Orientation and Welcome by Kojo Idrissa

Speaker 1: Good morning everyone. It is 9. 31, so I'm going to go ahead and get started with your orientation. So first of all, I want to thank you all for coming to DjangoCon US 2019. Give yourselves a round of applause. Welcome, welcome. So if you're here at the orientation session, uh hopefully that means you saw it in the schedule and thought, hey, this is the thing for me that I should come to. So again, I'm glad you're here. Uh I am Kojo. I am uh I do a number of things here at DjangoCon. I am the orientation chair, which is why you're here now. I am also the Lightning Talk Chair. I'll talk about Lightning Talks in a little bit. I'm also the Sprints chair.

Speaker 1: And so sprints are Thursday and Friday, so you kind of see me all week. So that's a good thing or a bad thing depending. I'm also the DEFNA North American Ambassador. DEFNA is the Django Events Foundation in North America, so that's the nonprofit that puts on DjangoCon US. And so in that role as a North American ambassador, I do a certain amount of traveling around. So even if this is your first DjangoCon, you might have seen me at a conference in your your locale. The Twitter handle for a DEFNA is there, DEFNATO. In addition to putting on DjangoCon, DEFNA also has small amounts of funding for Django-related events around North America. And so you can either go to the, you know, contact the Defnato Twitter account or go to the Defna. org site for more information on that.

Speaker 1: So orientation. Is is this orientation for you? We are focusing primarily on two groups. Let me adjust that slightly. We're focusing primarily on two groups here at the orientation. One is new attendees, so people who are either at their first tech conference or at their first DjangoCon. By show of hands, how many of you are here at your first DjangoCon ever? Oh, okay. All right. Well, that's good. Um, so yeah, I'm glad you're here. How many of you are at your first Czech conference ever Show of hands. Okay. All right, so a smaller number of people. So again, we want to focus on you know new attendees, people who you know who might sort of feel overwhelmed. We want to make sure that you get the most out of your Django Khan experience. But we're also focusing on anybody who might feel like they're who might feel that they would be uncomfortable in a setting like this.

Speaker 1: So as many of us know, tech conferences tend to skew fairly heavily towards, say, white men in their 20s through 40s. So imagine for a moment if you're a white man somewhere between your 20s and 40s, if you came to Django Khan and most of the people at Django Khan were black women from in their 40s through 60s. So one person's excited about that, but if you're a white man and you're in your somewhere in your 20s and forties and 80% of the people around you were black women in their 40s through 60s, you might start to think like Am I am I in the right place? Is this because I'm looking around and it just I don't know. It seems like I do Django, but uh maybe I'm in the wrong place

Speaker 1: And so if you came to Django as a white man in your your 20s through 40s, and most of the people here were black women in their 40s through 60s, I'd still be here probably doing the orientation and I would tell you, yes, you are in the right place, because that's how DjangoCon US works. And so that so this is what we do here. This is what we do at DjangoCon US. And so we focus on people who might feel uncomfortable, but also partially because of underrepresentation, but also just because you might be uncomfortable in a large group of strangers. Because Unless you brought your entire company with you. You know, you might be the only person here. And so we want to make sure that you feel comfortable and that you get off to the right start, get your get a proper footing as you get started. And you might be trying to figure out, well, what do I even do with DjangoCon? How do I DjangoCon?

Speaker 1: So the f one of the first things we're going to talk about is the code of conduct. And I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time going through the details of the code of conduct. The link is here. It is on the website and you can look at it in more detail. But one of the most important parts about this is that we want you to be safe and to have a pleasant time at DjangoCon. And if you feel that you need some sort of assistance as it relates to the code of conduct, we don't want you to feel afraid or ashamed or embarrassed to ask for assistance. That's literally what it's there for. That's why we have a code of conduct committee. If you go to the code of conduct page, there are people that you can contact, there are numbers that you can contact. W we've done all of that because we want you to be safe and to and to be comfortable and to have a great time here. There are two things that we just that you know

Speaker 1: Two important things I want to point out. One, here at Django Khan US, we do not tolerate any sort of harassment of any any type. That's just not a thing that we have here But then two, more importantly, because sometimes there's been some confusion or contention around codes of conduct, we don't have a code of conduct. Because we want to try to catch people doing bad things. That's not what we have the code of conduct for. We have a code of conduct to help you become a better software developer. We have to help you become a better Django knot. And what do I mean by that? This is the reality. Software development is a difficult thing. Whether it's you know actually writing code, testing code, deploying that code. Django is a web framework, so all the web-related things, the HTML, the CSS, the JavaScript, making it performant, keeping things updated, learning those concepts, and then implementing those concepts

Speaker 1: are all difficult in and of itself on their own And so why would you want to then add social difficulties to that? So you're here at DjangoCon US to learn more about Django or about software development or about web development. We don't want you to have to worry about other things. And this is what the code of conduct is for, to help allow you to focus on becoming a better software developer. and not to worry about these other things. There is often a narrative in technology that says, well, when I was learning to code, or when I was learning technology, I had to deal with harsh people and harsh environments, and that's just how learning to code is. And so new people who are learning to code also have to go through that because that's just how learning to code is. Here at DjangoCon US, we don't agree with that. We sort of actively

Speaker 1: actively reject that narrative, and the fundamentals of learning to code are difficult enough in and of themselves. So We want you to be in an environment that is as relaxed and as friendly as possible so that you can focus on learning the actual technical details of whatever it is you're trying to learn here at DjangoCon. And so the code of conduct sets it sets the set of expectations so that you can focus your mind on those things, on the actual software development and not on other issues. or worrying about how people might respond to you if you're a woman or if you're transgender or if you have a mobility issue or if you're unfamiliar to them in some way. Uh one simple tip that is useful in interacting with folks while you're here at DjangoCon is to try to avoid certain sort of what I call nerd

Speaker 1: humor anti -patterns. For instance, one person will say, oh, well, hey, here's this topic, and it makes me very uncomfortable. And then person two says, oh, I'll make a comment about topic X. Ha ha just kidding, because I was doing it ironically. No, don't do that. It's not funny. Just don't do that. Literally an anti-pattern. You're you're making things worse. Don't do that. Um and so with that being said, we're gonna move on to focus, as I said, the code of conduct is here to set us To set expectations to allow you to focus on becoming a better Django Knot or a better software developer. So, how do you do that? How do you get the most out of DjangoCon? You have to decide what it is that you want from DjangoCon US. Why did you come? What are you hoping to get from this? And so this of course is the part where it's like

Speaker 1: it's 9. 30 in the morning. I'm giving out homework assignments. Like why why? Hojo why? Um but it's necessary. So as you're here at DjangoCon US, you have to decide for yourself, why did I come specifically? What am I actually really hoping to get out of it? Are you looking to just learn more about Django. Are you looking to learn more about back-end development, more about front-end development, more about the HTML-CSS part? Are you just trying to learn as much technical knowledge as you can? Or are you maybe looking for a job Or are you looking to hire someone? Or are you just looking to expand your professional network? Maybe you already have a job that you like and you just want to expand your professional network. Or are there other reasons you're here? So these are questions that I can't answer for you, but these are questions that you need to ask yourself.

Speaker 1: Why am I here? What am I really looking to get out of Django Con? US. And the reason this is so important is because this will determine that this this answer or this set of answers will determine what you do for the rest of the week while you're here. So there's the issue of managing your schedule. So again, as you you look you look through the schedule of the conference, there are lots of talks. It's a two-track conference. There are gonna be situations where you've got two talks that are lined up against each other and they both seem interesting. The question of how do you go to which talk, you know, which talk do you go to and when and why, that's going to be based on what your motivation, what your motivating reason for being here is. And so talk selection is important, but also recognizing that you don't have to go to every talk.

Speaker 1: All the talks are recorded. There's a certain amount of energy management that I'll talk about as well. And so You can determine how you're going to manage your energy and how you're going to manage your schedule based around what it is you came to do. What's your primary goal here at DjangoCon US? is. I'd also point out that the schedule is on the website, but then there's also the guidebook application that is available on iOS device. Well on iOS On most mobile devices. And you can that's helpful for just helping you pick out what you want to do and where you want to go and that sort of thing. One thing I will point out for DjangoCon this year, Intel. Many of you, most of you are new DjangoCon attendees, so you might not know what past Django accounts are like, but this year we have a slight format change. Normally we have talks Monday, Tuesday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Speaker 1: This year, we're having talks all three days, but the format is going to be different on day three. On day three, we're going to have a set of what are called sort of more deep dive talks, more advanced talks. There was an event called Django Under the Hood that happened can't recall how many years ago. I should know that. Um but at Django Under the Hood they went uh this the talks went into much more detail about sort of the the underlying guts and and machinery of Django. And so day three is going to be a set of talks like that, a set of more advanced talks. And so that may be something to be aware of. So on day three, the talk format will be slightly different than it is. Day three being Wednesday will be slightly different than it is on Monday and Tuesday. Also, I want to point out the idea of a hallway track.

Speaker 1: And so for those of you who are either at your first DjangoCon or at your first tech conference, the hallway track is something that isn't always familiar with people. The hallway track is basically what's happening out in the hallways when people aren't in actual talks. And so the hallway track. is useful for meeting people, having conversations that you wouldn't have in other places. One of the one of the reasons people will sometimes optimize for the hallway track. is that the conversations that you have with people here, other DjangoCon attendees, those aren't recorded. You can't replicate those in any other way. The talks are all recorded, you can watch those again at your at your leisure. But The people that you meet and the connections that you make during the hallway track can't be replicated. So that is something to keep in mind, but it is a real thing.

Speaker 1: Again, I talked about managing your energy, the idea that you need to sort of pace yourself. Make sure that you you are taking care of yourself. You know yourself best. Again, as software developers, many of us tend to be slightly more introverted. And so being in la being in a large crowd of strangers can't be sort of draining on one's energy. And so you know yourself best. You have to try to manage that. Um but please take care of yourself. I've uh one of the things I started mentioning to people last year as the sprints chair is this idea of a self-care sprint So development, software development sprints are important, but a self-care sprint where you take some time to take care of yourself is the only sprint that makes every other sprint sustainable. I'll say that again because I think it bears repeating. The self-care sprint

Speaker 1: is the only sprint that makes every other sprint sustainable. So if you feel like you're being overwhelmed or you know your brain is sort of taking in as much as you think it can take or you've been around so many strangers as long as you can, just take some time to take care of yourself. So we have a quiet room that is in the it's called the PDR. It it'll say PDR, but it's the private dining room. So if you go out this doorway on the on my right, your left just outside of this main hall, the PDR is there, there's a quiet room that's available if you need that. Or if you're staying here in the hotel Use your room, use your hotel room as a quiet room. I would say if you are staying here in the hotel, maybe try to prioritize using your hotel room as a as a quiet room so that people who aren't actually staying at the hotel can make use of the

Speaker 1: of the the quiet room that's on premises. Also, with this venue, there's a lovely pool area, there's an outdoor area. So if you just sort of want to get away from the crowd, if you feel like your crowd is a little bit too much. San Diego is lovely. And you can in San Diego you can be outside and it's still very comfortable. So you can go and enjoy the pool area or the outdoor area and just sit quietly and Just breathe and relax. And so, but again, you know yourself better than than the rest of us know you, so please make sure you take care of yourself. We also have a lactation room which is in Santa Fe 3, which is to my left, uh in this hallway to the left, the same hallway that you use going to get breakfast and lunch. So Santa Fe three is in that hallway on the right side if you're walking in that direction behind me.

Speaker 1: Um also if you start to feel like you're getting overwhelmed Most people's badges have different stickers on them. The bright green stickers are for organizers like myself, and then the red stickers are for the ask me stickers, so people who you can ask questions if you need help. At almost every conference, your badges get flipped around, and that's just how that works. But the colors are still visible, so if you start to feel like you're in over your head or out of your depth, just grab someone with the appropriate colored ribbon, and we will be happy to help you You can also help run DjangoCon if you feel like okay, I'm comfortable with this, I'm I'm getting involved. There are volunteer opportunities This link is to the blog post that talks about that, I think, during the introduction. That's going to be spoken about a little bit more, but if you feel like you want to get more hands-on

Speaker 1: and involved, that is a thing. And you want to make new friends. And so there's something that's known as the Pac-Man rule that gets often gets described at conferences. Eric Hulsher of Read the Docs Fame. I think is the the person who popularized this. The idea is that if you're standing in a set of people or with a group of people, try to configure yourself in a in a Pac-Man formation such that there's an open space so that People are able to come and join the group, join the conversation. This is how we sort of are more welcoming to folks here at DjangoCon. Also, during lunch. If you if one of your goals is to try to meet more people, try to just sit try to sit with people that you don't know instead of sitting with, like maybe you've met one or two people instead of just sitting with the people that you're saying, people that you already know, try to sit with some people that you don't know.

Speaker 1: And that's how you can meet new people, make make new connections, make new friends. So among other things, I am also the Lightning Talk Chair. And so the Lightning Talks are going to be Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday during the first half of the lunch period. And this link, this bit. ly link, notice the format of the link, uh, bit. ly DCUS for DjangoCon US, 2019, the year, and then LT for Lightning Talks. You'll see that sort of format used a few times again. So with the Lightning Talks, we have nine slots available each day. And the the signup sheet for Monday is unlocked and available now. Uh so you can go to that link and sign up for Lightning Talk.

Speaker 1: If we have more than nine submissions in a day, then I'll choose I'll curate and go through and decide which talks uh are going to be given. Um you need to provide contact information so that I can reach out to you and let you know. I will point out that Uh lightning talk slots are going to be prioritized for attendees. So if you are someone who's speaking at DjangoCon or giving a tutorial, or if you're one of the conference organizers, you'll be on the lower end of the priority list. as far as lightning talks because we want to try to encourage as many attendees as possible to give lightning talks, especially if you haven't given a talk before. One of the reasons I'm the Lightning Talk chair is because I feel that giving lightning talks is an excellent way for people to start giving talks in general. It's a it's a sort of a a lower pressure way to do that.

Speaker 1: So if you go to that link, there's a Google, a Google spreadsheet where you can sign up. The Monday sheet is, there's an instruction sheet. The Monday sheet is open now, so you can start Submitting your ideas for Monday Lightning Talks. That sheet will close at uh at 11. 30 today, and I'll be sending out notifications by noon. because the actual lightning talks start at 12. 50 today. So today it's a compressed time window. But then for Tuesday and Wednesday talks, the spreadsheets for Tuesday and Wednesday, what for instance for Tuesday will go live at 2. 20, so just after lunch. today and then that'll be closed on 9 a. m. tomorrow morning with notifications being sent out by 11 o'clock tomorrow morning. So that is the Lightning Talks. We

Speaker 1: also have situations where we often have people from other conferences. As a North American ambassador, I've been to many conferences in North America and in other countries and other continents. So this spreadsheet is for the friends of DjangoCon. And so instead of trying to have a rush of lots of different compet conference organizers trying to tell you about the conferences in in 30 seconds or 15 seconds We've created the sheet here so that if you are someone who is organizing a regional or national conference somewhere else and you want to share that information with Django Khan attendees. As a conference organizer, you can go here and list your conference and information about it as someone who might want to go to another conference in wherever the conferences are. Again, conferences all around North America, all around the world.

Speaker 1: You can go and take a look at this link and see a list of some of these different conferences, see if their CFPs are still open, so you can submit a talk if you'd like to. So that's what this is here for the friends of DjangoCon. Now, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we have talks. Thursday and Friday we have development sprints. And if you are not familiar with development sprints. Then you're in for a treat. But the development sprints are situations where people work on open source projects like Django, and instead of having to work on them in a distributed manner because people are scattered all over the world, Now you have lots of Django folks in one room and lots of other people who are working on other projects in in one space and that's what the development sprints are. An opportunity for people to work together in the same space on open source projects So the development sprints are Thursday and Friday.

Speaker 1: You need to register for the sprints, but there's no cost. And I would imagine if you're planning to stay, you've already registered. I would also point out that if you're here and if you're someone who is planning to organize a sprint, please try to make sure that you are ready for new contributors. Do you have issues that are marked for for new beginners, things of that nature. At the sprints of this year, we're going to have two different events to help people get started. We're going to have a GitHub boot camp to help people get started. using Git and GitHub, learning how to to do the things that you need to do to make contributions to open source projects in general. But then we will also have something being run by Carlton, one of our very own Django fellows, to help people get started making contributions specifically to Django. So that will be Thursday and Friday. And those are going to be in Cabrillo 1 and 2, which is the set of rooms that's closer to the front of the hotel

Speaker 1: on the left from where I am. There's more information about that GitHub desk that I just described here at this link on our news site. There's also going to be a set of social events, and again, I won't go into these in in a tremendous amount of detail because those are going to get discussed later. But You can go to the site, the the the Django Han US blog and there'll be detail of some of the different social events that are happening. Tonight, there's going to be a welcoming party here just outside of this area. So please come to that so we can welcome you appropriately. And as you're going through the conference, there you know again there are different ways to get information, different ways to to sort of keep up with things, keep up with changes.

Speaker 1: So again, a guidebook is helpful. All attendees should have gotten an email with a link to guidebook so that you can get that going on your appropriate device. Also, there is a Slack channel for DjangoCon US 2019. Again, check your email. There's a link should have been sent to you If you don't have that set up already, search through your emails and that link is available. And if you want to tweet about DjangoCon, which is always exciting, the official hashtag for DjangoCon is hashtag DjangoCon. Hopefully it's straightforward. Also, as you may have noticed out here in the the main hallway, we have sponsors here. So if you have the opportunity, feel free to stop by, visit our sponsors, chat with them, thank them.

Speaker 1: So in the in the the sort of sort of directed self-interest approach, the idea is, are you looking for, you know, maybe you have a job you're happy with now? you might want another job. As I've heard someone say all jobs are temporary. So maybe you need to look for your second job or look for your your third job or what have you. Many of the sponsors are here and they're hiring, so talk to them. Find out what they do, find out what their tech stacks are, find out if they'd be a good fit for you. Um at the same time, the sponsors help us to keep the ticket prices low and to make DjangoCon at US as affordable as possible for as many people as possible So feel free to stop by, chat with them, find out what they're working on, and let them know that we appreciate them. Now this is something that uh

Speaker 1: new conference attendees might not always be familiar with. Uh I have been at two conferences in the last month or so where they were the first conference of their type. And there's this idea of uh post-conference depression. And so and so I'm going to share this with you all now so you can be prepared for it. The idea is you're here, you're at DjangoCon, it's exciting. Uh I'm going to assume that you're here at DjangoCon US because you all are interested in interested in Django, yes? Yes. And where you work, you might be one of the few people who's really interested in or excited about Django, yeah? I mean like like you've maybe got some other co-workers, but like like you uh how many of you work at a company that's like all Django all the time? Okay, well see so you guys are good. So for these people, when you go back to work

Speaker 1: , you'll be like the hero. And people are like, oh, you went to Django. Tell us about the Django Khan. It was so awesome. Share with us your wisdoms from Django Con. But for many other people, you go back to work, you go back to your home life, and you won't be surrounded by Django people anymore. You have like a week of being surrounded by Django people who were all like, yeah, Django. And you get back to you get home and it's like, oh So, post-conference depression is a real thing. For some of us who have been coming to conferences for a while, it's a chance to see our friends and that kind of thing. So I wrote a blog post after coming back from PyCon Africa in August because that was also had many first-time conference attendees. So post-conference depression is a real thing. That's okay. I have some ideas here on how you can help deal with it, but don't be freaked out or worried about that, especially for a first-time conference attendees.

Speaker 1: So that is all I have. I am also on the Slack channel. My Slack handle is transition. You can find me on Twitter also as Transition, or you can tweet at DjangoCon or at DEFNA if you have any questions for them So that is all I have. Once again, thank you very much for coming to GeneralCon US. We we literally can't have a conference if people don't come. Like we I guess we could, but it would be a terrible, terrible idea. There'd be like 20 of us just in a big room not doing anything. So thank you again for coming and I'm gonna wrap it up here just a second and Thank you again.

Speaker 2: Good morning, everyone.

Speaker 3: Good morning. It's so good to see all of you here today. I think it's 10 on the dots, so I guess we'll go ahead and get started. So good morning. Welcome to your first day at DjangoCon. I'm Jessica Deaton. I'm conference chair this year. I'm Sarah Gore, I'm the co-chair. And we want to thank Kojo, obviously, for giving an amazing orientation just now. We hope a lot of you got to attend and you're feeling very empowered and know what to expect this week. You'll sign up for some of our lightning talks. We're uh super excited for that. Glad to have Kojo give that for us every year.

Speaker 2: Thank you all for coming. This will be my fifth Django con. And I'm very excited every year. I'm excited to see so many faces that I already know because that means that people keep coming back every year which means that we must be providing something great. And I'm also thrilled to see so many new faces because that means we have new people joining our community. Um hopefully you will love it as much as I do. The positivity I get at DjangoCon is really what Oops, what gets me through the year? Um I really do believe oh sorry. I really do believe that this is one of the most welcoming and inclusive tech communities, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Speaker 2: I'm really proud of our lineup of talks this year, and also proud that for the first year ever we have live captioning for all the talks. Um you can see the monitor here. So if you in particular um need to sit closer To see the monitor, um, please sit up in one of these areas and please be conscious of um people who might need to sit there as you go out through the week.

Speaker 3: Yeah. Um this year we're also excited to have Deep Dive Day, which is new for DjangoCon US. Uh we're kind of following in the footsteps of Django under the hood. So we have a full day on Wednesday dedicated to talks that dig deeper into Django topics. So we hope Wednesday will be full of more deep learning and more engagement with Django specific topics. So hope we'll join you for, or hope you'll join us for those. As Sarah mentioned, the schedule is awesome this year. We're proud to partner with Guidebook for this. So if you don't have the Guidebook app, please install that app. It lets you self-select all of the talks you want to go to. It also has our lunch menus, some FAQs that you might have get answered on there, and it allows you to leave feedback for our presenters so we can just keep getting better and better over time.

Speaker 3: Appreciate that feedback. Get that downloaded. Also, tonight, opening reception. So it's right out here on the West Lawn, almost directly out the store. Same place as last year for those that are returning. We'll have food and non-alcoholic beverages. It'll be a good place for you to socialize, get to know other concert goers. We'll have a mac and cheese bar, slider bar, bruschetto bar, just a couple of things. More than that that I'm not going to mention. You'll have to go and be surprised. We do have vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options available for that as well. So come join us for a little dinner.

Speaker 2: We have a quiet room. That's located between the hotel restaurant and the doors near registration. You kind of have to walk into the courtyard to get there and it there's a sign outside that says quiet room, private dining room, which is what the hotel calls it We also, for the first year, have a lactation room. There's a sign-up page on the door if you need it, and you can come grab someone from registration to let you in. Whenever you leave, just close the door behind you and it'll lock. Uh there 's a fridge in there, but please be aware that the room is locked after 6. 30 p. m. every day. So if you need to grab your milk from the fridge, please do so. The room is located at the end of the hall that's leading to the pavilion. So if you're walking towards where the food is, you'll see it on your right.

Speaker 3: Okay, we also have lightning talks. If y'all were here for the orientation talk, you should have already heard about these. They're quick five-minute talks. They can be about anything. The slots go pretty quickly, so if you're interested, go ahead and sign up. The link is here. Also, if you have questions about lightning talks, you can get with Kojo, who's right over here. He is our Lightning Talk guru. Also, if you have a conference that you'd like to promote, we have lots of people here that also organize for other conferences, so feel free to add your conference to this list. And if you're interested in other conferences that are like Django, uh DjangoCon US, you can go there and check those out and maybe attend those this year too. For social media, please make sure to tweet us. We're hashtag DjangoCon

Speaker 3: and we're using the sailboat emoji this year. We love to see your key takeaways from talks. We like to see the fun that you're having, so post that so that those of us that are working get to actually see how much fun you're having. We also have a professional photographer walking around. You'll see him here. So we have lanyards this year that let people know. I see that a lot of you have. whether or not you prefer to be photographed. So red means please don't photograph me. Yellow is to ask. Blue is I'm fine with being photographed. This is not just for our professional photographer though. If you are taking pictures and planning to post them to social media, please be mindful of the people you might capture, okay? We also have pronoun buttons again this year. These have been designed for us by YupGup.

Speaker 3: They're amazing. If you haven't picked them up, they're at the registration desk. Feel free to use them, but they are optional.

Speaker 2: Uh food, one of my favorite topics. So we provide breakfast and lunch. The menus are available on the schedule and guidebook. Early lunch is going to start at 12. 50, but that's the same time as lightning talks. So if you aren't attending lightning talks, you can attend lunch at 12. 50. Otherwise, regular lunch is at 1. 40. We should have a line for food, two lines for most of the food, and then a special designated section for vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options in the back of the pavilion. There will still be other options that are vegan and gluten-free on the main lines, like fruit and things like that. But usually there'll be some kind of reserve protein or something in the back for um The special diets.

Speaker 2: And if nothing at the given lunch or breakfast accommodates whatever your diet is, please talk to the hotel staff because they said that they're eager to help us out. So we'll find something that can accommodate you

Speaker 3: We're also looking for volunteers. This is a great way to give back to the conference and also meet new people We have still openings for session chairs, which is mainly just introducing speakers, helping with Q<unk>A. We also are looking for Sprint volunteers, so if you want to help somebody get started with Sprints, help them learn how to make their first commit. Or if you just want to help some of the amazing projects that we have people sprinting on this year, go ahead and sign up on that uh spreadsheet. The link is up here. If you have questions about what any of those roles are about. There's answers for that on the spreadsheet, or you can come grab an organizer and we're happy to explain. Obviously, we have a code of conduct here and we thank you for everybody helping to make this a a welcoming and inclusive environment.

Speaker 3: Over the week we just ask that you kind of keep an eye out for each other. If you see someone without a lanyard, point them to the registration desk so that we can make sure that they're checked in and they should be here. If you see somebody that you think might be getting hassled, please let us know. If you see something, say something. Email us here at coc at DjangoCon US or give us a phone call. If you're being hassled, feel free to just talk to one of us in person, or you can reach out to a Sisway if you're more comfortable.

Speaker 2: So we couldn't do this every year without our sponsors. We'd really like to give a round of applause to our platinum sponsor, 23andme We also have our gold sponsors, JBS. O'Reilly, Guidebook, Lincoln Loop, Revsus, Nexmo Doctor on demand, White Source, Microsoft Azore, Path AI And our diversity sponsors who help fund our opportunity grants that allow people who might not otherwise be able to attend our conference attend. So that would be DEFNA Django Events Foundation North America.

Speaker 2: the Python Software Foundation and the Django Software Foundation

Speaker 3: Okay, so without further ado, you've heard enough from us. We want to get to our first keynote here for 2019. We're super excited to introduce Matt Mitchell. He is a hacker. He's the director of digital safety and privacy, a tactical tech, also known as the Tactical Technology Collective. In his work there, Matt leads security training efforts, curricula. and organizational security for the organization and their mission to raise awareness about privacy, provide tools for digital security, and mobilize people to turn information into action. Matt is a well-known security researcher, operational security training trainer , data journalist who founded and leads Crypto Harlem. An impromptu workshop teaching basic cryptography tools to the predominantly African American community in Upper Manhattan.

Speaker 3: And we are so honored and excited to have him here today. So if you will please welcome Matt Mitchell Grab the slaps up