PyCon 2013, occurring once again in sunny Santa Clara, California, will now be accepting all types of proposals through MONTH DAY, 2012. As with years past, we're looking forward to receiving your best proposals for tutorials, talks, and posters.
The 2013 conference will run from XXXXXX to YYYYY at the Santa Clara Convention Center, just 15 minutes from San Jose, and one hour from San Francisco. On the schedule we have the main conference running Friday XXX through Sunday XXXXX, which is preceded by two days of tutorials and followed up by four days of sprints.
Continuing a trend started years ago, attendance records were once again broken last year, and the schedule was the best we've assembled. Can you help us top 2012?
You. Your friends. Your friends' friends. Anyone with any level of Python knowledge is a candidate for a great topic at this conference. As we get attendees of all kinds, we need speakers of all kinds. In all ways and manners, we try to assemble the most diverse conference we can, and we do that with your help.
Whether you got started with Python last month or you've been around for 20 years, we think you've got something to share. The Python community is stronger than ever and we're still reaching new areas, new industries, and new users. Be a part of growing Python by helping us change the future.
You don't need to be a well traveled professional speaker to get on stage at PyCon. What matters is the topics, the materials, and the drive to present great things to this community. Every year we get first timers and we welcome them and work with them to make everyone feel at home. We also engage our advanced speakers to work with everyone else to share their wisdom and help put together the best show possible.
All together, we received 519 proposals for talks, tutorials, and posters in 2012. Let’s see what you have for us this year!
As with past years, PyCon 2013 features three types of presentation sessions.
These are the traditional talk sessions given during the main conference days, Friday through Sunday. They're mostly 30 minutes long, but we offer a limited number of 45 minute slots. We tend to organize the schedule into "tracks", of which there are five, grouping talks by topic and having them in the same room for consecutive sessions.
In 2010 we added the successful "extreme" talks, which you are welcome to submit again in 2013. These are talks which skip introductory details and dive right into the topic. The topic doesn't need to be advanced -- the "extremeness" revolves around how you'll be presenting your topic.
As for the topic, that's up to you. We want something for everyone. We want the hot topics in the community right now. We also want the hot topics for the future. Where is Python going? You tell us. You're the people who make those decisions and we want to share them.
If you think you have a topic but aren't sure how to propose it, contact our program committee and we'll work with you.
Take a look at what talks made it in 2012. There's a ton of great presentations in there. Hopefully we can include yours in 2013.
These are three-hour courses presented on the two days preceding the main conference - Wednesday and Thursday. We schedule two sets of tutorials each day, with morning and afternoon sessions. As with the talks, we're looking for any tutorial which can grow any level of this community. We're looking to schedule tutorials that will advance Python, advance this community, and shape the future.
Are you a full-time trainer? Bring your course work to PyCon. Every year we get several educators to bring their show on the road, so show us what you have on the syllabus for 2013.
As tutorials are longer than talks and are in an interactive classroom-like setting, they require much more preparation. Due to the amount of work involved, tutorial instructors are compensated, but they are also limited to teaching two tutorials.
Posters are a recent addition to the Python schedule, but they're a definite hit and back for another round in 2013. The poster session provides a more interactive, attendee-driven presentation than the speaker-driven conference talks. Poster presentations have fostered extensive discussions on the topics, with many that have gone on much longer than the actual "session" called for. That is exactly what we wanted!
The idea is to present your topic on a 4' x 4' poster board and as attendees mingle through the rows, they find your topic, read through what you've written, then strike up a discussion on it. It's as simple as that. You could be doing Q&A in the first minute of the session with a group of 10 people.
As with the other proposal types, we're really looking to you to talk about what's going on in this community and tell everyone where it's going. If you're doing something awesome, share it.
For more information about Posters and the Post session, see https://us.pycon.org/2013/posters/
PyCon is entirely volunteer-organized and run, and works hard to keep costs as low as possible. This includes having an “everyone pays” policy: everyone, from the conference chair on down, pays for their own ticket and travel expenses. That said, we do appreciate those who share their knowledge at the conference: Speakers with accepted proposals will receive early bird pricing and have a guaranteed spot at the conference even if we hit the attendance cap. For registration pricing see: http://us.pycon.org/2013/registration/
If early bird pricing and travel would still be a burden, PyCon also has a large financial aid program to help those who can’t afford to attend PyCon. Speakers will be prioritized in the financial aid program. For more details, see http://us.pycon.org/2013/assistance/.
We don't want you to miss the opportunity to be a part of this conference. We really don't. We need you. We also want you to submit early so we can work with you. While we don't begin formally evaluating proposals for inclusion until the acceptance window closes, we do take a look at proposals as they come in and work with submitters to make sure every proposal is complete. Many of us have submitted proposals ourselves, some of us have been accepted to present, and all of us want to see the best proposals possible, so we'll work with you.
Proposals for talks and tutorials will be accepted until XXXXXXXXXXXXX. The list of selected talks and tutorials will be finalized by the end of XXXXXXXXXX. Posters will be accepted on a rolling basis until XXXXXXXXXXXX, or until the allotment of posters has been filled.
Other important dates:
- XXXXX: Talk and tutorial proposals due.
- XXXXX: Selected talks and tutorials announced.
- XXXXX: Conference schedule announced; early bird registration opens.
- XXXXX: Financial aid applications due.
- XXXXX: Financial aid awards announced.
- XXXXX: Poster proposals due.
- XXXXX: Early-bird registration closes.
- XXXXX: Posters announced.
- XXXXX: Tutorial days at PyCon.
- XXXXX: PyCon main conference.
- XXXXX: PyCon sprint days. Thank you!
Submit your proposal at http://us.pycon.org/2013/speaker/ and thanks for helping us make PyCon 2013 the best one yet!
For additional contact information, see: http://us.pycon.org/2013/about/