From drnlmuller at gmail.com  Tue May 22 12:29:45 2012
From: drnlmuller at gmail.com (Neil Muller)
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 12:29:45 +0200
Subject: [pycon-za] Pycon ZA Status update
Message-ID: <CAPzz3haPQxvQ6ZO+4=xZDzHpJ0Z_KtOkdu-aOgtDWwkC_XPcGg@mail.gmail.com>

Thanks to Simon's hard work, we now have a synmposium instance running
at http://za.pycon.org , and we've fixed the dates for the 4th and 5th
of October

My plan is to poke at how symposium's proposal submission setup works
in the near future, and, once that's running, we should send out a
call for papers. Ideally, I want everything in place so we can do this
shortly after the next CTPUG meeting on the 2nd of June.

Currently, my list of groups to spam with the CfP is roughly:

UCT (Computer Science & Physics)
Stellenbosch
AIMS
SKA
The African Python Tour people
CTPUG & the gauteng PUG
CLUG (other linux user groups?)

Suggestions of good contact people for any of these groups, and other
groups to add to the list actively encouraged.

-- 
Neil Muller
drnlmuller at gmail.com

I've got a gmail account. Why haven't I become cool?

From graemeglass at gmail.com  Mon May 28 13:28:19 2012
From: graemeglass at gmail.com (Graeme Glass)
Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 13:28:19 +0200
Subject: [pycon-za] Sponsor, Speakers and some general ideas
Message-ID: <CABf-jURiczSoAM3JZJNZc5S=ngvun_aMZQR29gTNSqurmM3S9w@mail.gmail.com>

Good day,

The company I work for, Go2Africa [1], is keen to sponsor pycon-za.

This sponsorship would be in the form of our expertise in helping
international and domestic delegates to find appropriate accommodation.
Go2Africa would find the best and most cost-effective accommodation,
prepare travel plans, and offer travel advice where required.

We would also like to offer a fully paid (or seriously discounted) Safari
for the keynote speaker. If not fully sponsored, then perhaps pycon-za
could pay for the discounted rate as a gift?

Then, I trust that you won't mind if I add my 2cents to the planning
conversation:

In terms of Keynote, I saw that Paul Graham's name was suggested. PG is a
fantastic speaker [2], but perhaps consider a speaker who is more involved
in core Python development?

Tim Peters, Alex Martelli, Raymond Hettinger are all excellent speakers ?
however, I imagine that the choice all comes down to aligning the speaker
with the goal of the conference. I'm sure that these goals include
promoting python's use in South African companies and up-skilling people in
Python development.

I also noticed that you are considering multiple tracks. May I suggest you
consider a one-track event, especially for the first Conference?
Single-track conferences tend to be easier to organise, and delegates don't
have to make difficult choices between the great talks on offer.

Have you finalised the venue?

See you at CTPUG on Saturday. Have a great day.

Best,
Graeme

[1] http://www.go2africa.com
[2]
http://blog.metricfire.com/2012/03/paul-graham-consistently-says-um-7-times-per-minute/
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From graemeglass at gmail.com  Tue May 29 14:02:11 2012
From: graemeglass at gmail.com (Graeme Glass)
Date: Tue, 29 May 2012 14:02:11 +0200
Subject: [pycon-za] Speaker Suggestion
Message-ID: <CABf-jUTAC5uAX2uhaONPCqsu5mnGPV5sfsdXmjJRRGyxbgR-mg@mail.gmail.com>

Greetings,

Another person who I would like to see give a talk would be Armin Ronacher.

Graeme

From simon.cross at praekeltfoundation.org  Wed May 30 17:59:45 2012
From: simon.cross at praekeltfoundation.org (Simon Cross)
Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 17:59:45 +0200
Subject: [pycon-za] Speaker Suggestion
In-Reply-To: <CABf-jUTAC5uAX2uhaONPCqsu5mnGPV5sfsdXmjJRRGyxbgR-mg@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CABf-jUTAC5uAX2uhaONPCqsu5mnGPV5sfsdXmjJRRGyxbgR-mg@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAJFgqh6sZyqs_-bk0c1wM4VHHD2LSvB-sr7tmdcRSAQWBgAVow@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 2:02 PM, Graeme Glass <graemeglass at gmail.com> wrote:
> Another person who I would like to see give a talk would be Armin Ronacher.

Agreed. He's on our list of people to invite and I discussed the idea
with him at PyCon and he seemed keen.

From simon.cross at praekeltfoundation.org  Thu May 31 10:27:15 2012
From: simon.cross at praekeltfoundation.org (Simon Cross)
Date: Thu, 31 May 2012 10:27:15 +0200
Subject: [pycon-za] Sponsor, Speakers and some general ideas
In-Reply-To: <CABf-jURiczSoAM3JZJNZc5S=ngvun_aMZQR29gTNSqurmM3S9w@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CABf-jURiczSoAM3JZJNZc5S=ngvun_aMZQR29gTNSqurmM3S9w@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAJFgqh73kyCm53vSMYoOYbq_ZY=1btMo6x7THg6PGrPGvHMgjQ@mail.gmail.com>

On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 1:28 PM, Graeme Glass <graemeglass at gmail.com> wrote:
> The company I work for, Go2Africa [1], is keen to sponsor pycon-za.
>
> This sponsorship would be in the form of our expertise in helping
> international and domestic delegates to find appropriate accommodation.
> Go2Africa would find the best and most cost-effective accommodation, prepare
> travel plans, and offer travel advice where required.
>
> We would also like to offer a fully paid (or seriously discounted) Safari
> for the keynote speaker. If not fully sponsored, then perhaps pycon-za could
> pay for the discounted rate as a gift?
>

> In terms of Keynote, I saw that Paul Graham's name was suggested. PG is a
> fantastic speaker [2], but perhaps consider a speaker who is more involved
> in core Python development?

I think I would also lean in the direction of someone more directly
involved with Python, but lets see who responds. A big name would have
the advantage of pulling in non-Python people though (and thus
introducing them to Python). Largely this is going to come down to
budget and who wants to talk.

> I also noticed that you are considering multiple tracks. May I suggest you
> consider a one-track event, especially for the first Conference?
> Single-track conferences tend to be easier to organise, and delegates don't
> have to make difficult choices between the great talks on offer.

The feeling so far has been that the local Python community's
interests are quite diverse and that we'll be better able to cater to
the wide interests by providing more talk slots.

> Have you finalised the venue?

Not yet.

> See you at CTPUG on Saturday. Have a great day.

See you there.

From simon.cross at praekeltfoundation.org  Thu May 31 10:29:40 2012
From: simon.cross at praekeltfoundation.org (Simon Cross)
Date: Thu, 31 May 2012 10:29:40 +0200
Subject: [pycon-za] Pycon ZA Status update
In-Reply-To: <CAPzz3haPQxvQ6ZO+4=xZDzHpJ0Z_KtOkdu-aOgtDWwkC_XPcGg@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAPzz3haPQxvQ6ZO+4=xZDzHpJ0Z_KtOkdu-aOgtDWwkC_XPcGg@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAJFgqh7YqU34mnBzGgs2dZTupFHODwfmbZvseKVF4htNQUZe3w@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 12:29 PM, Neil Muller <drnlmuller at gmail.com> wrote:
> My plan is to poke at how symposium's proposal submission setup works
> in the near future, and, once that's running, we should send out a
> call for papers. Ideally, I want everything in place so we can do this
> shortly after the next CTPUG meeting on the 2nd of June.

And thanks to Neil I think this part is now up and running?

I think what we mostly need next is a shiny front page for
za.pycon.org -- something like the one the us.pycon.org page has. I'd
like to hack on that a bit on Saturday at the meeting (where there is
hopefully someone present who is better at web design than I am).

Schiavo
Simon