Beginning Pythonistas: present a poster at PyCon 2012!
PyCon is the largest annual gathering for the Python community. It is a diverse conference with content for people of all programming backgrounds, from talks and tutorials to sprints and summits. We’ll be at PyCon 2012, and we hope you’ll join us.
One event we are looking forward to is the poster session. The call for poster proposals ends January 15th, and we want to see more submissions from beginning Pythonistas!
Poster sessions are a low-pressure way to start a discussion or share a project, discovery, or something you’ve learned with PyCon attendees. Are you a new programmer or an experienced programmer who is new to Python? We want to hear from you! To quote the call for proposals:
We’re looking for both experienced conference speakers and people new to technical conferences; industry professionals and hobbyists; entrepreneurs, researchers, and system administrators. You’ve probably learned something that other Python users could benefit from, so come to PyCon and share your story.
If you have something to tell your fellow Python programmers, PyCon 2012 is your chance.
You don’t have to be a professional speaker to give a talk at PyCon. Presenters are volunteers from all walks of life and all levels of experience. From hardcore hackers to educators to hobbyists, anyone with something to say and the desire to say it is welcome.
If you have a topic idea but you’re not sure exactly how to turn it into a killer session, let us know! The program committee is happy to work with you to help your session shine.
Ready to submit a poster proposal? Awesome! Proposals are due by January 15th. To submit one, sign up on the PyCon site and follow the proposal submission instructions.
During the poster session, you’ll stand in front of your poster and use it as a starting-point for conversations with other PyCon attendees. Looking for inspiration on what to talk about? Here are some suggestions:
- Ask a beginner: what are the the hardest parts of learning Python?
- Getting your Python environment set up: a beginner’s perspective
- A survey of Python tutorials
- A survey of Python online learning resources (CodingBat, Khan Academy, learnpython.org, etc.)
- A beginner’s look at writing or packaging your first Python project
- Learning Python, next steps: I went through the python.org tutorial; now what?
- Contributing to an open source project for the first time: a beginner’s perspective
Stripe co-founder @patrickc asks:
How would you answer?
More suggestions? Talk about:
- a cool Python library or API you’ve used.
- how you use Python at work.
- an open source project that uses Python.
- a personal project that uses Python.
Analyse some data in Python–Twitter trends, social graphs, Wikipedia stats, public transportation data, government spending–tell us how you did it and what you learned.
Use a poster proposal as an motivator to learn or do something new:
- Always wanted to contribute to Python? Submit a poster on it and share the process of getting your first patch through.
- Always wanted to make a website or game? Show us some mock-ups and share the development process.
- Always wanted to teach your kid or sibling to program? Submit a poster on it and let us know how it goes.
More sources of inspiration? Check out last year’s posters. Here’s a subset:
- Opening Government With Python
- Education and outreach to non-coders: best practices
- Using a Kinect to improve accessibility
- Running Neutron Scattering Experiments with Python
- Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python
- Python in Atmospheric Sciences
Not sure if you want to present a poster alone? Submit with a friend!
Want someone to bounce ideas off of, or to review a proposal draft? Send mail to hello@openhatch.org. We have experience submitting poster, tutorial, and talk proposals and getting them accepted and would love to help you through the process.
Some important deadlines:
- (1/7) PyCon financial aid applications due
- (1/15) The call for poster proposals ends
- (1/25) Early Bird conference registration rates end
- (1/31) Applications for PyLadies PyCon grants for women due