Useful info PyCon India 2018 Conference Attendees

If you are coming to PyCon India 2018 and attending conference, then please read this blog to understand some dos and don'ts along with lot of useful info.

Hope you're all set for PyCon India 2018.

Here are a few things we would like to bring to your attention.

Reaching to Hyderabad:

Please find information at https://in.pycon.org/2018/travel.html.

At the Registration Desk:

The first step is to register and collect your kit from the front desk. Please carry your ticket as the team would be looking for the registration number on it. The queues will be organized by Registration Number.

ticket image

Lightning Talks:

  • On each of the conference days, we are conducting lightning talks and we encourage you to participate.For those who would like to talk, please ask for the form at the registration desk and drop it in the drop box near the registration desk. Organizers might have to curate, in case of an overwhelming response. All selected speakers will be reached out to by 2:30 PM on both days.
  • Of course, you are always welcome to reach out to the audience using open spaces, for further details look at [@openspaces](https://in.pycon.org/2018/open-spaces.html).

During the conference:

  • Want to meet new people and learn to explore python in wholly different ways? Then don’t forget to check out the open spaces on the second floor. Please look [@openspaces](https://in.pycon.org/2018/open-spaces.html) for further details
  • Please NOTE: Internet will be provided at the premises. However, due to a large number of delegates, there is a high possibility of connection or bandwidth issues. We strongly recommend you to carry your own data card/hotspot as a contingency.
  • Please NOTE: Water will be provided at the premises. However, please get a water bottle to hold it during the sessions.
  • In case, any of our halls are full for any particular talks, we encourage you to check out other talks/sessions. All talks are curated to keep it interesting and engaging for you. No matter where you come from. Sometimes, Serendipity works magic.
  • Subscribe to the official [slack channel](https://pyconindia2018.slack.com/shared_invite/enQtNDQ3NDI0OTk5NDk0LWM0ZGE3ODEzNjlkN2MwZTEyYjhkM2YwY2MwZmFkZTQzZWZkY2ViMjhiMGFmZDY3NzFmYmRmNzI1OTE3YWQyZmI) for all sorts of announcements and communications.

Code Of Conduct

  • Be kind and sensitive to the people around you and avoid any kind of offensive behavior. Sexist, racist or any other form of exclusionary or offensive jokes or excessive public swearing are not appropriate at any venue of PyCon India.
  • Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the conference without a refund at the sole discretion of the conference organizers.
  • Thank you for your consideration and help in making PyCon India a welcoming, friendly event for all of us.
  • The long version is available [here](https://in.pycon.org/2018/coc.html).

We're happy and excited to have you at our conference and hope to make it a great experience for you. Feel free to contact us for any assistance.

Team PyCon India.

Useful info PyCon India 2018 Workshop Attendees

If you are coming to PyCon India 2018 and attending workshops, then please read this blog to understand some dos and don'ts along with lot of useful info.

Hope you're all set for PyCon India 2018.

Here are a few things we would like to bring to your attention.

Reaching to Hyderabad:

Please find information at https://in.pycon.org/2018/travel.html.

At the Registration Desk:

The first step is to register and collect your kit from the front desk. Please carry your ticket as the team would be looking for the registration number on it. The queues will be organized by Registration Number.

ticket image

During the workshops:

  • Ensure that you arrive at least 30 mins ahead of workshop scheduled time to complete the registration process.
  • Please NOTE: Internet will be provided at the premises. However, due to a large number of delegates, there is a high possibility of connection or bandwidth issues. We strongly recommend you to carry your own data card/hotspot as a contingency.
  • Please NOTE: Water will be provided at the premises. However, please get a water bottle to hold it during the sessions.
  • As mentioned in the site, Lunch is provided only to those delegates who attend two paid workshops. However, others can purchase lunch coupons (only limited quantity available) at Rs. 400/- all inclusive. Please purchase this at the time of registration.
  • Subscribe to the official [slack channel](https://pyconindia2018.slack.com/shared_invite/enQtNDQ3NDI0OTk5NDk0LWM0ZGE3ODEzNjlkN2MwZTEyYjhkM2YwY2MwZmFkZTQzZWZkY2ViMjhiMGFmZDY3NzFmYmRmNzI1OTE3YWQyZmI) for all sorts of announcements and communications.

Code Of Conduct

  • Be kind and sensitive to the people around you and avoid any kind of offensive behavior. Sexist, racist or any other form of exclusionary or offensive jokes or excessive public swearing are not appropriate at any venue of PyCon India.
  • Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the conference without a refund at the sole discretion of the conference organizers.
  • Thank you for your consideration and help in making PyCon India a welcoming, friendly event for all of us.
  • The long version is available [here](https://in.pycon.org/2018/coc.html).

We're happy and excited to have you at our conference and hope to make it a great experience for you. Feel free to contact us for any assistance.

Team PyCon India.

Announcing TalentSprint as Silver Sponsor

TalentSprint

Hi Everyone, it's our pleasure to announce the PyCon India 2018’s silver sponsor TalentSprint.

TalentSprint is a new-age digital platform to transform the lives of young and experienced professionals. Its hybrid bootcamps empower professionals with high end disruptive technologies. The AI-powered digital platform enables professionals to get ahead and stay ahead in a hyper-competitive world. Funded by Nexus Venture Partners and the National Skill Development Corporation, TalentSprint aims to empower ONE MILLION professionals by 2020. For more information please visit www.talentsprint.com

Announcing Zeomega & DBS as Silver Sponsors of PyCon India 2018

zeomega DBS

Hi everyone, it's our pleasure to announce proud silver sponsors for PyCon India 2018.

ZeOmega is the premier enabler of value-based care. We provide technical solutions to facilitate collaboration among healthcare stakeholders. Jiva™, our Population Health Management Solution, helps healthcare organizations achieve Triple Aim goals.

DBS is a leading financial services group headquartered in Singapore, operating across 18 markets. Being a bank born and bred in Asia, with a growing presence in Southeast Asia, Greater China and South Asia. A frontrunner in digital transformation, seeking to deliver a new kind of banking that is so simple, seamless and invisible, that customers have more time to spend on the people or things they care about.

Clarifications on Dev Sprints

We have been receiving few queries about Dev Sprints, so this blog clarifies most of such queries and doubts, please read the other blog we posted for Dev sprints before this, if you haven't yet.

Ques - Why should I register for Dev Sprints?
Ans - Given the limited capacity of 150 at the venue and to manage the logistics dev sprint attendees hence we have opened registrations for dev Sprint.

Ques - Open source contributions are generally free. Why dev sprint tickets are paid?
Ans - We wanted to give the serious people a certain chance to attend the Dev Sprint given the limited capacity. Based on our previous experience of free sponsored workshop tickets, we thought a nominal fee of Rs. 100 + GST would discourage casual registrations. This also facilitates a fair chance for people who are willing to commit their time and effort towards open source contribution.

Ques - How are the Dev Sprint tickets released?
Ans - We have opened only 50% of dev sprint tickets on 29th September. As we expected, all ticket were sold out within 24 hours. The remaining 50% of tickets would be opened on the second day of the conference 7th Oct, 11:00 a.m. The rationale for opening 50% tickets later: Considering the limited capacity at the venue, we wanted to give equal opportunity to everyone willing to attend dev sprints.

Hope this clarifies some of the questions we have been receiving via different channels, if you have any further questions please write to contact@in.pycon.org.

Announcing Zauba as Gold Sponsor

Zauba Cloud

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce Zauba Cloud, as PyCon India 2018’s gold sponsor.

Zauba Cloud is a next generation cloud computing platform that accelerates product development, reduces cost and increases overall performance and reliability of assets on public cloud and on premise data centres.

Zauba Cloud is the first cloud computing company to charge users based on actual usage of resources and not provisioned resources. Zauba Cloud's deep expertise and culture of exceptional engineering results in services designed for best in class performance and high availability.

Zauba Cloud offers free developer accounts. Developers can try and deploy their small projects in production for free.

Zauba Cloud is currently in preview and is invite only. Developers can write an email to cloud@zauba.company for access to preview.

Devsprints Tickets are Open

PyCon India 2018 Devsprints will happen on 8th and 9th October at Talent Sprint, PSR Prime Tower, Beside DLF Cyber City, Gachibowli, Hyderabad. We are excited to announce that tickets for Devsprints are open now!

Location: Map link

Get your ticket at https://in.explara.com/e/pycon-india-2018/checkout.

Update: 50% of the Devsprints tickets are sold out and another 50% of the tickets will be opened on 7th Oct, 11:00 AM.

Devsprints ticket are only available to those who have a valid conference ticket. So please use the email id that you used while purchasing the conference ticket.

Due to the limited capacity at the Devsprints venue which can accomodate only about 150 participants, we are taking a nominal amount of fee of INR 100 + GST on the tickets so that people who are really sure about attending the event register themselves. In the past we have seen keeping a plain registration allows people to simply RSVP to the event while the turn up is less than total and people who really wish to attend are left out. So we wanted to make sure people can commit to the event by keeping a nominal fee on the ticket.

To know more about what is a Devsprint and the list of projects check the Devsprints page. Also in case you want to mentor for a Devesprint project please add one there.

See you there at Devsprints !

Announcing VMware as Gold Sponsor

VMware

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce VMware, as another PyCon India 2018’s gold sponsor.

VMware is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility. VMware accelerates customers’ digital transformation journey by enabling enterprises to master a software-defined approach to business and IT. With VMware solutions, organizations are building extraordinary experiences by mobilizing everything. Our customers are responding faster to opportunities with modern data and apps hosted across hybrid clouds, and safeguarding customer trust with a defense-in-depth approach to cybersecurity.

VMware offers cutting-edge cloud infrastructure and security services to companies of all shapes and sizes. Our world is all about technology, and that world is growing because the imagination, ingenuity and talent of our teams knows no bounds. We believe that creativity sparks innovation and inspires our employees to think of VMware differently and change the world around them.

At the core of what we do are our people who deeply value execution, passion, integrity, customers, and community.

Announcing Google as Gold Sponsor

Google Developers

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce Google, as PyCon India 2018’s gold sponsor.

Our story: from the garage to the Googleplex:

The Google story begins in 1995 at Stanford University. Larry Page was considering Stanford for grad school and Sergey Brin, a student there, was assigned to show him around. By some accounts, they disagreed about nearly everything during that first meeting, but by the following year they struck a partnership. Working from their dorm rooms, they built a search engine that used links to determine the importance of individual pages on the World Wide Web. They called this search engine Backrub.

Soon after, Backrub was renamed Google (phew). The name was a play on the mathematical expression for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros and aptly reflected Larry and Sergey's mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Over the next few years, Google caught the attention of not only the academic community, but Silicon Valley investors as well. In August 1998, Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote Larry and Sergey a check for $100,000, and Google Inc. was officially born. With this investment, the newly incorporated team made the upgrade from the dorms to their first office: a garage in suburban Menlo Park, California, owned by Susan Wojcicki (employee #16 and now CEO of YouTube). Clunky desktop computers, a ping pong table, and bright blue carpet set the scene for those early days and late nights. (The tradition of keeping things colorful continues to this day.)

Even in the beginning, things were unconventional: from Google’s initial server (made of Lego) to the first “Doodle”in 1998: a stick figure in the logo announcing to site visitors that the entire staff was playing hooky at the Burning Man Festival. “Don't be evil” and “The ten things we know to be true” captured the spirit of our intentionally unconventional methods. In the years that followed, the company expanded rapidly — hiring engineers, building a sales team, and introducing the first company dog, Yoshka. Google outgrew the garage and eventually moved to its current headquarters (a.k.a.“The Googleplex”) in Mountain View, California. The spirit of doing things differently made the move. So did Yoshka.

The relentless search for better answers continues to be at the core of everything we do. Today, with more than 60,000 employees in 50 different countries, Google makes hundreds of products used by billions of people across the globe, from YouTube and Android to Smartbox and, of course, Google Search. Although we’ve ditched the Lego servers and added just a few more company dogs, our passion for building technology for everyone has stayed with us — from the dorm room, to the garage, and to this very day.

Announcing Corteva as Gold Sponsor

Corteva Agriscience

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce Corteva Agriscience, as PyCon India 2018’s gold sponsor.

Corteva Agriscience™, the agriculture division of DowDuPont™, is the only major agriscience company completely dedicated to agriculture. By combining the strengths of DuPont Pioneer, DuPont Crop Protection and Dow AgroSciences, we've harnessed agriculture's brightest minds and expertise gained over two centuries of scientific achievement.

Purpose:

We are driven to enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for generations to come.

Our Impact:

Champion of farmer success

Farmers are the first to face an ever-changing landscape, while constantly striving for higher yield, resilience and desirability. They need seeds and crop protection products that address their challenges—not just by country or region, but laser-focused down to the acre. We are on the ground alongside them, listening first and then innovating collaboratively to help enable their success. Our priority is the success of the farmer—because when producers thrive, our world thrives.

A novel approach to innovation

Ideas don’t live within the confines of a specific industry, sector or technology. It’s why we apply an open-source philosophy toward innovation, seeking inspiration from a diverse range of thoughts, ideas and solutions. When combined with our world-class research and development capabilities, ideas are transformed into reality with groundbreaking and sustainable agricultural solutions.

Research and Development discovery and commercialization process

The path from discovery of a molecule or trait to its introduction to the market is a long one. Launch is just the halfway point. Post-launch, the Corteva AgriscienceTM Research and Development team continues to explore different formulations and combinations with other innovations to meet the ever-changing needs of farmers.

A responsible food system

We understand that quality food is the foundation of thriving communities and we work closely with farmers to ensure that the latest thinking and technology are used to grow better food, while sustaining the land and conserving resources.

Announcing IBM as Gold Sponsor

IBM India

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce IBM India as PyCon India 2018’s gold sponsor.

IBM has been present in India since 1951. Since inception, IBM India has expanded its operations with regional headquarters in Bangalore and offices in over 20 cities. These include regional offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Today, IBM India has established itself as one of the leaders in the Indian Information Technology Industry.

As a leading cognitive solutions and cloud platform company, innovation is at the core of the IBM company strategy. This is reflected in the end-to-end solutions delivered to clients, which span from software and systems hardware to a broad range of infrastructure, cognitive, cloud and consulting services.

IBM helps clients solve complex business and technical issues by delivering deep business process and industry expertise. This is enhanced with advanced analytics, research capabilities, comprehensive IT infrastructure knowledge and the proven ability to implement enterprise solutions to deliver bottom line value to businesses and governments worldwide.

For more information on IBM India log on to: www.ibm.com/in

For information on IBM Corporate visit : https://www.ibm.com/annualreport/

Announcing Soroco as Gold Sponsor

LiveHealth

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce the PyCon India 2018’s gold sponsor Soroco.

Soroco is a next-gen tech company pioneering cutting-edge business automation. The 4- year-old company with its global network of offices in Boston, London, Seattle and Bangalore has sparked off a revolution in the automation industry by creating innovative solutions for hard problems.

Team Soroco is a rare blend of talented engineers and enterprising business professionals. Our engineering leaders in Boston are graduates and PhDs from top-tier institutions such as Harvard, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon. Many of them have also worked with top companies like Microsoft Research, and IBM Research. Closer to home, the Bangalore team comprises gold medalists and rank holders from the IITs, NITs, and top regional universities.

Soroco’s technology stack has been built from scratch. Collectively, the engineering team has filed more than 50 patent claims and published more than 100 research papers.

In the last 36 months, Soroco has combined Machine Learning, Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing with traditional automation tech to deliver a whopping 36 automation systems. This has earned Soroco a robust portfolio of Fortune 500 clients who are from diverse domains spread across insurance, finance, healthcare, retail, education and entertainment.

At Soroco, we value a strong education, an extreme attention to detail, and a disciplined work habit. We are looking for brave and ambitious individuals to shape the future of work across the enterprise.

Come, join us http://soroco.com/careers/#/

Understanding Dev Sprints #2018

Have you always wanted to get started with contributing to Open Source Software (OSS) but simply don’t know where to start? Are you an experienced OSS contributor looking for projects that could use your help? Are you the maintainer/contributor of an OSS project and need help with fixing bugs and/or managing the project? Or did you try contributing to an Open-Source project but got lost somewhere in the middle due to lack of guidance or motivation? If you answered “Yes!” to any of the above, then Dev Sprints are here for you!

PyCon India 2018 is a place for developers from across the country (and beyond) to get together and celebrate Python. But what good is a PyCon without getting your hands dirty writing some code? Hence, for all Open Source enthusiasts out there, the PyCon India team is happy to announce Dev Sprints @ PyCon India 2018.

During Dev sprints, Mentors/Contributors of OSS projects guide participants through the end to end process of OSS contribution, right from setting up build environments, to developing and testing code, to submitting patches for bugs. If you are stuck, mentors are all available to help you figure out issues and get you back up and running! From past experiences, we’ve seen a lot of people start off contributing to OSS through Dev Sprints and later go on to become regular contributors to various projects across the web.

Dev sprints are for everybody who want to participate and learn, as issues on repositories don't discriminate.

If you are a contributor or have been involved in maintenance of any Open source project, please come forward. You can submit your proposal for the Dev sprint here. This project can be any interesting Open source project which is based on Python. Ideally, you should have a history with the project through previous code commits. Your responsibility will be to help your team set up their development environment, list out beginner friendly bugs (preferably tag them using good-first-issue), and guide them on any problems they face during the event. Deadline for submitting proposals is 30 September 2018.

Registrations for participants will be announced very soon. Please watch this space and the PyCon social media channels for updates.

Dev Sprints @ PyCon India 2018 will be held on the 8th & 9th October 2018. We look forward to bringing developers together to collaborate with the shared language of code!

Announcing FOSSEE as Silver Sponsor

FOSSEE

Hi Everyone, it's our pleasure to announce the PyCon India 2018’s silver sponsor FOSSEE.

FOSSEE(Free and Open Source Software in Education) project promotes the use of FOSS tools to improve the quality of education in our country. We aim to reduce dependency on proprietary software in educational institutions. We encourage the use of FOSS tools through various activities such as Textbook Companions, Lab Migration, Workshops, Conferences, Forums, Software Development and Others. We also develop and upgrade existing tools to meet the requirements in academia and research.

The FOSSEE project is based at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) and is funded by the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India.

Announcing OYO Rooms as Accomodation Partner

OYO Rooms

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce that we have partnered with OYO Rooms as the Accomodation Partner of PyCon India 2018.

People attending PyCon India 2018 can book rooms by contacting our Contact Person and avail discounted prices for Hotels booked via Oyo Rooms.

You can find below the Details of the Contact Person. You can SMS "PYCON2018" to 78372 82141 and our Contact person will reach you.

Chaitanya Oberoi

+91 78372 82141

chaitanya.oberoi@oyorooms.com

We have included below a list of Hotels which are near to the Conference Venue which you can choose from, for your accomodation. Please get in touch with our contact person for more information and options.

  1. Tara Residency
    OYO Townhouse 009, Hitech City
    White Fields, Kondapur, Hyderabad
    Room Category: Classic (2X)
    Check-in time: 12:00 PM
    Check-out time: 11:00 AM
    Hotel Rating: 5.00/5
    You can check more details including photos here
    https://details.oyorooms.com/hotel_crs/b1m5yM0DJe49

  2. Aurobindo Comforts OYO 15956 Aurobindo Comforts
    Behind Siddique Kabab Centre, Kothaguda X road, Kondapur, Hyderabad
    Room Category: Classic (2X)
    Check-in time: 12:00 PM
    Check-out time: 11:00 AM
    Hotel Rating: 5.00/5
    You can check more details including photos here
    https://details.oyorooms.com/hotel_crs/Xbk386SwRO63

  3. OYO Townhouse 034 Devi Inn
    OYO Townhouse 034 Hitech City Road
    Jubilee Enclave, Hitech City, Hyderabad
    Room Category: Classic (2X)
    Check-in time: 12:00 PM
    Check-out time: 11:00 AM
    Hotel Rating: 5.00/5 You can check more details including photos here
    https://details.oyorooms.com/hotel_crs/rRR1Sk8g01Q4

  4. Hotel Saharsh Grand
    OYO 13869 Hotel Saharsh Grand
    V.No. 3, Kothaguda, Beside Mahindra Showroom, Hyderabad
    Room Category: Classic (2X)
    Check-in time: 12:00 PM
    Check-out time: 11:00 AM
    Hotel Rating: 5.00/5
    You can check more details including photos here
    https://details.oyorooms.com/hotel_crs/36WVq0vN2JA4

  5. Serene Majestic
    OYO 12384 Hotel Serene Majestic
    Pavan Priyanka Plaza, Kothaguda X Road, Opp Harsha Toyota Showroom, Hyderabad
    Room Category: Classic (2X)
    Check-in time: 12:00 PM
    Check-out time: 11:00 AM
    Hotel Rating: 5.00/5
    You can check more details including photos here
    https://details.oyorooms.com/hotel_crs/n1Nan9gaa656)

Announcing Indeed as Platinum Sponsor

Indeed

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce PyCon India 2018’s platinum sponsor Indeed.

Below is Indeed in their own Words.

"We help people get jobs"

At Indeed, we help people get jobs, but it's more than just our mission. It’s a promise that extends to all our employees, as well as job seekers and employers. As the world’s #1 job site, we take pride in helping people get to where they want to be in their careers. Whether you’re still in school or looking for your next opportunity to make an impact, Indeed is dedicated to helping people explore their passions while giving them the tools to succeed with Indeed and beyond.

Today, Indeed has more than 6,700+ employees across 27 offices in 14 countries around the globe. Our global team shares an energy and enthusiasm for creating the best experience for job seekers. We are obsessive about data, and constantly testing products and concepts that will improve the hiring process. Indeed believes strongly in creating and fostering an environment where employees not only have the resources they need to do their jobs, but also opportunities to continue to learn, grow, and be their best selves. Our projected growth offers numerous opportunities for ambitious employees to accelerate their career and develop into Indeed’s future leaders.

Announcing LiveHealth as Gold Sponsor

LiveHealth

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce the PyCon India 2018’s gold sponsor LiveHealth - A Diagnostic Management Solution.

LiveHealth is a next generation cloud based and mobile ready MIS for Diagnostic Centre which helps them manage their Point of Sales, MIS, Medical Instruments, EMR & reduce human error.

LiveHealth seamlessly digitises records from diagnostic laboratories through its SaaS platform and makes them available on the cloud to patients and doctors. LiveHealth works with diagnostic centres to automate their operations - to manage patients, financial transactions, automation between medical instruments, and inventory. It gives them actionable insights to drive revenue and profitability and also simplifies information exchange with other healthcare providers. Patients can use the Livehealth app to understand reports, analyse past health data, and monitor their health using health trackers, both for themselves and their family, even on a remote basis. Doctors and patients benefit from creating a standardised medical record using Livehealth platform.

Announcing Go-Jek as Platinum Sponsor

Go-Jek

Hello folks, it is our pleasure to announce Go-Jek, as PyCon India 2018’s Platinum sponsor.

GO-JEK is a Super App. It’s one app for ordering food, commuting, digital payments, shopping, hyper-local delivery, getting a massage and two dozen services. It is Indonesia’s first and fastest growing unicorn building an on-demand empire.

In the last 36 months, the startup’s total order volumes have grown a devilish 6666x and diversified into 18 verticals. The company runs the equivalent of three Indian unicorns rolled into one. GO-FOOD alone does more orders in Indonesia than all Indian food tech startups combined. 3 years since the mobile app launched, GO-JEK does more rides than India’s largest taxi-sharing service.

A total of 1,000,000 drivers collectively cover an average distance of 16.5 million kilometers each day, making GO-JEK Indonesia’s de facto transportation partner. GO-JEK is a verb. GO-JEK is a way of life. It is quite simply the operating system of Indonesia. 200 engineers spread across Jakarta, Singapore and India make software decisions that impacts about 260 million people in the country.

GO-JEK Tech is the product development and training center of GO-JEK. The tech team comprises of developers, data scientists, designers and product managers who work on product innovation, mining data and crafting consumer experiences. The average age of the team is 29 and it runs one of the largest JRuby, Java and go clusters in Asia.

Announcing D. E. Shaw India as Platinum Sponsor

D. E. Shaw India

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce PyCon India 2018’s platinum sponsor D. E. Shaw India.

D. E. SHAW INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED ("DESIS") is a part of the D. E. Shaw group, a global investment and technology development firm founded in 1988 with more than $50 billion in investment capital as of April 1, 2018, and offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. The firm has earned an international reputation for successful investing based on innovation, careful risk management, and the quality and depth of their staff. The firm has a significant presence in the world's capital markets, investing in a wide range of companies and financial instruments in both developed and developing economies.

Their culture rewards analytical rigor and adherence to the highest possible ethical and legal standards, and they've cultivated a collegial work environment that promotes collaboration across disciplines, geographies, and investment strategies. The firm has been built in part by attempting to do what other companies might consider impossible, or never imagine at all. A single transformative idea that ultimately works for a new business, a new trading model, or an improved back office process is worth a dozen ideas that lead nowhere. They've learned that when an extraordinary team sets extraordinarily ambitious goals, astonishing breakthroughs can be expected.

For more information on D. E. Shaw India, please visit www.deshawindia.com.

Announcing Pramati Technologies as Gold Sponsor

Pramati

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce the PyCon India 2018’s first gold sponsor Pramati Technologies.

Pramati has a two-decade track record of helping enterprises become agile by leveraging its world-class software products and platform engineering capabilities. Taking a whole brained approach to engineering, coupled with an entrepreneurial culture, Pramati constantly helps its customers challenge status quo. But Pramati is different because of its people. It’s values, passion, and way of doing things are the intangibles that makes the difference to customers and communities it serves. A unique technical culture and an innovative business model helps to deliver results for each customer’s unique reality. More than 100 global product companies and F500 enterprises work with Pramati. Pramati has offices in Mountain View-CA, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru-India and owns the brands WaveMaker, SpotCues, Reve Marketing, and Imaginea.

Announcing AQR as Platinum Sponsor

AQR

Hi Everyone, it is our pleasure to announce the PyCon India 2018’s first platinum sponsor AQR.

AQR is a global investment management firm dedicated to delivering results for our clients. At the nexus of economics, behavioral finance, data and technology, AQR’s evolution over two decades has been a continuous exploration of what drives markets and how it can be applied to client portfolios. Our culture of intellectual curiosity compels us to challenge the status quo, disrupt long-held beliefs and uncover new insights.

The firm is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, with offices in Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, and Sydney. As of March 31, 2018, AQR had approximately $225 billion in assets under management.

PyCon India Tickets 2018

PyCon India 2018, the tenth edition of the premier conference in India on using and developing the Python programming language is conducted annually by the Python developer community has started ticket sales for the mega event that is scheduled from 5th - 9th October 2018.

The conference will be having a tight schedule of workshops, keynotes, talks, workshops, and dev-sprints strung together through 3 different tracks. Any person who has a conference ticket is eligible to attend the Devsprints. Although the Developer Sprints are free, we would be having registrations beforehand to manage the logistics. The ticket structure is as follows:-

Grab the Regular tickets now from Explara.

Tickets Structure

Early Bird Tickets

An Early bird ticket reserves your seat for the conference on 6th - 7th October, 2018, with a pricing of INR 1200 (GST applicable), the sale of early bird tickets ends on 30 June 2018 or completion of 300 tickets.

UPDATE: Early-bird tickets have been sold out.

Student Ticket

A student ticket reserves your seat for the conference on 6th - 7th October, 2018, with a pricing of INR 1000 (GST applicable), the sale of student tickets ends on 30 September 2018 or completion of 350 tickets.

UPDATE: Student tickets have been sold out !!

Regular Ticket

A regular ticket reserves your seat for the conference on 6th - 7th October, 2018, with a pricing of INR 1700 (GST applicable), the sale of regular tickets begins on 1st July 2018.

Late Bird Ticket

A late bird ticket reserves your seat for the conference on 6th - 7th October, 2018, with a pricing of INR 2500 (GST applicable), the sale of late bird begins on 1st September 2018.

Payment Options

You can pay through Citrus or EBS gateway via Credit Card, Debit Card or Netbanking. You can also use Paytm for your registration by accepting the terms and conditions of Explara.

See you there at the Conference!!

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How to Write a Good Proposal

The call for proposals for PyCon India 2018 has been up and running for a few days now. We already have quite a few exciting proposals, and it is only going to get better. The programme of a conference is undoubtedly the greatest part of the conference. It is in the talks and workshops that the participants can learn the most and speakers can make the most impact. Ever since the inception of tech conferences led by FOSS communities, talk selections have been a continuously-evolving process. PyCon India is now in its tenth year. In this time we too have gone through many different cycles of revising our talk/workshop proposals and selection processes. We pride ourselves on being not only adaptable but also welcoming towards change and learning from other conferences and communities.

This year, we have decided to engage with the audience (both speakers and attendees) well in advance of the talk proposal-review-update cycle in a very proactive manner. One of the many ways in which we hope to accomplish this is the mentorship programme for first-time speakers (you can read more about it here). Another step in that direction is laying down some guidelines about what makes a good proposal. That is what this post is about. We cannot emphasize enough that these are only guidelines, not rules, derived mostly from the experiences of Pythonistas who are regular speakers at tech conferences.

Before we get into the details, let us take a look at some myths that many novices have, about speaking at a tech conference.

  1. An advanced talk is a good talk : As you can see in the CFP, the intended target audience for any talk or workshop is categorized under "Beginner", "Intermediate", and "Advanced". These categories have no correlation with the quality of a talk. Talks are evaluated not only based on their inherent depth but also on the impact they might have on the audience - and as such, good talks for beginners are much more likely to have an impact than mediocre talks for experts. We also tend to confuse beginner talks with easy talks. As Einstein famously said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." So, generating even the simplest content takes a lot of effort and expertise. Conversely, anyone can come up with a complicated and arcane material, but it means nothing without clarity.

  2. Showing code is important : You may, under the right conditions, show snippets and templates of code, but live coding is generally a bad idea. A piece of code not working exactly when people are looking at it is something that happens so frequently that it is not even funny anymore. Moreover, code, by its very nature is not meant to reside on slides. Making an audience read the code, or even walking them through code wastes quite a bit of time. Yes, talk is cheap and you ought to show people the code, but a presentation is not the right place for it. Show snippets or templates and leave links for the audience to follow.

  3. Upvotes are critical in selection : Upvotes on a proposal are only marginally important. They are used mostly as tie-breakers. The organizers are acutely aware that the people who upvote or downvote talks may not even attend the conference. Some authors go to great lengths to get their talks upvoted. This is a misdirected effort at best. This is not to say that there is no merit in promoting your own talk among your network and asking people to upvote your proposals. However, do remember that a popularity of a talk works only if it is organic. It is not uncommon to have mediocre proposals become very popular just because they have plenty of buzzwords in them. Such proposals stick out like a sore thumb and may easily be subject to stricter scrutiny.

  4. Workshop slots are easier to grab than talks : It is no mean feat to keep an audience of 30 to 50 people sufficiently engaged for the better part of three hours. Workshops are, by definition, highly interactive and therefore, writing Jupyter notebooks for a workshop requires more effort than writing slides for a talk. It is true that the content for a workshop may not be as original as that for a talk, but since the audience is expected to code alongside the speaker and solve exercises in the course of the workshop, the content is subject to more criticism.

  5. Loud proposals are more visible : A loud proposal here means too much of any of the following: memes, jokes (no matter how funny and non-stereotypical they may be), buzzwords or catchphrases, exclamation marks, religious jingoism towards or against a piece of technology, etc. Authors can rest assured that every single proposal will be given its due attention and care. The loudness, instead of making your proposal more visible, only makes it more difficult for the reviewers to sift through the noise and get to the real message.

These points themselves might have given you a broad idea of how the programme committees normally look at talk or workshop proposals, but there are quite a few details to follow. While there is no formula for a good talk, broadly each talk is judged on three aspects  relevance, clarity and the potential impact of the talk.

The importance of the relevance of a talk to the Python community need not be emphasized. A talk about the internals of the Linux kernel, while irresistible to many of us, would not be a good candidate for a PyCon. One of the best ways of keeping things relevant is knowing your audience well. Spend some time looking at the well-received talks in other conferences, and try to balance your content accordingly. This is not to say that the history of a conference dictates its future content. On the contrary, many great talks come from breaking the glass ceiling. Keep in mind that it is very easy for audiences (and communities in general) to forget what is relevant to them, especially in this age of information overload where we are distracted by and attracted to every new article that goes viral on Hacker News. Consider this example - an interesting point of debate from a panel discussion last year was that Python has too many web frameworks. Now, your takeaway from this could be that no one wants to hear yet-another-talk-about-yet-another-web-framework. However, a very good proposal might emerge from evaluating different web frameworks, weighing their pros and cons, pointing out what could be done to fix problems, and a healthy dose of practical advice drawn from your own experiences, which would eventually motivate the audience to seek better solutions. A good speaker is one who steers the audience in a more relevant direction, even under the overload of information, just like a recommendation system. Be the best recommendation system you can be.

The clarity metric is simply a corollary to the first point made in the list of myths earlier. Keep in mind that ideas and concepts are far more sustainable in a talk than solutions and tools. And to be able to crystallize these in your presentation, clarity is paramount. The ideas themselves may be simple or complex, but they should be clear. What Donald Knuth said about writing code for computers and writing code for humans applies in conferences too. Conferences are nothing without people, and people, especially programmers, thrive on clarity of thought. When drafting your proposal, make sure that you clearly highlight the focal points. The remaining is just details, which should follow naturally.

The final aspect of the talk - its impact - can be both positive and negative. One way of determining the potential positive impact of your talk is by asking yourself questions like:

  • What is the real contribution of this talk?
  • What am I bringing to the table?
  • Am I just dispensing information that could be found anywhere?

The negative impact of a talk is somewhat difficult to determine, but a few things that must invariably be avoided are toxicity, race/gender stereotypes and shaming, directed toward anyone - even toward a hypothetical individual - for any reason.

Do not forget to ask for help and take full advantage of the mentorship programme. Be active on the CFP. Actively engaging with reviewers and the audience in the comments section of your proposal can work wonders for your proposal. Note that conference slots are a very expensive affairs for everyone involved - the organizers, the speakers, and the audience. Part of the responsibility for making a talk successful lies with the organizers too. Therefore, we are as invested in your proposal as you are yourself.

All the best!

Call For Proposals is open!

The time has come! And we are thrilled to announce the opening of Call for Proposals. We encourage everyone to submit a proposal on any topic they would like to share with the community.

Here are some of the important dates to keep in mind:

  • July 10: Proposal submission deadline
  • July 29: Workshop finalization and first round decision for talks
  • August 12: Final round decision for talks
  • September 1: Schedule announcement on the website

PROPOSAL TYPE

The proposals can be of two type:

  1. Talk: A Talk is focused on a topic for 30 minutes.
  2. Workshop: A Workshop is an in depth, hands on session for 2 hours and 30 minutes

PROPOSAL CATEGORIZATION

Here are some sections under which you can submit your talk or workshop:

  1. Core python and Standard library - Language Features, Python Implementations, Extending Python and Standard Library
  2. Data science - Data Analysis, Scientific Computing, Machine Learning and Data Visualization
  3. Developer tools and Automation - Testing, CI/CD, Containers, Orchestration, Logging and Monitoring
  4. Web Development - Web frameworks and RESTful APIs
  5. Embedded python - MicroPython, Python on Hardware, Robotics, Arduino and Raspberry Pi
  6. Networking and Security - Network Programming, Async, Network Security and Encryption
  7. Others - Everything else that may be of interest to the audience of PyCon India

PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

  • The proposal should have an objective with clear expectation for the audience.
  • The proposal description should be short and to the point.
  • The proposal should have proper prerequisites like environment setup, library version.
  • Appropriate session content like presentation, pdf, code snippets etc. are a plus.
  • Proposal content links can be updated later.
  • Proposal content should adhere to code of conduct.
  • Proposal content shouldn't have a company name throughout the content. Mention of the employer is allowed only at the beginning of the content (presentation/pdf).
  • Background image/wallpaper shouldn't contain company name/logos.
  • Selection/Rejection about talks will be notified via email.
  • For any questions, please write to contact@in.pycon.org.

Mentors

Presenters, regardless of experience, sometimes want a little help. If you’d like any help in proposing, preparing, or presenting your talk, feel free to contact one of our mentors! A mentor is an experienced presenter who has volunteered to help other presenters.

If you are a first-time speaker, or looking for help to give a shape to the idea that you have in your mind, or just appreciate another set of eyes, our mentors are here to help. If you would like to be matched with a mentor to help with your proposal(s), request a mentor here.

FAQ

Q: Who can propose a session ?
A: Anyone who works on python irrespective of the experience.

Q: I am first time speaker, can I propose session ?
A: Yes. We accept proposals from everyone.

Q: Will someone help me fine tune the content ?
A: Yes, we have a set of reviewers who will review the content and give feedback from time to time. You can also go through these resources to make your talk successful:

Q: Can I upload the content later ?
A: Yes, it is advised to start with rough draft and iterate rather than postponing to last minute.

Q: Can I propose multiple talks?
A: Yes, you can as long as they are different.

PROPOSE YOUR TALK NOW!

PyCon India 2018 : Update in Venue, Addition of HydPy

There has been few major changes in the organisation of PyCon India 2018 due to some unavoidable circumstances & to have a successful PyCon India.

To the City of Nizams

The community has decided to shift the venue to Hyderabad & let the new entrants take lead this year.

The Python community in Hyderabad has been growing rapidly in the last few years. The city saw the first regional Python conference held recently in October 2017 organized by the Hyderabad Python Users Group(HydPy).

HydPy will be organising PyCon India on Oct 5th - Oct 9th instead of PyCon Hyderabad this year, the new dates were kept in alignment with the schedule earlier planned for its own regional conference.

The Event

  • Workshops : Oct 5th (Fri). 4 parallel tracks with each workshop being 3 hour long
  • Conference : Oct 6th & 7th (Sat-Sun). 3 parallel sessions
  • Dev Sprints : Oct 8th & 9th (Mon-Tue)

Volunteer structure

We’re incorporating workgroup structure which will take responsibility of getting things done for various teams of PyCon India 2018.

Workgroup - Core group of people responsible for the execution of tasks mandated for a given team. The workgroup is also responsible for setting guidelines on the team's working.

Volunteers - The workgroup along with the volunteers execute the various tasks in the shape and form as agreed within the workgroup.

Important Dates

CFP

  • Opens : TBD
  • Closes : July 1st
  • Last date to upload final presentation : July 15th
  • Talk acceptance : Aug 4th.
  • Final schedule : Aug 15th.

Registration

  • Opens : May 15th.
  • Closes : September 28th.
  • Note : Ticket cancellations will not be allowed beyond September 15th. Also, registration is limited by the venue capacity and hence, might close sooner.

That's about it folks. Spread the word, talk about it, let your friends and family know, and let's make the 10th year conference the best one ever.

Sponsorships are open now!

While the preparations are under full swing to celebrate the 10th year anniversary edition of PyCon India and make the event a grand success, here's a chance for you and your organisation to make it even better!

The entire organising team and the community at large are extremely thankful to all the sponsors who have supported us throughout out the years. It is no secret that without your support, we wouldn't have been able to even think about taking the conference to bigger and better heights with each and every year. Many of you must already be eager to come forward and book your slot, but here's a bit more information and incentive so as to why you should consider sponsoring:

Put your business in the spot light

Stand out among the attendees by prominently displaying your products and marketing material.

Low Cost Marketing

Instead of spending a fortune on traditional advertisements, take a look at our reasonably priced sponsorship slabs and pick one - letting you be discovered and known to the cream of the community at maybe half (or even less!) of your marketing budget.

Hiring

The conference has a history of attracting smart folks from various backgrounds and also of making matches between them and potential employers. Get connected, make your pitch and find the best programmers to join your ranks!

Give Back to the Community

Establish your goodwill and show the community that you’re a reliable partner, willing to support the ecosystem. Sponsorship is a way of giving back to the community and thanking them for their support. Your sponsorship helps PyCon India remain affordable and accessible to the widest possible audience.

Small Business Discount

To make PyCon India affordable to small businesses and startups, we provide a 50% discount for the Gold, Silver and Associate sponsorship slabs. Note: In order to avail this discount, your organization must have been established not more than two years ago, with fewer than 10 current employees.

Flexibility

Have something specific in mind? Please don’t hesitate to ask! We are more than happy to work with you and tailor sponsorship benefits to suit your needs.

Interested in getting involved? Checkout our sponsorship prospectus right here.

If you have any queries whatsoever, please don't hesitate to reach out to sponsorship@in.pycon.org