Blog

Code of Conduct Transparency Report: YouTube Comments

2016-08-31T17:28:00Z

We had some Code of Conduct issues in the comments of our conference videos.

What happened

In 2015, we turned off YouTube comments on all our talk videos by default. This year, we forgot to take that step. When the videos of the 2016 conference talks started being posted to YouTube, we had an influx of wonderful, positive, complimentary comments that made us proud of our community, so we decided not to limit comments on videos.

This was a mistake.

On Friday, August 19, we were notified by one of our speakers that several people had posted harassing comments on the video of their talk.

We apologize to this speaker for not moderating comments from the very beginning. It’s our responsibility as organizers to ensure the safety and well-being of all our speakers, even after the conference is over. We failed to do that, and we’re sorry.

What actions we took

By Monday, August 22, we had taken the following actions:

Contacted the speaker to thank them for letting us know, apologize for creating circumstances that allowed this to happen, and let them know what we planned to do
Reported all abusive comments to YouTube
Initiated internal discussion about comments that were borderline, and reported the ones that we decided violated the Code of Conduct
Removed the ability to comment further on all talk videos (Later in the weekend we re-enabled the ability to comment, but all comments are now moderated and must be approved by an organizer.)
Reviewed comments on all other videos (no other video had received harassing comments at that time)
Prepared a Code of Conduct report for the Django Software Foundation

We can confirm that the abusive comments no longer appear on that video.

We don’t know the identities of the people who commented, and we don’t know if they are members of the Django community. We took screenshots of the comments and commenters and have reported them to the DSF.

What we’re doing to prevent this happening again

In the future, comments on all DjangoCon US conference talk videos will be moderated from the beginning, and speakers will be asked whether they would like us to disable comments on their talk videos entirely. Members of the Code of Conduct team and other conference organizers will have access and be able to monitor and approve comments. Harassing or abusive comments, or comments that otherwise violate the Code of Conduct, will not be approved.

People who moderate YouTube comments will be trained in what to look for when moderating comments. For example, hate speech, abusive comments, and insults are violations of the Code of Conduct and are not acceptable. Comments that simply disagree with the speaker in a civil manner are acceptable.

We will also make it clear that the DjangoCon US Code of Conduct applies to all online spaces, including YouTube comments. Again, we don’t know if these commenters attended the conference or are members of the Django community, but we want to be sure that members of our community know that the official DjangoCon US YouTube channel, and conference talk videos from DjangoCon US posted by other users, are covered by the Code of Conduct.

A final note

At DjangoCon US, we want to create warm and welcoming spaces where people can learn new skills, be exposed to groundbreaking technology, have important conversations, meet developers from all over the world, and be exposed to new and challenging ideas. For those goals to be successful, we need to ensure that DjangoCon US is a safe place for people to express those ideas and have those conversations. We deeply regret that our actions caused harm to this speaker.

If you have any questions or concerns about this incident, please feel free to contact us at hello@djangocon.us. If you need to report a Code of Conduct violation, please contact coc@djangocon.us.

Thank You Diversity Sponsors

2016-07-19T18:18:11Z

Thank You Diversity Sponsors!

Thank you to all of our Diversity sponsors for their sponsorship this year!

Thank You Bronze Sponsors

2016-07-19T17:59:58Z

Thank you to all of our Bronze sponsors!

Thank you to all of our Bronze sponsors for sponsoring this year!

DjangoCon Lightning Talks

2016-07-14T16:32:05Z

Coming to DjangoCon next week? Have you thought about giving a Lightning Talk?

Lightning Talks are short talks with a 5 minute maximum. We’ll have 3 time slots (July 18-20, Noon to 12:45pm) available. You’ll be able to sign up to propose a Lightning Talk at the conference, not in advance.

Lightning Talks are an EXCELLENT way to get started giving presentations, if you haven’t given one before or have been nervous about doing it.

We look forward to seeing your amazing Lightning Talks at DjangoCon!

Philly Scavenger Hunt

2016-07-13T12:14:09Z

Embrace Your Inner Philly City-Slickerness!

Join us on this scavenger hunt that will take you around campus and into the heart of Philadelphia!

There will be prizes thanks to sponsorship from The Penn Wharton Budget Model!

Please take a look at Scavenger Hunt for all the details and most importantly… prize information!

Django Fellow Sprint

2016-07-12T04:53:42Z

Are you interested in contributing to Django but either can’t stay for the sprints on Thursday and Friday or just want to get a jump start on things?

An informal hallway sprint will be held in the MBA Café during the talks on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The Django Fellow, Tim Graham, will be hanging out there to assist anyone interested in contributing to Django’s code or documentation. All experience levels are welcome. This sprint is sponsored by Lincoln Loop and the Django Software Foundation.

We Are Sold Out!

2016-07-12T04:39:04Z

We are happy to announce that we are now sold out!

Thank you so much to all of you who purchased a conference ticket for DjangoCon US 2016! If you didn’t manage to get a ticket in time, we encourage you to try again next year. Sponsors, financial aid recipients, and those with a coupon code who have not claimed their tickets yet need not worry, you will still be able to get your ticket. Also, tutorial tickets are still available here.

We can’t wait to see you in Philly this soon!

Sign up to volunteer!

2016-07-11T18:19:58Z

Got a free hour at DjangoCon? Sign up to help out!

DjangoCon is organized and run by volunteers from the Django community. This year we’re looking for over 80 on-site volunteer hours to help make sure everything runs smoothly.

Everyone who is attending DjangoCon is welcome to volunteer, but you must be registered to volunteer at the registration desk or as a session chair or session runner. All help is very much appreciated! We truly couldn’t do this without you. For more information, see our Volunteers page or just sign up!

Pro Tip: Sign up to be a Session Chair or Session Runner – it’s a great opportunity to meet the speakers!

Session staff

Please read and understand the duties before you sign up to be a session chair/runner. Only sign up for one role per session. Session Chairs and Session Runners are present for an entire session (usually 2-3 talks in a row).

Registration Desk

This is the perfect way to meet people! You welcome them, give them their name badge, and direct them to the coffee station and keynote room. Registration desk shifts are only one hour, and you’re welcome to work more than one shift. If this is your first DjangoCon, it’s a good way to get into volunteering!

Swag Bag Stuffing

Just show up! Swag bag stuffing will happen on Sunday, July 17 at 1:30 pm. Come stuff 10 bags! Many hands make light work!

Sprints

Sign up to help mentor or run errands at the sprints! For this volunteer opportunity, you don’t need a paid conference pass. You just need to be willing to help newcomers to the sprints make their first commits!

Thanks Revsys!

2016-07-08T12:31:24Z

Thanks again to REVSYS for sponsoring this year!

REVSYS gives back to the Django community in many ways!

We’re very lucky to have REVSYS’ own Jeff Triplett as DjangoCon’s Conference Chair! Jeff is also the President of DEFNA.

President & Founder Frank Wiles also serves as the President of the Django Software Foundation.

Visit Team Revolution Systems to learn more about how the team at REVSYS continues to give back!

Announcing our Keynote Speakers

2016-07-06T19:09:32Z

We’re so excited about the keynote speakers for DjangoCon US 2016!

Saron Yitbarek

Saron is a developer and the founder of CodeNewbie, the most supportive community of programmers and people learning to code. You can learn more about her in her original cartoon!

Saron will be presenting her talk “Lucky: Examining the barriers to contributing to open source”:

Being an open source contributor requires many resources we often take for granted: technical knowledge, confidence in that knowledge, access to technical tools, and a socioeconomic status that allows us to code without financial compensation. These resources are inaccessible to many, if not most. Shifting the face of our community to better represent our increasingly global user base requires us to examine what groups are least likely to have access to these resources and how different organizations and initiatives are working to remove these barriers and create entry points for groups of people who face the biggest obstacles in their journey to becoming creators in our community.

Saron discusses specific issues around socioeconomic status, location, access to education, and access to high-speed Internet and explains how these factors affect the likelihood of being able to contribute to the open source community. Saron unpacks the privilege most of us have as developers in the developed world. By understanding the barriers many face to becoming creators in our community and discussing actionable steps we can take to help, we will be better equipped to create on-ramps for more people, leading to a more inclusive space and a stronger coding community.

Andrew Godwin

Andrew is a Django core developer, the main force behind Channels, South and Django's migrations, and in his day job works as a Senior Software Engineer at Eventbrite, tackling architectural and backend problems. When he's not trying to work out how to make computers do the right thing, he enjoys flying small planes, archery and visiting lots of mountains.

Andrew will be presenting his talk “Architecting with Channels”:

Django Channels came in with one headline feature - WebSockets - but the impact on Django and the projects you can now write using it is far greater.

Andrew will explain the overall architecture of Channels, and how it fundamentally changes Django in ways that allow for new kinds of code to be written while keeping familiar APIs and being entirely backwards compatible, before going on to showcase some advanced feature examples, scaling methods and concerns, and deployment strategies.

Among other things, you’ll discover how to use Channels to data-bind WebSockets against Django models, see how consumers can work with incoming emails rather than just web protocols, and how to integrate your own asynchronous code for low-level networking with a Channels-based project.

Janice Levenhagen-Seeley

Janice is the Founder and CEO of ChickTech, a national nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls and women in the technology industry and creating a more inclusive technology culture. Janice holds a BS degree in computer engineering and an MBA. Her passion lies in creating change to improve women’s lives. She founded ChickTech in 2012 based on her experiences as a woman in technology and is driven to provide a more positive experience in the technology industry for others.

Janice will be presenting her talk “Breaking Through the Glass Walls of Tech”:

54% of women leave tech by year 10 in their career. Our industry is losing great talent, diverse perspectives, and opportunities daily. We aren’t moving the needle as fast as we need to, and organizations and industry leaders alike are trying to figure out why. In her talk, Janice will tell you the history of and inspiration behind ChickTech, the top three issues that are holding back progress towards gender equity in tech, and how we can start breaking through those barriers.

Last-Minute Hotel Reminder

2016-07-06T04:09:06Z

Last minute hotel availability!

The Sheraton has made more rooms available for our block, and has also extended our booking window through July 8! This means that there are rooms for you to book, and you have two extra days to make your reservation. We still need room nights here, so if you are partial to the Sheraton, this is your place! However, they absolutely cannot extend past this date because of the incoming DNCC guests, so if you want to stay at the Sheraton, book now!

The Homewood has also extended our group booking window through July 11, and has also added rooms! We need room nights here as well, so if you are a Hilton properties frequent guest, this is your hotel! Homewood cannot extend the booking window any further as they also need to accommodate the DNCC—so book now!

Both hotels offer the special rate of $199/night, and include wifi and other perks in the room rate. Both hotels are a short walk from Huntsman Hall, so you’ll be as close as you can be to all the fun! Book your hotel today!

Revsys

2016-07-05T15:41:00Z

A huge thanks to REVSYS for their Gold sponsorship this year!

REVSYS is a leader in the world of Django and Python. They help companies of all sizes build, scale, or transition to Django. From scalability consulting to training and mentoring your team, the experts at REVSYS have you covered.

Be sure to check out Spectrum, their newest product! It helps developers find bugs faster by making your application log data easier to digest.

For more on REVSYS, you can visit our Sponsor page or visit their webpage directly.

Thank You Eldarion & Eldarion Cloud!

2016-07-01T12:41:47Z

Thanks again to Eldarion and the Eldarion Cloud team for sponsoring this year!

Eldarion Cloud is a new DevOps PaaS solution powered by Kubernetes, from Eldarion. It was purpose-built for Django/Python apps and it’s available for public cloud, private cloud, hybrid and on-premises deployments. To learn more visit Eldarion Cloud.

Eldarion gives back to the community by supporting the DSF, Django Girls, and DjangoCon! We’re so lucky to have Eldarion’s Anna Osswoski on the DjangoCon team as our Communications Chair! To learn more about Anna please stop by our Organizers page!

Updated Last Call for Hotels - More Rooms Available!

2016-06-29T23:15:13Z

Good news for those who still need to book their hotel!

The Sheraton has made more rooms available for July 19, which had previously sold out. The Sheraton has also extended our booking window through July 6! This means that there are rooms for you to book, and you have a few extra days to make your reservation.

The Homewood has also extended our group booking window through July 4! We are starting to fill our block at The Homewood, so don’t wait until Monday—book now!

Eldarion

2016-06-27T13:44:42Z

A special thanks to Eldarion for their Gold sponsorship this year!

Since 2009 the team at Eldarion has been helping people to get from idea to launch, faster. They develop tools, apps, and websites for clients around the world, ranging from established companies to individuals with an entrepreneurial vision.

Open source is at the heart of Eldarion. Their team members lead or contribute to a range of projects including Python, Django, Pinax, and many individual Django apps.

They don’t just use the best tools to get from idea to launch, they help write them!

Thank You Caktus Group!

2016-06-24T15:38:06Z

Thanks again to Caktus Group for sponsoring this year as a Gold level sponsor! We truly appreciate your sponsorship and contributions to the community at large!

Caktus Group regularly contributes back to the open source community with well-documented code, blog posts, and a dedicated event space that has hosted over 48 community events in the past six months. They also give back to the greater community with social justice and humanitarian projects deployed in the U.S. and abroad. Their work to support democratic access in the U.S. and in Libya and to help Syrian refugees has been featured in The Atlantic, Time, Wired, and the Stanford Innovation Review.

To learn more about Caktus’ approach to application development, see Lightweight Django (O’Reilly), co-written by their Technical Director Mark Lavin and the white paper, “Shipping Faster: Django Team Improvements”.

For more on Caktus Group , you can visit our Sponsor page or visit their webpage directly!

Last Call for Accommodation

2016-06-24T06:54:11Z

Are you waiting until the last minute to book your rooms? Great news: We still have hotel rooms available :) This is our last call for hotel room reservations.

We’d like to give everyone one last reminder that you should book your accommodations with the Sheraton by the end of the day on June 27, or at the Homewood by the end of the day on July 1, if you’d like to take advantage of our special hotel room rate.

Not only does this ensure that you save (a lot) of money, but it also helps us! We are only 3 room reservations short of fulfilling our obligation at the Sheraton, and rather more at the Homewood. By booking room nights you help us avoid having to pay a penalty for not hitting our room minimum. We’re sure we can all agree that we’d rather save the money for our financial aid program next year instead of paying it to the venue, right?

Why should you book your room with our venue?

It’s convenient! Booking your room at one of the hotels we chose is convenient and you are only a short walk away from the conference. Our rate is a great deal! Some of us who are flying in early to Philly have been quoted rates of $329 a night for other hotels. Our rate of $199 a night is a tremendous savings.

To lower our conference prices! We have to cover a minimum number of room nights or else we have to pay a penalty. Why do we have a room minimum? We had to guarantee a minimum set of rooms to get the special rate. While we are doing well financially, we’d rather spend that money on the conference, increase our donation to the DSF, and save some money to help fund DjangoCon US 2017.

We also understand that not everyone is fortunate enough to work for a company who is willing to pay for these costs. We aren’t asking you to cancel your AirBNB reservations or put yourself in a bad financial situation. But,if you haven’t booked your room, now is the time!

We are glad that you are attending DjangoCon US and we appreciate your consideration.

See you in Philly this summer!

Day 1 Orientation

2016-06-22T18:29:20Z

How can you have the BEST DjangoCon ever, even if it’s your first conference? Come to the Day 1 Orientation!

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from DjangoCon US 2015. One recurring theme was this: people attending their first con or attending DjangoCon alone often felt a little lost, overwhelmed, or left out. An informal survey of potential new conference attendees also revealed the desire for some sort of “guidance” when attending a conference. So, to address this, we’ve created a Day 1 Orientation session. The goal is to help people put their best foot forward at their first DjangoCon US or first tech conference.

The orientation page can be found here and more details will be added as we get closer to DjangoCon. We look forward to seeing you in Philly and to you having the BEST DjangoCon US you can have!

Meet the Organizers!

2016-06-21T07:21:48Z

Who is running this thing?

DjangoCon US would not be possible without the hundreds of hours of volunteers have put in over the past year. We’re thrilled to have a mix of returning and new faces on our organizing team. Together, the organizers for DjangoCon US are making sure that the conference is welcoming, accessible, friendly to beginners, safe, diverse, affordable, and has the greatest talk and tutorial lineup.

The organizers listed here aren’t the only volunteers, of course. We’d like to give a huge shoutout to everyone who’s contributed to our GitHub repository (which includes code and documentation contributions, filing bug reports, and answering questions); everyone who’s suggested improvements to the website and conference over email and on Twitter; the people who’ve helped us with outreach by reaching out to meetups and organizations they’re part of; the maintainers and contributors to the Django Project and the vast ecosystem of related open source projects that make up so much of the conference and sprints; and the onsite volunteers who will serve as sessions chairs and runners, swag bag stuffers, and sprints mentors. We couldn’t do this without your help.

Meet the DjangoCon US 2016 organizers, and read more about them on the Organizers page!

Jeff Triplett, Conference Chair
Lacey Williams Henschel, Conference Co-Chair
Anna Ossowski, Communications Chair
Andy Gonzalez, Diversity Chair
Andrew Pinkham, Talks Chair and Program Co-Chair
Kenneth Love, Tutorials Chair and Program Co-Chair
Kojo Idrissa, Lightning Talks and Orientation Chair
Sara Gore, Financial Aid Chair
Landon Jurgens, Sprints Chair
Heather Luna, Sponsorship Chair
Timothy Allen, Venue Liaison
Philip James, Visas Coordinator
Craig Bruce, Treasurer
Stacey Haysler, DEFNA Corporate Secretary and Venue and Hotel Liaison

Would you like to help out at DjangoCon? Sign up to volunteer!

Caktus Group

2016-06-20T12:42:37Z

A special thanks to Caktus Group for their Gold sponsorship this year!

Caktus Group builds web and SMS apps with Django for businesses and social good. They’re known for building sharper apps the right way, with over 100 solutions that have impacted over 70 million people for clients of all sizes. In addition to building apps with the highest code quality (over 90% test coverage), they also provide team augmentation and best practices consulting.

Thanks PostgreSQL Experts!

2016-06-17T14:56:52Z

Thanks again to PostgreSQL Experts for sponsoring this year as a Gold level sponsor! We also want to thank them for their hard work within the Django community!

PGX is committed to community involvement. CEO Christophe Pettus is Treasurer of the Django Software Foundation, and a Django contributor, as well as being a part of of the PostgreSQL world for 20 years. The CFO, Stacey Haysler, is a founding member of Django Events Foundation North America, and serves as the venue manager for DjangoCon US, as well as being involved in the PostgreSQL community. Thank you both for your ongoing contributions to the community!

For more on PostgreSQL Experts , you can visit our Sponsor page or visit their webpage directly.

Child Care at DjangoCon US!

2016-06-15T02:57:06Z

We’re excited to offer complimentary child care for children ages 18 months to 6 years old during the conference and sprint days!

To sign up your child, fill out this form as soon as possible! There is only limited space available, so don’t wait to let us know you’re bringing your kiddos.

Our provider is Saint Mary’s Church Nursery School, 3916 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

From the Saint Mary’s Nursery School website:

“Saint Mary’s Nursery School is a non-profit cooperative day care center, founded in 1964. We provide day care for children from 18 months to 6 years. Our core belief is that family and community involvement in our program fosters a caring, trusting, healthy environment for our children. Our unique parent help program, work days, and our diverse board of directors all exemplify this cooperative approach. Each member takes an active role in making St. Mary’s a great place for our children to learn and grow. While we share the wonderful and centrally located Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church building, we are not associated with the Church. We are a separate entity, and non-denominational.”

Drop-off starts at 7:30 am, and children should be picked up no later than 6:00 pm.

Their location is just a couple blocks away from Huntsman Hall, where the conference will take place. They will be able to care for children at their nursery during the conference, at no cost to you!

Child care is available during the talks and sprints (5 days) of the conference, Monday, July 18 - Friday, July 22.

PostgreSQL Experts

2016-06-13T14:12:53Z

A huge thanks to PostgreSQL Experts for their Gold sponsorship this year!

As you might guess from the name, PostgreSQL Experts specializes in all things PostgreSQL. Known by the easier-to-pronounce “PGX”, this boutique consultancy is based in San Francisco, California. PGX provides full service database consulting, application development, support, and training, as well as emergency services. PGX also offers its specialized CloudDBA™ service, managing your servers as your offsite DBA so your staff can focus on higher-level work, and a 24/7 support plan to provide peace of mind for clients.

For more on PostgreSQL Experts , you can visit our Sponsor page or visit their webpage directly.

Thanks Sentry!

2016-06-10T13:05:18Z

Thanks again to Sentry for sponsoring this year as a Gold level sponsor!

We’re so appreciative of Sentry for sponsoring at the Gold Level! They will be in attendance at the conference so make sure you drop by their booth to learn more about what they’re bringing to the table! Besides an arsenal of tools, they’re also known for their conference swag! Who knows what goodies they’ll be bringing this year!

For more on Sentry , you can visit our Sponsor page or visit their webpage directly.

How We Allocated Financial Aid

2016-06-09T20:30:06Z

Deciding how to allocate our financial aid budget is something we take very seriously.

This year we are able to provide free conference tickets to all speakers, and pushed back early bird pricing to enable more attendees to buy tickets at the lower price. In addition, we worked to provide funds for travel, lodging, and other needs to applicants who stated a need for financial assistance.

The DjangoCon US financial aid committee uses Grorg, a Django app created by Andrew Godwin to anonymously score applications. Once all applications have been scored, the committee makes the final decision on how our funds should be allocated.

We scored each application in random order from 1 to 5 based on the following criteria:

What is the realistic benefit to the applicant?
Does the applicant have clear, specific, concrete, realistic ideas about what they will gain from attending the conference?
Do I feel the applicant really, really wants to attend DjangoCon US?
What is the overall value for money? The goal is to help as many people as possible attend DjangoCon who otherwise wouldn’t be able to.
What is my overall feeling about the application?

Overall, we look for concrete ideas and commitments in applications. We try to choose those who need it and those whose lives and careers will most be affected by attending DjangoCon US. We tried to ensure that speakers are able to attend while also giving opportunities to non-speakers and attendees new to the Django community. As you can imagine, the choice is not easy.

Our selection criteria and process is borrowed from the DjangoGirls Organizer’s Manual and suggested by Daniele Procida.

Assisted Listening Devices

2016-06-07T20:34:25Z

For our attendees who are hard of hearing or who would benefit from them, we have assisted listening devices you can reserve at no cost for your use during the conference.

The Wharton School has generously provided us with a limited number of assisted listening device headsets. The specific model is available at that link. They are wired into the room’s full audio facilities: computer audio and microphones. The wireless headsets have independent volume control for each ear, so they can be tuned.

To make sure we have enough headsets available, please fill out this form to let us know which days you’d like to reserve a headset.

Note: We will not be able to have live captioning at DjangoCon US this year, but we hope that the assisted listening devices will be helpful to those who need it! If you would like to attend DjangoCon but are concerned that the event won’t be accessible to you, please check out our venue page or send us an email. We will do everything we can to make you welcome at DjangoCon US.

Sentry

2016-06-06T03:35:54Z

Our thanks to Sentry for sponsoring this year as a Gold level sponsor!

Sentry provides modern crash reporting not only for your Django backend, but also for JavaScript, iOS, or Android clients.

Uniquely, the story of Sentry actually begins with Django’s open source community. Their co-founder, David Cramer, had been involved early on in the Django community. He had written and open sourced a very basic exception logger for Django. It had been widely adopted by the community and as the project grew, was adopted by massive tech companies, like Uber, Pinterest, Dropbox, etc. Today, it’s a team of 13 that includes Armin Ronacher, the creator of Flask.

For more on Sentry, you can visit our Sponsor page or visit their webpage directly.

Early Bird Ticket Warning

2016-05-30T22:46:15Z

Attention Djangonauts!

Our early bird ticket sale is about to end. The final day you will be able to purchase early bird tickets for DjangoCon US 2016 will be Tuesday, May 31st.

Last year we sold out two weeks before our early bird sale was over. This year we increased our venue capacity and we would love to sell out again at our early bird rate!

If you wonder why you should buy a ticket for DjangoCon?

We have 46 great talks and a more diverse list of speakers than previous years.
We have 6 great tutorials lead by well known experts.
40% talks by women speakers.
This year our individual and corporate tickets are $200 cheaper than previous years.
Our venue is at Huntsman Hall at the University of Pennsylvania’s campus in the heart of The Wharton School of Business in Philly.
You get to hang out with 400 other awesome Djangonauts!

Tickets have been selling fast since announcing our conference schedule. If you want to be part of the early bird crowd, don’t wait any longer. Buy your tickets before June 1st. Registration information is available on our registration page.

We hope to see you in Philly this July!

Thanks Lincoln Loop!

2016-05-27T13:36:14Z

Thanks again to Lincoln Loop for sponsoring this year as a Diamond level sponsor! We also want to thank them for doing a wonderful job on the DjangoCon US 2016 website this year!

We’re so very lucky and happy to have Lincoln Loop as a Diamond sponsor. In addition to providing our website for DjangoCon US 2016 at the hands of Mark Wirblich, founder Peter Baumgartner has been essential to the fundraising efforts that help make DjangoCon US possible.

If you are looking to level up your Django skills you should check out High Performance Django written by the Lincoln Loop team. It will give you a repeatable blueprint for building and deploying fast, scalable Django sites.

For more on Lincoln Loop , you can visit our Sponsor page or visit their webpage directly.

Announcing Our Talk Line Up

2016-05-26T23:16:33Z

Congratulations to the speakers of the 46 talks below. We had an incredible set of talk proposals submitted, and selecting these talks was extremely difficult: even if your talk didn’t make it, you should feel very proud of yourself. A huge thank you to our reviewers, without whom this list would still be weeks in the making.

The actual schedule (with keynotes!) will be available very soon. Here is our talk lineup (sorted by last name)!

A new look into APIs - Graphene (Syrus Akbary)
It Is Darkest Before Dawn: Alcoholism and Addiction in Tech (Timothy Allen)
The impact of women learning to code in developing countries: benefits and challenges. (Aisha Bello & Ibrahim Diop)
Full Auto Django: scaling and HA with Docker, Kubernetes and Atomic (Josh Berkus)
Happy Asset Deployments with Webpack & Django (Scott Burns)
Git in Control, Version Control and How it Could Save Your Life (Rachell Calhoun)
The Fraud Police are Coming: Work, Leadership, and Imposter Syndrome (Amanda Clark & Briana Morgan)
Websockets: Intro to messaging. (Josue Balandrano Coronel)
High-Availability Django (Frankie Dintino)
Building Dynamic Dashboards with Django and D3 (Clinton Dreisbach)
Beyond PO: How to make Django work for right-to-left languages (Cho Garcia & Payam)
Solving problems with Django Forms. (Kirt Gittens)
I Didn’t Know QuerySets Could Do That (Charlie Guo)
Geospatial Analysis with GeoDjango (Don Holloway)
SSL all the things (Markus Holtermann)
An Intro To Web Accessibility In Django (Annalee Flower Horne)
Readability Counts (Trey Hunner)
People are coming to my beginning workshop, what now? (Nicholle James)
Frog and Toad Learn About Django Security (Philip James)
Things your mother didn’t teach you about sharing your toys (Russell Keith-Magee)
This Old Pony: Working with Legacy Django Apps (Ben Lopatin)
Walking Down the A11y Road - Lessons Learnt from Working on Accessibility of a Django Project (Radina Matic)
Django and React: Perfect Together (Jack McCloy)
Stress Testing your Code of Conduct in Production (Baptiste Mispelon & Ola Sendecka)
Django Supporting Virtual Reality Game Development (Rudy Mutter)
Django, Python, and Health Care Data (Becca Nock)
From Developer to Manager (Sean O’Connor)
Dispelling the ‘Genius Programmer’ Myth Through Code Review (Ashwini Oruganti)
Design for Non-Designers (Tracy Osborn)
Rub-a-Dub Rubber Duck: Don’t Be Afraid to Debug! (Anna Ossowski)
The City as Cyborg: a history of Civic Tech in the first quarter of the 21st Century (Mjumbe Poe)
The Full Stack of User Experience (Alicia C. Raciti)
Spicing up Django: An introduction to Mezzanine CMS (Ed Rivas)
MBaaS Framework: Built with Django & Django REST Framework (Kartikeya Rokde)
Healthy Minds in a Healthy Community (Erik Romijn)
Building JSON APIs with Django / Pinax (Brian Rosner)
How We Used NLP and Django to Build a Movie Suggestion Website & Twitterbot (Vince Salvino)
Django for IoT: From hackathon to production (Anna Schneider)
Angular 2 and You (Pam Selle)
Pushing the Pony’s boundaries — Django Admin Customization (Ola Sitarska)
Sign Me Up - Choosing & using a registration package for your Django project (Eleanor Stribling)
Just Enough Typography (Joni Trythall)
Under the Hood of Modern CSS Frameworks (Michael Trythall)
Atomic Wagtail (Kurt Wall)
Making the most Out of Code Reviews (Mariatta Wijaya)
Entomology 101: Effective Bug Hunting (Frank Wiles)

Announcing Our Tutorial Line Up

2016-05-25T17:35:30Z

Hey everyone! After a ton of deliberation and sifting through an amazing collection of submissions, we’ve settled on the tutorials for DjangoCon US 2016. A huge thank you to everyone that submitted (you seriously made this so hard) and to all of the reviewers. We tried to make sure that the tutorials would offer a little something for everyone this year, from beginner Djangonauts to UX design to security and optimization. So, in no particular order, here are your DjangoCon 2016 tutorials:

Demystifying the Django REST Framework

Sunday, July 17th, 12:30PM - 5:00PM

Presented by: Haris Ibrahim K V

This tutorial will build the API for an app and walk you through the ins and outs of Django REST Framework. Routers, ViewSets, Serializers, generic views, and more.

An Introduction to Secure Web Developmet with Django (and Python!)

Sunday, July 17th, 9:00AM - 12:30PM

Presented by: James Bennett

You can’t afford to have security be an optional or “nice-to-have” feature in your applications. Luckily, Django has your back: this workshop will introduce you to thinking about security, cover some common (and some less-common) security concerns, and walk you through, in detail, how Django and the broader Django and Python ecosystems can help protect you and your users from them.

Designing Good User Experience

Sunday, July 17th, 9:00AM - 12:30PM

Presented by: Žan Anderle

This tutorial will introduce you to basic concepts of user experience design. Using an example project, you’ll work through designing and improving UX with simple, real-world techniques.

Supercharge Your Next Project with the Cookiecutter Django Framework

Sunday, July 17th, 12:30PM - 5:00PM

Presented by: Audrey Roy Greenfeld and Daniel Roy Greenfeld

Cookiecutter Django is a framework for jumpstarting production-ready Django projects quickly. Coming with dozens of proven third-party packages already preconfigured, you can jump right into the code. In this tutorial, you’ll learn about using it from beginning to end, including installation, usage, tips, and cutting-edge tricks. You’ll walk away with your own documented, tested, production-ready ice cream-themed project.

Hello Web App Workshop

Sunday, July 17th, 9:00AM - 12:30PM

Presented by: Tracy Osborn

This workshop will walk you through creating a basic web app using Python and Django. Start working on your first web product with a database, registration and login forms, and perhaps get on the path to a fun side-project or future startup. Tailored for designers and non-programmers and taught by a designer.

Grow Your Twitter Bot Garden

Sunday, July 17th, 12:30PM - 5:00PM

Presented by: Terian Koscik

Come plant a Twitter bot garden and watch it grow! This workshop is for Python developers who are interested in making small, creative programming projects and have never made a Twitter bot before. You’ll walk through setting up a simple bot that tweets lines of a book 140 characters at a time. Then, you’ll customize it using free, publicly accessible data sources and your imagination.

So now that you’ve seen all of the tutorials that are available, what are you waiting for? Each session is $150 and runs about 3 hours long. You can buy tickets for tutorials in the same place that you buy admission to the conference itself.

We’ll see you there!

Lincoln Loop

2016-05-23T19:55:16Z

Our thanks to Lincoln Loop for sponsoring this year as a Diamond level sponsor. We also want to thank them for doing a wonderful job on the DjangoCon US 2016 website this year!

Lincoln Loop is a full-service software development agency specializing in Python and Django development, and is well known for their focus on performance. Since their founding in 2007, Lincoln Loop’s emphasis on quality in an open-source, agile environment has helped numerous startups and high-traffic sites grow their businesses, providing not only rock-solid infrastructure, but also user experience, deployment, and real-time application development with JavaScript. Lincoln Loop also created the awesome DjangoCon US 2016 website!

For more on Lincoln Loop, you can visit our Sponsor page or visit their webpage directly.

Notifications are on the way!

2016-05-16T22:52:32Z

You’ll know about your talk or tutorial submission, and your financial aid applications, by the end of the week!

First off, thank you all for applying to speak and teach at DjangoCon US, and for applying for financial aid to get you to the conference!

Our ponies are taking a little longer to get in the stable than we anticipated. We’re going to start sending out notifications today, and everyone will know about their application by the end of the week.

If you haven’t received an email from us yet, that does not mean your talk, tutorial, or financial aid application was rejected!

We’re really sorry for the delay. We know you’re anxious to know about your applications, and we are working hard to make that happen. We had a record number of talk and tutorial submissions and financial aid applications this year, so thanks for being patient with us!

Applications for Financial Aid Close April 25th!

2016-04-22T11:36:15Z

Financial Aid applications close on April 25th!

This is your friendly reminder that our financial aid application closes on April 25th. We’ll let you know by May 6th if your application for aid has been accepted. Be sure to get your application in ASAP!

We’ve had some questions from people who don’t feel like they are the type of person we’re looking for, but they still need financial help to attend DjangoCon US. Let us reassure you: we’re not looking to give any particular person funding! If you’re a member of an underrepresented group (whatever that means to you), if you have a lower income, or if your circumstances at this moment mean you need help to come to DjangoCon US, we want you to apply. You can ask for all or part of your costs to cover transportation, registration, or lodging. If you’re not sure whether or not you should apply for financial aid… the answer is, yes, if you need aid, you should apply!

Last Call For Proposals

2016-04-19T16:24:54Z

We are down to our last call for talk and tutorial submissions for DjangoCon US this year!

If you have a talk or tutorial idea we encourage you to submit it today before it’s too late. We will not extend the deadline this year.

We will accept submissions until midnight Anywhere on Earth today (April 18th) so don’t wait any longer and submit your proposal now! ;)

Even though our CFP is closed now, there are still many ways to participate. How about working on a short 5-minute lightning talk for example? ;)

We look forward to seeing you in Philly this summer!

Call For Proposals Is Closing Soon

2016-04-15T17:17:36Z

There are only a few more days left to submit a proposal to DjangoCon US 2016!

We want to hear about your experience with and around Django. However, talks:

Don’t need to be about Django specifically
Don’t need to be 100% fleshed out
Don’t need to be purely technical
Don’t need to be advanced

The conference isn’t until July, so if you have a kernel of an idea, please submit it!

You’ve never spoken before? Not a problem! There are speaker mentors that will help you.

Is cost a concern? Not a problem! Apply for financial aid (deadline is April 25th).

There is no reason not to apply! Here are two articles to get you started:

As always, feel free to contact us!

Don’t wait and submit your proposals soon! We hope to see you at DjangoCon US in Philly!

Announcing Our Call for Reviewers

2016-04-12T17:10:39Z

Do you love the Django community and want to know about an easy way to help out with DjangoCon US this year?

The DjangoCon US organizers are looking for volunteers to review talk and tutorial submissions. This will require a small but substantial time commitment on your part from now until roughly the beginning of May.

If you’re interested in joining the review committee, please drop us a line. We appreciate your help!

Registration is Open!

2016-03-24T17:49:17Z

Registration is open! You may book your tickets and reserve your hotel accommodations for DjangoCon US 2016 now!

We’ve worked hard to make tickets as cheap as they’ve never been before this year, and thus have low prices for students and individuals. Financial assistance is also available to those with limited budgets.

Register for Djangocon US 2016 here. Please don’t wait too long! We’re fairly confident that we’ll sell out again this year.

Reserve your hotel accommodation to take advantage of our discounted room rates. This year the daily room rate for single or double occupancy is $199. This rate is available until June 15th, subject to availability.

We look forward to seeing you in Philly this summer!

What a difference a year makes!

2016-03-18T19:10:27Z

Last year, our goal was to make DjangoCon US accessible and affordable to everyone. Thanks to the overwhelming volunteer, community, and sponsor support, we accomplished these goals.

Thanks to the support of the The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, DjangoCon US 2016 will be one of the largest and most affordable DjangoCon US conferences to date.

On average, our prices are 30% cheaper than last year and cheaper than any previous DjangoCon US conference.

Our student/diversity rate this year is $195, a 22% savings (or $55) compared to last year’s rate.
Our individual rate this year is $295, a 40% savings (or $200) compared to last year’s rate.
Our corporate rate this year is $495, a 29% savings (or $200) compared to last year’s rate.

We could not do this without our volunteers, the community, and our sponsors.

Which ticket should I pick?

If you are a student, unemployed, on a lower income, or feel you would benefit from a reduced-priced ticket, please pick the student/diversity rate. If your employer is paying your way then please pick the corporate rate. If you work for a small company, or the corporate rate is not reasonable for your company, then please pick the individual rate. State or government institutions should use the corporate rate if they are able. If you need assistance with travel, accommodation expenses, and/or a conference ticket then please apply for a grant by April 25.

We also have a diversity sponsorship tier. All funds from this tier will go to our Financial Aid program. In addition, sponsors may purchase extra tickets to help support someone else who needs assistance. The more corporate tickets and donations that we receive, the more student tickets and financial aid we can make available to attendees.

What was the biggest change this year?

DjangoCon US is now 100% volunteer-based and supported by the non-profit Django Events Foundation North America (DEFNA). All profits are used to keep conference prices low and support community events.

How can we drive the price of tickets down even more?

Our tickets are priced based on our overall costs to run the event. The only way to drive the cost of conference tickets down is to increase our sponsorship or to donate money to help offset these costs. If you’d like to become a sponsor, contact us!

When will tickets go on sale?

Next week!

Apply for financial aid!

2016-03-16T21:01:42Z

As part of our commitment to diversity, we are thrilled to announce that we will be supporting individuals who need financial assistance to attend DjangoCon US.

DEFNA (Django Events Foundation North America), the Django Software Foundation, and the Python Software Foundation have donated to help meet the cost of tickets, travel, and accommodation for attendees who need financial support. If you are a member of an underrepresented group who will not be able to attend DjangoCon US without financial help, we strongly encourage you to apply for financial aid.

In addition, this year, speakers will be provided with free conference tickets to speakers to encourage wider participation from the Django community.

You can apply for financial aid by filling out the application. You’ll need to provide your name, the amount you’re requesting, and some information about why you’re requesting funding. Applications need to be submitted by April 25th in order to be considered.

The DjangoCon US 2016 planning committee will review financial aid applications and notify those who have been accepted by May 6, 2016. Because our budget is limited, preference will be given to potential speakers and tutorial leaders, especially first-time speakers, and members of underrepresented groups.

Diversity Sponsorships

Your organization can help increase diversity at DjangoCon US by contributing to the Financial Aid fund. Please contact our Sponsorship Chair for more information.

Alternatively when purchasing your ticket, you can either purchase an extra ticket for an attendee who couldn’t otherwise afford it, or you can add a dollar amount of your choosing.

Call for Proposals is Open!

2016-03-16T19:16:51Z

The Call for Proposals is now open, and closes on April 18, 2016.

We’ve got a great team of speaker mentors to help you with your talk or tutorial proposal, and we’re particularly keen on hearing from first-time speakers and speakers from underrepresented groups. Apply now!

As with past years, there will be a travel grants program to assist people with financial need. To apply for financial aid, please visit the financial aid page and fill out your application by April 25!

If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor, please get in touch.

Start working on those proposals, and we hope we’ll see you at DjangoCon US!

DjangoCon US 2016 in Philly

2016-03-15T22:08:12Z

We are pleased to announce that the DjangoCon US 2016 conference will take place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 17-22, 2016 at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania!

July 17: Tutorials
July 18-20: Talks
July 21-22: Sprints

We have a lot of amazing things planned that we’ll announce over the next few weeks. Until then, here’s what you can do to help!

Mark your calendars and help us spread the word!
Start thinking about topics for when our Call for Proposals is announced.
Watch this space, @DjangoCon on Twitter, or follow the discussions on the djangocon-organizers list.
Sponsor the event!
Want to help by joining our organizers?

Start working on those proposals, and we hope we’ll see you at DjangoCon US!