Download From Python Import Conference Documentation

From Python Import Conference
Documentation
Release 0.2
Jesse Noller
December 13, 2014
Contents
1
Contributors
3
2
Introduction
2.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Picking your event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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3
Conference Types
7
4
Social Issues
9
5
Diversity and Financial Aid
11
6
Teams
13
7
Talk Types
15
8
Talk Selection
17
9
Budgets and Costs
9.1 Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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10 Sponsorship
10.1 Sponsorship categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10.2 How to get sponsors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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11 Tickets and Registration
11.1 Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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12 Venue selection and negotiation
12.1 Types of venues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12.2 Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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13 Schedules
27
14 Swag: The hidden cost sink
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15 Marketing your event
15.1 Your web site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15.2 Email listserves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15.3 Social media outlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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15.4 Hardcopy materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15.5 Word of mouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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16 Financial and Legal Structure
33
17 Add ons - Mobile Guides and more!
35
18 Conferences Around the World
18.1 PyCon US xxx-2013 . . .
18.2 PyConVE 2012 . . . . . .
18.3 PyDay Caracas 2011 . . .
18.4 pyArkansas . . . . . . . .
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19 Indices and tables
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20 Indices and tables
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From Python Import Conference Documentation, Release 0.2
This guide / book is a community driven guide built from the collective knowledge of conference volunteers and
organizers from around the world.
The hope is to provide to you, a budding conference organizer enough information with which to build your community
event and put on an amazing event that is not only self gratifying, but enriches the entire community it is geared around.
Much of the information in this guide will be based off the collective experience of primarily Python Community
oriented conferences, such as PyCon US, EuroPython, Python Canada, and many others; however, much of this
information is just as relevant and important to anyone looking to put together a community event.
We hope that if you are an organizer or volunteer that you take a look at the GitHub repository and consider contributing. Without your knowledge and contributions, this guide will be incomplete.
Contents:
Contents
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2
Contents
CHAPTER 1
Contributors
Without the following people, both contributors and those who helped build past events, this guide would not be
possible. Consider saying thank you.
• Jesse Noller - Chair PyCon US 2012/2013, Program committee chair 2011/2010 and Python Software Foundation director.
• Sean Reifschneider - Internet Coordinator PyCon US 2007-Present.
• Chad Cooper - pyArkansas organizer over the years, pyArkansas 2012 Chair, PyCon 2012 Poster Session CoChair
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Chapter 1. Contributors
CHAPTER 2
Introduction
Putting on a community event - no matter how small, or how large, can be a daunting task. It involves a delicate series
of balancing acts - financial, social, theme and scope. It is also possibly one of the most rewarding things you may
ever do.
Make no mistake though - it is an investment, an investment of your time, money and other resources, which is fraught
with pitfalls. However, when at the end of your event people come up to you and shake you and your volunteers’
hands, pat you on the back and thank you, you will know it was worth it.
By reading this guide you can navigate the pitfalls and avoid many of the mistakes that many of us have made. We
hope to provide to you enough resources and pointers so that you can hit the ground running and put on an amazing
event for our community.
2.1 History
TBD: Discuss the history of events within the Python community.
2.2 Picking your event
This may sound odd; but before you go much further, you need to think about what kind of event you wish to put on.
Are you thinking of going small - a single track with short talks, spanning maybe one or two days, or a larger event,
spanning most of a week, with several tracks, longer talks, tutorials, and perhaps ancillary events such as sprints?
TBD: Expand on ways events can differ - number of days, number of tracks, geographic range (local, regional, national), breadth of subject matter, number of attendees, cost, amenities, etc.
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Chapter 2. Introduction
CHAPTER 3
Conference Types
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Chapter 3. Conference Types
CHAPTER 4
Social Issues
TBD: Code of Conducts, anti-harassment, etc. Drinking Events.
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Chapter 4. Social Issues
CHAPTER 5
Diversity and Financial Aid
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Chapter 5. Diversity and Financial Aid
CHAPTER 6
Teams
TBD: Outline teams, team roles, ownership.
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Chapter 6. Teams
CHAPTER 7
Talk Types
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Chapter 7. Talk Types
CHAPTER 8
Talk Selection
TBD: Outline the community voting type, identify the champion, curated, etc TBD: Outline Blind voting (no identifying talk markers, pros and cons)
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Chapter 8. Talk Selection
CHAPTER 9
Budgets and Costs
9.1 Internet
Terrestrial wireless is often a good choice, but can be difficult to locate providers of. Often you can find 100Mbps of
bandwidth for $6,000 to $12,000 for a week-long event.
Hotels, if they have appropriate bandwidth (probably multiple DS-3 or an OC-3 line or better) will likely charge at
least twice what a terrestrial wireless is.
Access to Hotel wired infrastructure can cost hundreds per port, with dozens of ports used for an event like PyCon.
WiFi service by the venue can cost as much as the Internet access.
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Chapter 9. Budgets and Costs
CHAPTER 10
Sponsorship
Sponsors might not be absolutely required to make a conference successful, but they sure do help. A lot. Having
sponsors allows you to rent a space if needed, lets you provide honorariums to speakers, and provide refreshments for
your attendees. Sponsorships can range from and include prize donations, cash, t-shirt sponsorship, web site hosting,
and general swag.
10.1 Sponsorship categories
1. Cash
2. Prizes
3. Swag
10.1.1 Cash
The best form of sponsorship is also often the toughest to get. Cash lets you rent a space if needed, pay for refreshments, provide financial assistance to speakers, and purchase miscellaneous supplies.
10.1.2 Prizes
Everyone loves to get a prize, right? Many companies may not be willing or able to donate cash for your cause, but
they will donate items for prizes. Book publishing houses love to donate books as prizes.
Prize ideas:
• Tech books, especially those related to a focus language of your group
• Software licenses, especially IDE licenses
• T-shirts; oftentimes cash sponsors will provide some t-shirts as well
• Gadgets, such as Raspberry Pis
10.1.3 Swag
Just like prizes, everyone loves to get swag. This can be a time-consuming process, for if you want to provide a
swagbag, it needs to have more than one or two items in it. Many companies have swag laying around in boxes that is
left over from larger national conferences and they are wanting to get rid of it; don’t be afraid to ask.
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Swag ideas:
• Stickers
• Pens
• Coffee mugs
• Shot glasses
• Software/service discount codes
• Brochures
• Did I mention stickers?
10.2 How to get sponsors
So just how do you get sponsors for your conference? A lot of networking, relationship building, cold emailing, and
maybe a phone call or two.
10.2.1 Networking
Networking is key to getting sponsors. Utilize any and all contacts that you and your group might have. If your
conference planning group is part of a Python User Group, tap into that pool of people; they may know people who
could be potential sponsors, or they could be potential sponsors themselves! Been to any professional conferences
lately (PyCon)? Take a look at the sponsors there and see if any of those companies offer products or services that
would be of interest to your attendees. Sponsors aren’t just going to throw money around to any and every conference
they get hit up for, and they get hit up for a lot. Their product or service needs to be something that could be of interest
and usable for your attendees; after all, sponsors are in business to make money.
10.2.2 Emailing
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Chapter 10. Sponsorship
CHAPTER 11
Tickets and Registration
Depending on the size of your event and whether or not you will be charging a fee, you may or may not choose to use
ticketing and registration.
11.1 Registration
Registration options vary from simple spreadsheets and forms to online applications dedicated to event registration.
• Google spreadsheet and Form: Probably one of the simplest forms of registration available. Create a Google
Form and send the information to a Google Spreadsheet. This method is very easy and simple to setup and
maintain, but it is also very “primitive” and basic. Although this method is free, it will not work if you plan on
charging a registration fee.
• Web-based event registration application such as Eventbrite or Eventzilla. These applications obviously excel
at attendee registration, as this is what they are made for. If your event is free, use of these services is typically
free as well. For paid events, the registration provider typically charges a small percentage-based fee. The fee
can either be explicitly tacked onto the cost of registration or the organizer can just up their registration fee to
make the provider fee invisible to the attendee. Providers such as Eventbrite or Eventzilla also provide widgets
and code that conference organizers can embed into a page on the conference web site.
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Chapter 11. Tickets and Registration
CHAPTER 12
Venue selection and negotiation
12.1 Types of venues
For regional conferences, venues basically fall into two types:
• Free
• Not free
12.1.1 Free
If you are just starting out, it’s best for your venue to be free of cost as it will make things much easier on your event
and your budget. A good place to look for hosting for your event is local colleges and universities, especially computer
science departments. Several regional conferences in the U.S. have had great success with tapping into the resources
available at computer science departments at local higher learning institutions. Many computer science departments
are now using Python as their “Intro to programming” language, so they would be very ammicable to hosting your
event and helping in many ways.
12.1.2 Not free
Once you are able to secure funding from sponsors and your event is large enough, you might need to move into a
larger space, and these oftentimes will cost you money. Again, many collges and universities have conference centers
for rent that work perfectly for regional conferences with up to several hundred attendees. For a quality conference
center that includes staff, rooms, internet, and other ammenities, expect to shell out at least $1000 USD to several
thousand USD per day.
12.2 Internet
Be sure to include negotiations of Internet access with the venue as part of this process. Many venues have partnerships
with providers, and if you negotiate this after the venue contracts have been signed, they have less incentive to negotiate
their component of this partnership down. Once you’re locked in to a venue, they have little if any incentive to discount
the Internet, including things such as access to the in-the-wall wiring, their demarcation and cable closets, etc...
There are many components that they can provide:
• Internet access: The connection from your users to the public Internet.
• Interior wiring: Ethernet jacks in the walls in various rooms and runs between rooms. The hotel may or may not
own this infrastructure, and may charge for providing access to it and lighting it.
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• Wireless and/or wired networking: Venues can often provide the client access to the network. However, you
have to be very careful with this, many facilities just aren’t able to provide access to a technical conference,
which tends to require access to the Internet and have many more devices than a non-technical conference.
• Demarcation access: If you bring in your own connectivity, you still have to get from where the connection
comes in to where you need to use it. In many cases this may require the hotel to run cable, and there may be
other fees for access as well.
Also be aware that many facilities, even as of the time of this writing in 2012, are not particularly technically savvy.
Particularly this seems to be true in smaller venues. For example, it’s not uncommon to find a venue that is going to
charge you thousands of dollars for access to a couple of bonded T1 lines, which are also used to provide the hotel
rooms with Internet access as well.
The typical PyCon conference uses upwards of 50Mbps of network bandwidth at peak, to support around 1,200
attendees.
Also, many venues are not set up to provide wireless Internet to a technical-oriented conference. Because there are so
many devices being used at the same time, they often collide. A good rule of thumb, we have found, is one dual-band
(2.4 and 5.2GHz) 802.11n access-point for every 20 users. If the venue networking can’t provide this many, there will
almost certainly be problems.
See Sean’s PyCon Network Reviews for more detailed information on what worked and what didn’t at previous PyCon
events.
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Chapter 12. Venue selection and negotiation
CHAPTER 13
Schedules
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Chapter 13. Schedules
CHAPTER 14
Swag: The hidden cost sink
Everyone loves swag. Unfortunately for you as an organizer, acquiring swag can be very time consuming. Luckily
for you, many companies active in the Python community love swag as well and love to provide it to conference
organizers.
Types of swag:
• Stickers
• Product coupons
• T-shirts
• Pens
• Thumb drives
• Coffee cups, shot glasses
• Swag bags
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Chapter 14. Swag: The hidden cost sink
CHAPTER 15
Marketing your event
Good marketing is crucial to getting people to actually attend. Marketing takes on many forms:
• Your web site
• Email listserves
• Social media outlets
• Hardcopy materials
• Word of mouth
15.1 Your web site
Your conference web site is quite possibly to most important marketing tool you will have. Your site is the first place
people will go to seek out information about your event, and they will expect to find what they are looking for there,
so you better have it there for them!
Some existing Python conference web sites:
• PyCon US - the granddaddy of them all, runs on Symposion, and was built and is maintained by Eldarion, hosted
on Gondor
• PyTexas - running a customized version of Symposion, maintained by members of the PyTexas group and hosted
on Rackspace
• PyOhio - also running on Symposion and hosted on Gondor
• PyData NYC - running Symposion
• PyData
• PyCarolinas
• PyCon Australia
• PyCon Canada - 2013 site running Symposion
• pyArkansas - running Symposion, hosted on Webfaction, maintained by the pyArkansas group
• PyCon Taiwan
• PyCon Germany
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15.2 Email listserves
Announcements to email listserves is a great way to reach potential conference speakers and attendees. That said, if
you join a list with the purpose of posting an announcement about your event, it is considered polite to first ask (the
list admin if possible) if it’s okay to post your announcement.
Some Python conference listserves
• PyCon organizers
• General Python group organizers
• pyArkansas organizers
• PyOhio organizers
• Python conferences list
Other types of listserves you can advertise/announce on
• Linux user groups
• Geographic information systems (GIS) user groups
15.3 Social media outlets
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+
• LinkedIn
15.4 Hardcopy materials
• Business cards: You can get these really cheap through sites such as VistaPrint.com, or you can get them made
locally. Local-made ones will probably be of better quality on nicer cardstock, but they will also cost more to
produce.
15.5 Word of mouth
• User group meetings: Not just necessarily Python user group meetings; you can attend other meetings as well
• Other conferences: Do you go to other types of conferences? Talk to people there, pass out your conference
business cards!
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Chapter 15. Marketing your event
CHAPTER 16
Financial and Legal Structure
TBD: MAKE A SUB NON PROFIT FOR THE EVENT. TBD: Event insurance
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Chapter 16. Financial and Legal Structure
CHAPTER 17
Add ons - Mobile Guides and more!
TBD: Outline mobile guide resources TBD: Other events (hackathons, 5ks, etc)
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36
Chapter 17. Add ons - Mobile Guides and more!
CHAPTER 18
Conferences Around the World
What follows is an index of anecdotes/notes and other resources from the points of views of various Python conferences
around the world. Some of this may be incredibly relevant to your area, and in total it should provide to you the
personalized perspectives of each of the conferences.
Contents:
18.1 PyCon US xxx-2013
18.2 PyConVE 2012
Here i will put down some of my experience as the head organizer of the PyCon in my country. Also expose some of
the lessons learned in the process.
18.2.1 Conferences in Venezuela, some context first:
In Venezuela, we’ve done several big conferences and install fests. For example, the Inter-University Computer
Science Conference, and the Latin American Free Software Install Fest. But, we’ve done only just a couple of PyDays
y two different cities and some isolated Python small conferences and developers meeting.
The Venezuelan community tries to do at least one PyMeeting monthly, sometimes we can, sometimes we can’t, but
we’re almost always in touch through the mailing list, that was the way we did everything for the PyConVE 2012.
18.2.2 Why a PyCon anyway?, the beginning
On 2011 we did a PyDay and it was great, we has a really good time and I had a great time while organizing and
running it. By the end of the year another member and I came up with this crazy idea in the mailing list and some
other members told us that it wasn’t going to work, but we did it anyway, we thought that was the only way the whole
community finally met and start doing something bigger.
Also, we wanted to measure how big the community is or how big it would become, how many people would be or is
interested in programming in Python.
So, we decided we’ll do it around November 2011 and we started planning on December 2011. I wrote Wesley Chun
to ask him if he would like to come down and speak at our event, he couldn’t make it, but he gave me a lot of contacts
who would surely be interested and some of them were in South America. By the beginning of January 2013, I had
2 confirmed international speakers: Facundo Batista (Argentina) and Érico Andrei (Brazil) and another one to be
confirmed: José Montes de Oca, from Google, thanks to Wesley.
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I promised Facundo and Érico that we were going to cover their flight tickets and hotel, but we didn’t had any sponsor
at that moment.
Then I wrote to my University to ask if they could host the event for free, the answer was a solid yes so I reserved two
labs and one auditorium for the three days of the event: November 1, 2 and 3rd.
Now, we had international speakers and a place to run the PyCon, but no sponsors and no national speakers.
18.2.3 In the Middle
Well, we were on March 2013, I saw the Argentinians launched the website for their PyCon, we didn’t have anything,
not even an Under Construction page and I had a Panic Attack. I rushed to find a sponsor to develop the website, I
asked the company where I was working and we did a great job using django and twitter bootstrap, now, we had a
decent website and a place where people could register to attend and place presentation proposals.
My co-organizer, Francisco Palm, made me see that we weren’t as bad as I thought, he found some sponsors to cover
posters for the event and lunch for the speakers and organizers, we had a place, a website, international speakers and
some national speakers already registered in the website, so, I felt better.
Now, the real deal was finding a sponsor for the flying tickets and the Hotel for the international speakers. Érico
accepted staying at my place and Facundo was coming with his family, so I needed to find a bigger room. I wrote a
couple of emails to several companies that work with Python based technologies and I finally got them to pay for the
tickets and the Hotel for Facundo & family.
In the meantime, José confirmed, but it was too close to the event date and the tickets were too expensive, so we
arranged to do his presentation via Google HangOuts.
It was about two days before the event when I finally had everything done and finally slept well.
18.2.4 The actual event
The first day, I got in a traffic jam with the speaker who was supposed to open the event, so it was supposed to start at
8:00, and it actually started at 9:30, pretty cool for the first day.
The other two days went OK, just a couple of issues with uninstalled software at the labs, but nothing critical, I got a
lot of help from the community those days, they were in everything, if I was tired or left to sleep at some place at the
university, someone got in charge of everything and solved things as good as he could.
18.2.5 Conclusion and lessons learned
In the end, we got only nice comments and a very good feedback for the event.
Some lessons we (or I) learned from the PyCon:
1. There is no need to have a bank account and a legal figure to get sponsors, although for this kind of events it is
a nice plus, we lost some sponsors for not having this.
2. If nobody wants to help at first, don’t let it keep you from doing things. People is more likely to join if things
are moving rather than starting from scratch.
3. There are things that you can’t control, like traffic jams and internal politics or bureaucracy at the university that
hosts the event. You have to know it and accept it, that’s the only way to relax if something happens.
4. You can have a Plan B if something happens, but you can’t foresee everything, remember that you’re human.
5. Don’t accept all your friend’s presentations at first, save some because always a couple of speakers will cancel
late. you can’t foresee everything.
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Chapter 18. Conferences Around the World
From Python Import Conference Documentation, Release 0.2
The best thing about the PyConVE, wasn’t the event itself, was the wave it left, now there is people in other states
organizing PyDays and doing PyMeetings and promoting Python in their universities, it was a huge step for the
Venezuelan Python Community.
18.3 PyDay Caracas 2011
PyDay Caracas 2011 was the first official conference ran by PyVE in Caracas – Venezuela. It was on March 13, 2011
at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB) facilities.
The community was talking about organizing a conference, we were discussing about running a PyCon, but this was
the first conference dedicated only to Python so we decided to do something smaller and organize a PyDay.
When organizing a conference, a big or a small one, the first thing we usually do is to select the time and space.
We start writing to several universities asking if they could host the event, we normally have a couple of students or
professors to help in the process, then we select a reasonable day for the event and start working based on that.
18.3.1 What we did:
Once we had a day and a place for our PyDay, we started looking for sponsors and speakers, this task was easy, we
didn’t need too much things because this was a small event and the university wasn’t going to charge us for the venue.
To find some speakers, I sent a thread to the mailing list and a lot for members wanted to submit their presentations,
the submission was made by email because this was a small event and the community in Caracas wasn’t big enough
to do it on a larger scale (a website, for example).
Now, with the venue and the speakers, the only thing missing was publicity, a member of the community is the owner
of a local Linux academy, so, he sponsored some posters to paste them at the most important universities in Caracas.
For a one-day event, only a coffee-break is enough for the attendance and just water for the speakers, we made another
sponsor pay for a couple big coffee bottle, some cookies and a lot of water for the speakers and for the members who
were helping the day of the event.
18.3.2 Lessons learned:
1. There is no need to open a bank account to receive sponsorship and run a conference.
2. There is no need to have a legal figure to receive sponsorship.
3. Small events are the best way to start making some noise with your local Python community
4. Students are a very loyal and receptive public, they are usually happy with this kind of events at their universities.
5. You must have a person dedicated to monitor the time per presentation, speakers almost always take longer than
they say (at least in Venezuela)
6. Sometimes the time for questions after the presentation is not enough, try to reserve your venue for at least an
extra hour after the event finishes. For example, if the event is supposed to end at 16:00, you should reserve it
until 17:00.
7. Try to have at least one hour before the conference starts to put all the venue in order, connect and place your
Video Beam in the best place, make sure the microphones works well and that the audio from the computer is
setted in a proper volume.
8. To run a PyDay, a one-man organizing team is fine, but if you can get some help from other members of your
local community is better. PyDay Caracas was organized and coordinated by just one person.
18.3. PyDay Caracas 2011
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18.4 pyArkansas
pyArkansas was started by Greg Lindstrom and Chad Cooper in the summer of 2008. Greg conceived the idea
of pyArkansas, and Chad jumped on board to help. The following is an attempt to provide a history of sorts for
pyArkansas and comes from a combination of emails, documents, and a dump of Chad Cooper’s brain (scary).
18.4.1 2008
The inaugural pyArkansas of 2008 (October 4th) was pretty low-key; Jeff Rush from the Texas Python group was
kind enough to set us up with a wiki that they were using to run PyTexas on. Greg contacted the Computer Science
Department at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) in Conway about them participating and possibly hosting
our event. They immediately responded and very graciously offered to host our event, provide wireless internet access,
and even provide laptops and teach two Introduction to Python courses. UCA has been behind us and supported us
ever since then.
Location
UCA Computer Science Department, Conway, AR
Attendance
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Tutorials
• Python 101 - Bernard Chen, UCA
• Python 201 - Jeff Rush
• Python for Systems Administration - Noah Gift
Talks
• PyGame - Greg Lindstrom
• Python Standard Library - Noah Gift
• Text/file processing with Python - Chad Cooper
• OLPC - Chad Files
• Python eggs - Jeff Rush
Sponsors
• Conway, Arkansas Chamber of Commerce
• Novasys Health
• Southwestern Energy Company
• Python Software Foundation
• O’Reilly Publishing
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• Wingware
• Python Magazine
• wearpython.com
With the help of O’Reilly Publishing, we were able to bring in Noah Gift as a speaker. Noah drove from Atlanta right
after a major hurricane and gas was pretty hard to find in areas of the southeast. Jeff Rush and several others came
from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area as well. We had about 55-60 attendees total that day. Everyone had a great time and
we received positive feedback from the event:
• Dr. John Taber blog post
• Log Cabinet Democrat newspaper article
Funding
The PSF gave us $300 that first year and we raised another $800 from Novasys Health and Southwestern Energy
Company. The Conway Chamber of Commerce also provided us with $750 to be used toward brining speakers in.
Swag
Swag was pretty modest this first year:
• Python stickers courtesy of the PSF
• A copy of the September 2008 issue of Python Magazine, courtesy of Doug Hellman at Python Magazine
• A copy of a recent ArcUser magazine, courtesy of Esri
• Ink pen from Novasys Health
18.4.2 2009
pyArkansas 2009 occurred on November 14 at the Computer Science Department of the Univerity of Central Arkansas
in Conway, Arkansas. Attendance was 78 people.
Location
UCA Computer Science Department, Conway, AR
Attendance
78
Tutorials
These morning (roughly 2.5 hours) classes were taught:
• Introduction to Python (beginners) - Dr. Bernard Chen, UCA
• Introduction to Python (programmers) - Dr. Carl Burch, Hendrix College
• Intermediate Python - Gloria Jacobs
• Introduction to the Django Web Framework - Chad Files, Novasys Health
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• Introduction to Jython and Image Processing - Dr. Chenyi Hu, UCA
• Advanced Django - Jacob Kapan-Moss
• Using Blender I and II, Gordon Fisher
Talks
• An overview of the Twisted framework - Derek Horton
• Programming Python with Blender 3D - Gordon Fisher
Sponsors
• Novasys Health
• Conway Advertising and Promotion Commission
• Conway Chamber of Commerce
• Python Software Foundation
Funding
Swag
Prizes
• Books from Manning Publications
18.4.3 2010
pyArkansas 2010 took place on October 16th.
Location
UCA Computer Science Department, Conway, AR
Attendance
80
Tutorials
• Introduction to Python - Dr. Carl Burch
• Python Teach-In - Brad Allen
• Data Visulization with Python - W. Emeneker
• Intro to the Google App Engine - Chris Harris
• Introduction to GUI Programming, - Wayne Werner
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Talks
• Simple Game Design - Dr. Bernard Chen
• Blender I - Gordon Fisher
• Web Framework Overview - Gloria W. Jacobs
• Scientific Computing - W. Emeneker
• Freeseer - A Live Presentation Recording Application - L.J. Estorninos
• Blender II - Gordon Fisher
• MongoDB - Gloria W. Jacobs
• Python Meets 3-D CAD - Nicholas Seward
• Real-time Image Processing - Dr. Gabriel Ferrer
• What Does This Code Do? - Jeff Rush
• Concurrency - Gloria W. Jacobs
• Web Security and Django - Chad Files
• Programming Mindstorm Robots - Greg Lindstrom
Sponsors
• Novasys Health
Funding
Swag
Prizes
• Books from O’Reilly Publishing
18.4.4 2011
pyArkansas 2011 was on October 11th. We continued to grow. We had a very simple print program with blank pages
for note taking put together for a minimal cost of around $100.
Location
UCA Computer Science Department, Conway, AR
Attendance
85
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Tutorials
• Introduction to Python I - Bernard Chen
• Using Python with Blender I - Gordon Fisher
• Sphinx I - Brandon Craig Rhodes
• Data visualization - Brian English
• Introduction to Python II - Bernard Chen
• Sphinx II - Brandon Craig Rhodes
• Using Python with Blender II - Gordon Fisher
• Python on Heroku - Craig Kerstiens
Talks
• Introduction to Django - Wade Austin
• SQLite - the database you didn’t know you had - Greg Lindstrom
• Introduction to Blender 3D - Gordon Fisher
• Translating time - Josh Hanna
• Python on Android - Steve Cohen
• Designing a simple SQL processor for text files - Dr. Carl Burch
• Heart your database - Brandon Craig Rhodes
• Encryption and group theory - Michael J. Hinds
Sponsors
• Novasys Health
Funding
All funding for pyArkansas 2011 came from Novasys Health.
Swag
• Python stickers from the PSF
• Wingware pens, gliders, Wing 50% off coupon
• O’Reilly free e-book certificate
• Buttons and stickers from No Starch Press, pens and postcards too
• No Starch Press 30% off coupon
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Prizes
• Wing IDE full license (1)
• Komodo full license (1)
• No Starch Press books (6)
• No Starch Short sleeve t-shirts
• O’Reilly Publishing books (11)
18.4.5 2012
2012 was a true banner year for pyArkansas. Attendance jumped to over 100, with approximately 110 people in
attendance. pyArkansas 2012 was on October 27th. After the 2011 conference, we decided we needed a larger venue
that had a room that could fit over 100 people in; this would allow us to have opening and closing sessions along with
a keynote. We chose Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center on the campus of UCA, and it worked out great. We raised
more funds than ever before from more sponsors than ever before, which allowed us to (finally) have a t-shirt, rent the
Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center, and provide our attendees with afternoon beverages. We intended to have all
tutorials and talks video recorded, but the arrangements for that literally fell through the week before the conference.
Location
Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center, UCA, Conway, AR
Attendance
110
Tutorials
• Getting started with GeoDjango - Adam Fast
• Using Python within Blender 3D - Gordon Fisher
• Introduction to Blender 3D - Gordon Fisher
• Notable Features of Python - V James Powell
• Introduction to Python - Chenyi Hu
• What is Python and Why is it Cool? - Jeff Rush
Talks
• Python Neogeography, teaching your code about where - Adam Fast
• An introduction to Test Driven Development in Python - Wayne Werner
• UI Design with Balsamiq Mockups - Wayne Werner
• REST-ful APIs with Flask and MongoDB - Douglas Starnes
• Python for Humans - Kenneth Reitz
• Flasky Goodness - Kenneth Reitz
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• Heroku 101 - Kenneth Reitz
• wxPython - Creating Beautiful GUIs - Greg Lindstrom
• Mozilla Web Development with Python: Best Practices - Luke Crouch
• Salt: Manage Your Infrastructure - Jeff Bauer
• Data Networking for Developers - Jason Myers
• Debugging Strategies: A Guided Discussion - Jeff Rush
• A Talk of Lightning Talks - Jeff Rush
• Python in a GIS Lab - Jason Tullis
• Distributed, Real-time Web Apps with Stack.io - Gabriel Grant
• Building Rich Applications with Django and Ember.js - Gabriel Grant
• Building full-stack scientific applications in Python - Luke Lee
• Dunder What? The power of Python’s Data Model - Luke Lee
Sponsors
We pushed hard for funding in 2012. We defined funding levels and put together a sponsorship prospectus and believe
those helped tremendously in acquiring funds.
• Novasys Health
• New Relic
• Python Software Foundation
• Google
• Heroku
• Work for Pie
• Mozilla
• Enthought
• Django Software Foundation
• 10gen|MongoDB
Funding
We raised our most funds to date in 2012 with funding sponsors of Novasys Health, New Relic, the PSF, Google,
Heroku, Work for Pie, Mozilla, Enthought, the Django Software Foundation, and 10gen|MongoDB.
Swag
Our swag was pretty awesome in 2012. Who doesn’t love stickers?
• 10gen|MongoDB
• Python Software Foundation
• 4imprint
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• Malvern National Bank
• StackExchange
• SendaFlyingCard.com
• Wingware
• No Starch Press
• Bitbucket
• New Relic
Prizes
Most. Prizes. Ever.
• Manning Publications sent a huge box of books
• Wingware has supported us every year and again donated Wing IDE licenses
• O’Reilly Publishing has also supported us every year and again sent several boxes of books
• 2 Raspberry Pis courtesy of Nichols Software, Inc.
• No Starch Press sent several boxes of books
• PyCharm offered up 5 free IDE licenses
• Startup Weekend Tulsa gave us a free pass to give away
• New Relic gave several Nerd Life t-shirts
• Stackexchange gave us a whole box of Stackoverflow and Stackexchange t-shirts
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CHAPTER 19
Indices and tables
• genindex
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CHAPTER 20
Indices and tables
• genindex
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