PyCon Africa News and fun stuff

In case you haven't heard yet, PyCon Africa is coming to South Africa! I'm the local chair this year and I'd like to share a little bit about what's happening.

This is the first time we are running an international Python conference in Southern Africa, so it's an opportunity to do quite a lot of good. We're working to gather Pythonistas from all over Africa, and we have a particular focus on Southern African communities.

If you are reading this, then there is a good chance that you are a part of the global Python community in some way. You might be aware of how much conferences like this matter to people, they are very impactful! I can personally attest for the fact that Python conferences change lives because they changed mine! PyCon Africa is working to connect a lot of people and plant a lot of seeds - you can take part if you want :)

Our schedule is not live yet, but I can tell you that it's looking really exciting!

I'd like to fill you in on a few things that are happening, and some general news:

(Free) Friends of PyCon Africa Livestream

This is happening on 30 August (this Saturday) from 17:00 (GMT+2) until late. We have a few solid international nerd-stars taking part: Dawn Wages, Carlton Gibson, Sarah Abderemane and Michael Kennedy will be in attendance. We're also going have a lot of people from our own African Python community talking about the incredible things they are doing. These people inspire me.

We'll be taking audience questions, and we have some really cool prizes to give away. Jetbrains have given us some vouchers, we'll be giving away some free remote tickets, and some of our other sponsors might also chip in with some cool stuff.

So grab some friends, make some popcorn and join the conversation!

Details here

You can get a free ticket then we'll keep you up to date about everything. Alternatively, just show up and watch the livestream on Youtube.

Tell your friends :)

Donations Drive

Conferences like this are made possible by the support of the community. We have some really cool sponsors who have stepped up to support (see anyone you recognize?)

But even with all these epic sponsors, we are struggling to hit our funding goals. The more money we can bring in, the more people we can support.

We would like to:

• include more people in our free Beginners day workshops. We'l be running DjangoGirls and HumbleData workshops, as well as a few other community events. We have a per head cost of about $50
• give financial assistance to more people who otherwise would not be able to afford to attend. This would include students, teachers, young professionals and community contributors - coming to a conference like this in person is really impactful! I can vouch for the fact that these conferences change lives because they changed mine!

If you are in the position to make a donation and open some doors, you can buy a donation ticket here.

Come to the conference

If Python is your jam, or if you are just curious, consider getting yourself a ticket and joining us :)

Our conference is happening in Johannesburg, South Africa. If you can't be physically present then our remote-conference game is on-point!

If you join us remotely, you'll have access to live streams of all the talks. We also have some fun things planned on our Discord server. Full details here. If you wanted to, you could invite some friends over and have a lil watch-party. This is my idea of a good time, maybe yours too.

That's all for now! I hope to see some of you take part