2010

Background

PyCon is an inexpensive, community-oriented conference for users and developers of the Python programming language, organized by the Python Software Foundation and a group of volunteers. PyCon 2007 had attendances of almost 600 people.

PyCon is a North American conference; we don't intend to move into territory served by EuroPython or Python UK. So far all PyCons have been in the US, but we're open to considering locations in Canada and Mexico.

Traditionally the structure of PyCon has been three days of presentations, and two to four days of sprints. PyCon 2006 added a pre-conference tutorial day that was a great success and it has since become a standard part of the PyCon experience.

In the past, the location for PyCon was chosen through a grass-roots bid process. Local groups with a passion for bringing PyCon to their area got together and solicited bids from local hotels and other venues. That process embodied the community spirit that drives not only PyCon but also the whole of the Python language.

Year after year, PyCon has seen impressive attendance growth and continued enthusiasm from the community, bringing attendees from far and wide. The growth has been exciting, but it has put PyCon into a class of conferences that not every venue can handle. But PyCon is now a class of conference that many venues will compete for.

A New Bid Process

As PyCon has grown, the demands made by the traditional bid process have grown as well -- there are larger requirements with a smaller selection of venues available to suit our needs. Moreover, those extra challenges were faced not just by one group, but by all the local groups who were interested in hosting PyCon. There was a massive duplication of effort across all of the bidding groups. Many of the local groups have little to no experience with selecting venues and negotiating contracts for large venues. It has become clear that the old bid process would quickly limit PyCon, either through escalating costs due to inexperienced negotiation, or worse, through a process of overwhelming our wonderful local volunteers with a complex and demanding process.

Beginning with the 2008 bid from the Chicago group, PyCon has begun working with a professional meeting management group in order to help select venues and negotiate contracts. This allows precious volunteer energy to be re-focused on the important things: making PyCon the experience we all want it to be. Therefore, the requirements for future PyCon bids will be different than years past in that we won't be asking local groups to actually begin negotiations with venues.

Instead, we're looking for a somewhat less formal proposal telling us why PyCon should be held in your local area:

• Tell us, briefly, what's good and what's great about the city/region/state that would make it a good place to host PyCon. Tell us the pros and cons about the local area:

  • Are major venues (1000+ person capacity) plentiful?
  • Are they clustered or located in any particular area?

  • Transportation resources:

    • How close is the nearest major airport to the heart of the city or region?
    • What sort of transportation options are available? Bus, taxi, train, light-rail, subway, etc. How much does a trip on each cost?
    • How close are these resources to the large venues you identified above?

  • What other major (1000+ attendee) events has your area hosted recently?

    • Any tech-related events?
  • How's the weather? Remember, the target is for PyCon to be held between mid-February and mid-April.

• Tell us about your group:

  • Who are you?
  • What's your connection to Python?
  • How many volunteers can you expect to provide for PyCon? Remember, this is planning for two years in advance.
  • Are there any key players who bring experience or skills that you feel are particularly valuable to PyCon?
  • Looking at the PyCon staff roles list, are there any local people who would be committed to filling a particualr role?

• Tell us about the local Python community:

  • Users group(s) for Python? Django? Zope? Plone? Any local university Python groups?

  • Local companies doing exciting things with Python?

    • Would they be interested in sponsoring PyCon?

• Tell us about the local tech community:

  • Who are the big IT and Tech related companies in the area?

    • Do they use Python?

A New Decision Process

We hope to receive proposals from multiple groups/regions. The site-selection committee will work with the groups making bids and the professional meeting planner in order to identify one or two target regions. From there, the site-selection committee along with the professional meeting planner will put out a Request For Proposal (RFP) to the local hotels and convention venues. We will make our decision based on the responses we get back.