Published May 23, 2025
PyCon is one of my favorite times of the year. It is when I get to see so many of the friends who live in my phone face to face for a few days. I learn. I talk. I have fun. This year PyCon was a year full of firsts.
This was my first PyCon as a Booth Fairy. I got to be one of the lucky people who helped to organize the PSF booth. I had input into what it was going to look like, into what was going to be given away, and into what the activities were going to be. Because of this my PyCon experience actually started months before most people's as I worked with Marie, Loren, and all of the Booth Fairies to put it all together.
This was the first PyCon I spoke at. If you didn't know I gave a talk at the Maintainers Summit about writing security advisories (if you're interested, you can find the slides I used here.) I have to say I loved the experience and am going to start working on some other topics I can give talks about. I know that there are so many more replies to the CFP than can ever be accepted but I want to keep throwing my hat in the ring.
This was the first PyCon I actually made the correct purchases in advance. I got the correct t-shirt (my first year I didn't realize it had to be pre-ordered but I was lucky enough to be able to get one in my size when they went on sale, my second time I ordered the wrong cut so it didn't fit and I had to exchange it when they went on sale.) I bought my ticket for the PyLadies Auction in advance (last year I didn't really know what it was and was lucky enough to get one at the door.)
This was the first PyCon I intentionally went to the Sprints. My first PyCon I had a late afternoon flight home so I decided to head over to the conference center to see what it was and I pushed up a PR that (eventually) added some type hints and doc strings to one of the Ada Fruit packages. This year I scheduled the trip so I could stay for Monday and actually enjoy the first day of Sprints. I made a number of contributions to render-engine that have all been merged.
For me this was a PyCon of firsts. But there was a lot that was happening and that I experienced that wasn't a first. There were amazing keynote speakers (and if you haven't watched Cory Doctorow's opening keynote I highly recommend that you do. To say that it was amazing and inspiring is an enormous understatement.) There were great talks (which I didn't get to enough of, and this is not a first by any means.) There were engaging, entertaining, humorous, enlightening, and too many other adjectives to list conversations with some of the best people in the world.
Now that I've done the good - and it was almost all good - I do want to point out the things that make me sad (other than that it's over and I have to wait a whole year for it to happen again!) That a lot of our international friends were unable to attend this year was noticeable and sad. There were people I was haping to see who live outside the US who weren't able to come for reasons. The other thing I want to mention is that, while the food was tasty, as a diabetic my options were somewhat limited, especially at the breakfast; I understand the reasoning behind switching to a continental breakfast but those of us who need to watch our carbohydrate intake need to be taken into account as well.
Before I wrap up I want to give a huge shout out to Elaine, Jon, and all the amazing PSF staff and volunteers who spent a very long time and a huge amount of energy making this an amazing PyCon.
This was a PyCon of firsts for me. I hope that next year, and in the years that follow, I will experience again many of the things I did for the first time this year while finding new things to do for the first time.