[Inpycon] Venue Finalization {was} PyCon 2010 - Let's get started

[Noufal Ibrahim]

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 5:53 PM, Kenneth Gonsalves <lawgon at au-kbc.org> wrote:
[..]
> I think that we are still going about it backwards. We are yet to decide what
> kind of conference we are going to have. What is the aim and orientation? If,
> for example, it is building up community all over India, it makes sense to
> have it in a different city every time. And it makes sense to hold it in a
> college/university which gives a readymade audience and saves us a couple of
> lakhs for venue and infrastructure.

Is it a community event. Something that Python programmers can look
forward to and where they can meet and listen to people in the know
(perhaps foreign delegates). We don't want to 'recruit' Pythonistas in
some sense. My desire is to make it a place where people who are
interested in Python (professionals and others) can meet at a single
location.

It shouldn't be newbie hostile but at the same time shouldn't become a
"hello world" type conference. A Lot of criticism the last PyCon
received was of this nature (too many tutorial type talks and no real
meat).

I don't think making it a student event is going to help the
community. You'd have a lot of college people listening to simple
talks and tweeting about it but experienced Python people would find
it a drag and it would die.

So, in one statement the aim and orientation is to "Have a conference
where Python programmers from around the country can meet, exchange
ideas and network".

It's *not* an advertising/propaganda campaign for the language as such
designed to attract fresh talent.

> if it is a professional event to attract industry, then of course we should
> hold it in the metros only - and the metros with the most attractive climate,
> in a good hotel or convention centre, charge much more to make sure that only
> seriously committed people take part etc etc.

Industry involvement is limited to sponsorships, sending delegates and
perhaps a little networking. This is a community conference. Not a
corporate glam fest.

> do not forget that the US is the most advanced country in the world for this
> kind of thing and things that weigh with them - two consecutive events in one
> city, doesnt mean much to us here. There every one who attends will attend
> regardless of where in the US it is held. Here, things like distance and
> expense for travel and stay means much more. Or even getting leave to attend.
>
> so what is focus of the conference? who is the target participants and
> audience?

I've covered this above but the 2 times in one city has advantages not
restricted to the US. Learning from mistakes, reusing existing
manpower and planning and in this case in my opnion atleast, better
climate.

> As mentioned before, my personal idea is to spend the first few years focussing
> on newbies and on building community in different parts of the country (with
> maybe some professional tracks depending on whether we can attract people to
> write papers *specifically* for this conference or not). But this is a personal
> opinion - if most of those who are working for the conference feel different,
> fine with me.

I'm not in favour of this. I'd much prefer it to be a hardcore event
with perhaps a track or a small session targetting newbies rather than
the other way round. I don't want to water it down into a purely
newbie event. The difference between RubyConf and PyCon in India was
mainly at this point and in favour of the former.


Discussions welcome.

-- 
~noufal
http://nibrahim.net.in