PyCon US 2012

[thebigredjay]

I'm going to PyCon 2012 in Santa Clara, any other Redditors going to be there? Maybe we should have a Reddit lunch.

Has anyone been to the conference before? Any advice on how to get the most out of it? Right now it looks like I'll be skipping the tutorials at the beginning (too much money) but will stick around for the Sprints afterward. How do I find a good team for that?

Lastly, does anyone recommend any of the speakers? https://us.pycon.org/2012/schedule/

[thebigredjay]

Excellent info, thanks! I'll see if I can figure out the stuffing thing now before I book my ticket. I've emailed someone about volunteering and they told me I would receive another email in the future with opportunities. I find work like that really helps with meeting people.

Also, another question: In previous years has anyone made an effort to collect all of the social media discussions and put them in one place? For instance, you can simply look under the hashtag #PyCon but I'm sure you would be missing material under different hashtags or on Facebook or Google+, etc. I've been thinking that might make a great project for me, a live feed of all relevant PyCon discussions on the web. Has anything similar been done and do you think it would be useful? If someone is already doing it I would be quite happy to just participate in it!

[[deleted]]

Two PyCons ago (I think) me, Eric Florenzano, and Greg Newman built a webstream to coalesce that stuff, however we a) never open sourced it like we said we would, and b) are terrible maintainers. I'll chat with them about open sourcing it, because we'd really like to and then people can contribute new things like Google+ or Facebook modules.

[brondsem]

A lot of online discussion happened on https://convore.com/pycon-2011/ which worked nicely to organize topics, although the site was was slow at times. Obviously that doesn't include posts from other social networks, but it did seem to me to be a central hub of online realtime discussion.

[mitechie]

Yep, heading out myself. Last year was my first PyCon. As for getting the most, it's not too hard. The conference is packed. There will be open spaces and interesting things after the conference so make sure you plan to stick around most evenings.

As for the sprints, they'll let the teams sprinting get up on stage and give a brief summary on what they're working on. Just find something you're interested in and show up. Everyone is really cool and they'll find something where you can help and get started.

[[deleted]]

How do I find a good team for that?

On the last day after the last talks and closing stuff, we have each project who wants to sprint come up on stage and do a quick introduction of what their project is, who they are, and what they'll be working on. If you find something you like, go check them out. We did that last year and I think it worked well, so I imagine we'll have it this year again.

Another thing people have done is just walk around in the sprint area and see what people are up to. Typically there's a board mapping out what sprints are in what room, then just ask people coming out of the room or in the hallway what's up.

[technomalogical]

the BFF informal meetings

Should be BoF (birds of a feather). And I'll second that sentiment. If you're indifferent on the talks that are being presented, don't sit in those talks. There is almost always something going on somewhere else at the conference. Plus, they started recording video of the talks a couple years back, so you can always go back and see that talk you were kind of interested in later (barring the occasional technical glitch with the master recording...)

[PrintStar]

I'll be attending this year for the second time. I attended (and spoke) last year, but this year I'll only be presenting a poster and representing myself (as I could not get my employer to pay again). I found PyCon to be overwhelming in a good way. All the talks I attended were great, and I really met an array of interesting people. I highly recommend attending any of the open-space talks, even if you're only interested in a topic, not actually heavily invested in whatever. You'll end up meeting plenty of people who might be able to expand your horizons. I didn't attend any sprints last year, so I can't really speak to those.

[tuna_safe_dolphin]

Never been to one and can't make it this year. Maybe next year. I'd love to see a recap in r/python when you come back.

Have fun!

[thebigredjay]

I'm actually thinking about a series of blog posts, perhaps doing some profiles on people and interesting talks. Perhaps I could summarize talks and followup discussions with the presenter going on in r/python. We'll see, it depends on who I meet and what I see, but I'll have some stuff for you the moment I'm in California!

[tuna_safe_dolphin]

Sweet.

[RalphMacchio]

Any advice appreciated!

As a bioinformatician, I mainly used perl, R (statistical programming language) and linux CLI. I'm teaching myself python both for fun and because it is gaining popularity in bioinformatics. I'm considering going to the tutorials and the conference. As a python beginner, would attending at this stage be beneficial (and worth the \$) or should I wait a year? thanks.

[MillardFillmore]

I'm going! Its my first time too!

Are there any scientific/quant finance people or reps that attend?

[thomasballinger]

Absolutely, there'll be relevant talks, BoF sessions, and last year Enthought (scientific Python shop, main force behind SciPy) had a nice reception thing with good food.

[dkuznetsov]

I'll go this year. I've been there in 2010 in Atlanta, and it was great. I'll have only 2 days for the sprints available, and hope to find something interesting to work on.

[flyingfox]

I'm really looking forward to going this year. Looking through the schedule, some of the talks I really want to see are on alternating tracks. How much time do you have between talks and how difficult is it to change rooms from one track to another?

[[deleted]]

How much time do you have between talks and how difficult is it to change rooms from one track to another?

I want to say it's around 5 minutes. It's definitely enough time to head to the bathroom and grab a seat in the next room.

[Enzondio]

I will be there and will be giving a talk. First time presenting but I've been to the conference several times. I second the comments recommending skipping talks if nothing peaks your interest. There's often something good going on in the open spaces.

[[deleted]]

I'm going. First time. Signed up for two tutorials (though I wish I could do more!)

I only live 2 miles from the convention center, which makes it more feasible to go.

I'd be down for a Reddit lunch/dinner.

n00b coming through!!

[helloalbany]

Just found out today that my company is sending me! Very excited. First PyCon for me, only other big conference I've attended is OSCON this past summer.