PyCon 2006 Summary

Wi-fi connectivity at PyCon 2006 was a little sketchy, so I (obviously) wasn't making regular posts. Add busy evening schedules and an immediate flight out to Finland and it's now taken almost a week to post about the conference. I would say that's some bad blogging, but then again, I had a little trouble coming up with a good write-up about the conference. Something about it this year didn't strike the same level of excitement. I think it comes down to a few things:

1. With all the blogs and news feeds available, it's not hard to stay current on what's happening with Python.
2. I haven't been active enough in the public forums to have that "I finally get to put a face to a name" experience.
3. Many of the sessions "lacked polish".

Point #3 really stuck with me, making it hard sometimes to remember that this is a community-oriented non-profit conference, not a high-dollar commercial event. Still, there were far too many A/V issues, and I was left with the impression that a number of the presenters (not all, mind you) either hadn't made a practice run of their talks or they hadn't thought through what the "take away" was supposed to be (ex., what background information might the audience need, and what's the primary message the audience should walk away with?) A couple of the presenters dove right into technical issues they were proud of before actually explaining what they were working on. As a listener, this makes it difficult to share in the enthusiasm.

On the positive side, the conference did have it's good points. For one, the features coming in Python 2.5 sound very nice, and I was glad to here that Guido has changed his opinion on lambda. The business side also seems healthier, with many companies hiring Python programers. I was also impressed with the django presentations (enough to go back and give django another look.)

Since the conference, I've also started looking at the Bazaar-NG "decentralized revision control system", ReST + S5, Python + Glade, and I'm much more excited about Chandler.

To wrap up, I have a few suggestions for those who plan technical events:

• If you're going to offer wi-fi to several hundred people, make sure the infrastructure can handle the load. Dropping connections are more distracting then no connection at all.
• Don't set up podiums in front of mirrors -- it lets the audience see fidgeting that the speaker may prefer to hide.
• Remind presenters that if they're running Linux on their laptop, they might want to test that it works with the projector before their talk is scheduled to start. (Actually, anyone giving a talk should check in advance that the A/V is going to work.)
• If coffee is going to be available, schedule it for the morning before the long talks. Mid-morning coffee is nice, but morning coffee is better.
• Help facilitate interaction instead of one-way presentations. At a conference like PyCon, everyone there is smart and can add value to the conversations. You just need a way to get people talking. Round-tables, structured BOF's, and more Lighting Talks might work.