[PyAR2] pyArkasas 2010

[Greg Lindstrom]

Good Morning,

Saturday morning finds me at Chick-Fil-A once again and it's amazing the
difference between the weeks leading up to pyArkansas and post pyArkansas
(although, I'm the tutorial coordinator for the national conference, PyCon,
next Match and it's ramping up, already!).  I'm very happy with how things
went last week and want to thank everyone who helped out in front of and
behind the scene.  The classes this year were very well received and I have
heard a lot of positive comments.  I had to chuckle when reading what people
wanted to see covered next year when I saw "Ruby" ("Hey, get your own
conference!").

I had the opportunity to take a couple of days off this week with a rather
nasty stomach virus that's been going around so I don't have all the
comments summarized.  Kelley has put a survey up on the web page and I may
send out a request to everyone to fill it out.  The main point today, other
than thanking everyone, is to start thinking about what you would like to
see for next year.  What did you see this year that worked?  What didn't
work?  What could we do better?  When I work with clients to design software
I often tell them to "dream bigger" meaning that I want to know their
wildest dreams because, quite often, we can meet them (or, at least, start
in their direction).  With that in mind, I'm going to list some of my
ideas.  YMMV.


   - Have a 2-day conference with Friday being for "professionals".  This
   would entail bringing in teachers, finding meeting space (I assume UCA holds
   classes on Friday), and other details but, I think we could bring in a
   sizable audience.  We may even be able to charge for this to cover the
   expenses of the Saturday event.
   - Webcast classes to other Universities.  One of my main desires for
   pyArkansas is to introduce students to programming in general; particularly
   programming as a means to an end, not just for programming sake.  I also
   like the idea of showing our young ladies that it's OK to be a "nerd".  I
   have been told that there is a State-wide video system in place for this
   type of thing; could we have remote locations where we show the
   "introduction to Python" class where they could ask questions?  Gloria
   Jacobs has experience with this sort of thing and may be willing to help us
   out.
   - Have classes targeted specifically at teachers (High School,
   College/University, Tech Schools) to help them get Python introduced in
   their schools.  Show them how Python can be used to enhance their
   curriculum.
   - Have a "presentation track" consisting of 30-minute talks.  There is a
   classroom at UCA with desks (no computers) just begging to be used by people
   to tell the cool things they have done with Python.  This would be a great
   way for students to get experience preparing and presenting a paper.
   - Do we open the conference up to other technologies?
   - I'd also like to have quarterly meetings this year.  Do we have them at
   UCA or rotate them around the State?  I don't see these being near the
   effort of last week, though they could be if "a local" would want to do most
   of the work (I'd be happy to help out with all I've learned over the past 3
   years).


Those of you who do not know Chenyi Hu (C.S. Department Head, UCA) may not
know of his intense -- and intense is correct word -- commitment to
developing young professionals for not only graduate studies but for the
business world, too.  My dream is to develop talent in Arkansas to the point
of bringing business into the State.  I really want to get into some of the
"poorer" areas of the State where, I think, we can make a substantial
difference in many lives.  The possibilities are real and just waiting for
someone to take them on.  Why not us?

Again, thank-you to everyone who helped this year.  Now, what do you want to
see for next year (or, next quarter)?

--greg
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