Inaugural PyBay Recap

The inaugural PyBay was a huge success. All the hard work and sleepless nights paid off when we saw the smiles on people's faces; their lives enriched from having come together to learn and share. At the end:

• 400 developers attended the main conference and another 30 for tutorials only

• 25% of attendees were female

• 35 people received financial aid

• 27 received full-ride scholarships (10 from sponsors and 17 from PyBay), many scholarships were awarded to women.

• 18 paid $100, 1/3 of early bird price and volunteered ~ 6 hours at registration or as room host

• $ 1079 donated to Concrn, local charity from the sale of extra conf T-shirt

• Great traction at the hallway track / hacker space. This, to us, is where the magic really happens :-)

If you want to reminisce on the good times, here is a highlight video.

Conference talk videos, slide decks and photos are available as well.

I'd like to thank all the speakers for sharing their knowledge and paying their way to PyBay; the organizing committee for their dedication to solve problems in areas out of their comfort zone; our friends at FB, Twitter, and other user groups / meet-ups for spreading the word for us; the work-trade volunteers for making the speakers and guests feel welcome; and the sponsors for making the conference affordable. Speaking of sponsors, I especially want to thank Yelp for also helping with with signage, sponsors communications, mobilizing our work-trade volunteers and registration. It really took a village for PyBay to turn out as well as it did, and I feel humbled to have the honor to chair this fleet and be of service.

We've learned a lot in the process and we look forward to PyBay 2017.

If you'd like to help with behind the scene organization for the next PyBay, email grace to be included in updates when opportunities become available. Committee meetings will begin Jan 2017.