and helps to grow the community. And again, I said that I I did not know Malcolm personally.

Speaker 1: I never got Got the chance to meet him, but I I do sincerely hope that he would be proud of what we do here at DjangoCon US today. 2014 brought us back to Portland. We had a real love affair with Portland. The keynote count was down to two, Dan uh Danielle, Proseda, and Brandon Rhodes. But really it was three. There was a talk that kind of spans both. Andrew Godwin also gave a talk that spanned both of the sessions, but wasn't tagged as a keynote. There was some inconsistency there. For several years. In terms of photos, that was the year of the duck. I was putting these slides together earlier today and Jeff saw this photo

Speaker 1: and he said You know, I I I I really love cactus. I'm so happy that that they're our sponsors year after year. Thank God they've never brought that dog back Apparently it was very wide and and kept appearing in different places. I wasn't there that year, so I don't know. 2015 brought uh several changes. First of all, it brought Django Khan down to Texas to Austin. And that was the year that, as we talked about this morning, DjangoCon was taken over by the Django Events Foundation North America. America. So that was whenever Django Khan transitioned from being run by a corporate entity to being run by a nonprofit consisting solely of volunteers. That was also the first year that Django Girls was part of DjangoCon.

Speaker 1: We held our first Django Girls workshop in 2015 in Austin, Texas And that was the year that we raffled off the very large cutout of the coffee guy. Who has a name? Someone remind me of his name. Hank. Hank. His name is Hank. Oh, and I forgot my my hand-raising thing. We did 2013 already. So who was at the 20 uh wait, did we do 2013? Who was at the 2013 DjangoCon? Okay. Who was at the 2014 DjangoCon? That was back in Portland. And now we're in 2015. Who was in? Austin. More hands! Oh that's exciting. That's exciting. That year we had four keynotes: Ricky Ensley, Jackie Casle, Lynn Root, and Russell Keith McGee. Russell, I think you might win the prize for most Django Cons attended, tied with Andrew, but also most most keynotes given.

Speaker 1: Congratulations. Your prize is waiting at registration. 2016 last year brought us to Philadelphia, which was very exciting. If you were in Philly, let me know. There we go. That's awesome. We had three keynotes last year, Saran Yatbarak, Andrew Godwin, and Janice Levin Hagen. And a 2016 sponsor nearly made me cry last year whenever they came up to And they said, we've been coming here for years and this is the warmest Django Con I can remember. That's something that just really warms an organizer's heart to hear that the attendees, the sponsors, the volunteers are Are having a good time. Saran, one of our keynote speakers, said in her blog post, in all these little ways, they sent a clear and cohesive message that emphasized the importance of making everyone feel welcome.

Speaker 1: So that feels like I'm bragging on, you know, my team a little bit. But we really did. We did a good job. This is our family photo. Last year we um started a what what what is this year going to become a tradition, so get ready of taking a group photo at Django Con. So now we're here in 2017. Raise your hand if you were here in 2017. There we go. I feel like I saw a couple of hands not up. So I do want to take some more moments to to brag on DjangoCon a little bit, but also let you know some numbers about what what happens at DjangoCon. This year we had 335 attendees. So that's all

Speaker 1: y'all. We gave away 18,735. Thank you very much to Sarah Gore, our financial aid chair for managing We um gave that aid to twenty-five financial aid recipients. This next number is one that I'm particularly proud of We had a record 245 talk submissions. We had serious conversations about whether we could make a third track work this

Speaker 1: year and we we couldn't make it work this year. I I I don't know what the future holds for us, but that um that number of submissions shows that people want to speak here, people have wonderful things to say. And you got to hear from our fifty two presenters this week, so I hope that you liked what they had to say. And I should have put um this slide a little bit earlier because you're you're just gonna have to keep popping for a while. So, you know, shake it out now. Um I've talked a little bit about money, about the financial aid that we've given away, but um throwing a conference costs money. Throwing a conference that is affordable for people to attend costs money and that money comes from our sponsors. We would not be able to do DjangoCon the way that we do Django Con Without the support from sponsors such as our diamond sponsor Lincoln

Speaker 1: Luke , our platinum sponsor, Heroku. Our gold sponsors Revsys and Cactus and Jetbrains and Guidebooks. And next mo our silver sponsors, Tito, Rover, Hambone Software, and JBS Solutions. Our bronze sponsors, Imaginary Landscape, Sofa Labs, Matt Landish, PG Experts, Mozilla, Little

Speaker 1: Weaver, Fusion Box, and Cash Star. And our diversity sponsors, DEFNA, the DSF, and the PSF. You can take a little break now. Shake it off. Shake it. I also want to, and I know that all the organizers do too, we would not be able to have a conference if no one came. There would, you know, this could just be one big Slack channel. So I do want to thank all of you who made the trip out here to come to DjangoCon to attend talks, to have conversations in the hallway, to look for jobs, to hang out in the hotel bar, to attend tutorials. We really appreciate your time and we hope that you've had an excellent experience while you're here at DjangoCon.

Speaker 1: So organizers, will you join me in thanking the attendees? for being here. Back to that giant slack channel analogy. Without our speakers and our tutorial presenters, there would really, you know, not be very much reason for everyone. to make the trip out here. It would be really fun to hang out with 300 of your closest friends for the weekend, but your bosses probably wouldn't pay for it. So thank you very much for our speakers for being here and and spending their time and all of the um the time that it takes to prepare everything that they did. So please join me in giving a round of applause to them. One of the things we really love that we've been able to do for the past several years is put all of our talks on YouTube

Speaker 1: afterwards. And we obviously couldn't do that without the excellent A V staff. that have been recording all of our talks. Thank you so much to Confreaks. Also, we're here in the hotel RL, so thank you very much to the hotel staff for everything that you've done for us, for feeding us, for cleaning up after us. Thank you so much. And everyone just wave to Adam, the photographer. Thank you very much for being here again. No, he's he's been lovely. He's been trying to get um very nice portraits of all of the the speakers, which is a nice bonus for our speakers to have.

Speaker 1: But he's also had really um he's been He's just been really quiet and unobtrusive and going around making little clicking sounds. Also, if you have volunteered this DjangoCon, if you've worked the registration desk, if you've been A session chair, a session runner, can you please stand up and let us give you a round of applause? There we go. Django con wouldn't happen without people to um to check everyone in, without people to tell speakers where to go and to introduce speakers. So that volunteer time really is appreciated. And now this is the part where I get to embarrass all the organizers. Can you all join me on stage?

Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know. Do it anyway Without All right, on three we'll all look at Adam. One, two, three. There we go.

Speaker 1: I

Speaker 2: didn't know that.

Speaker 1: Something's happening.

Speaker 2: Something is happening.

Speaker 1: Do you need oh you need to do that?

Speaker 2: Am I on? Okay. So I tend to try to avoid public speaking, so I almost did, but there's a couple other things that need to be said. So uh Phil Carlton once said there are two things that Let's see, excuse me. Um there are only two hard things in computer science, cache and validation and naming things. Well, Phil was wrong. There is a third, and that's organizing a computer. conference. Honestly, honestly, chairing a conference is even harder. Running a conference that requires naming lots of things for one. And if you think cache invalidation is hard, try running an inclusive, diverse, and well conference. So Lacey has left her mark on this conference by literally dotting every I and every T on all levels of you know including her for her fierce red I can say this after chairing for two years, having the honor of co-chairing with Lacey for last year, and then watching her chair this year.

Speaker 2: She's done a wonderful job. So everybody here has received a special badge this year to mark the occasion of being at Spokane. However, that wasn't the only special badge we created. So I'll be honest with you, I don't quite understand the meaning of this badge, nor do I understand the University of Texas love of the olive green.

Speaker 1: When you're there, your family

Speaker 2: So, however, we created a special black swan badge for Lacey. And actually we made 25 of them because they're a minimum. Mortars, so we're gonna be able to do that. So Lacey, on behalf of our community and our attendees, we love you and we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for chairing this year. So please give Lacey another round of applause