Last weekend it was Pycon time again, my 6th one so far. This time closer to home: Alicante.
I had an awesome time, meeting a lot of nice people, watching interesting talks and getting inspired overall to keep learning more Python.
— PyCon España (@PyConES) October 04, 2019
In this post I share 10 highlights, but keep in mind this is a selection only, there are quite a few more talks I want to check out once they appear on Youtube …
1. Kicking off with @captainsafia’s keynote
I did not attend the Friday workshops so Saturday morning I got straight to Safia‘s keynote which was very inspiring:
“Spread ideas that last” @captainsafia #pycones19 https://t.co/NOwPeuZvP6
— PyCon España (@PyConES) October 05, 2019
It made me realize documentation is actually quite important:
RT @Cecil_gabaxi: “Software are temporary, ideas are forever” & the importance of documenting code to help spread these ideas #pycones19 #i…
— PyCon España (@PyConES) October 05, 2019
She also linked to an interesting paper: Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure I want to check out, a theme that also came back in Sunday’s keynote (see towards the end):
Our modern society runs on software. But the tools we use to build software are buckling under increased demand. Nearly all software today relies on free, public code, written and maintained by communities of developers and other talent.
2. Meeting great people
Funny enough I met Antonio Melé, the author of Django 2 by Example which I am currently going through (great book!):
Although I attended quite some talks, the best part of Pycon is always the people / connections:
RT @nubeblog: @txetxuvel @PyConES @bcnswcraft No hay fines de semana suficientes para todos los eventos tecnológicos que se hacen en España…
— PyCon España (@PyConES) October 06, 2019
And remember: all talks are recorded and authors usually upload their slides to github or what not …
RT @gnuites: En https://t.co/HLoZKnytSd encontraréis toda la información relacionada con las charlas de esta #PyConES19 @PyConES @python_es
— PyCon España (@PyConES) October 08, 2019
3. Django
There were quite some Django talks:
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Talk: Django Admin inside Out which led me to Django Admin Cookbook which I already could use for work 🙂
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Write your own DB backend in Django – eagerly waiting for it to appear on YouTube for consumption (hey, the hallway + coffee were important too chuckle)
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I did not attend the Cooking Recipes API with Django Rest Framework workshop but good materials to have for reference (pdf).
Genial la charla de @javierabadia hablando sobre cómo conectar una BBDD diferente a las dadas con Django y explican… https://t.co/llVFs6crU0
— Rubén Valseca (@rubnvp) October 06, 2019
4. Testing and exceptions
There were also quite some talks about testing:
- Testing with mocks – great overview with practical examples, check it out!
- Testing in Machine Learning – to watch …
Mario Corchero gave a great talk about exceptions. Unfortunately I sat way back in the room so need to look at the slides again. It seems he gave the same talk at Pycon US 2019 so you can watch it here (and in English):
5. Katas!!
Awesome talk about katas by Irene Pérez Encinar. Her talk was funny, practical and of course right up our alley given our platform and learn by challenge approach!
@irenuchi es una auténtica Sra. Miyagi de las katas. Me ha encantado la charla y su manera de explicar las cosas. Y… https://t.co/cn4enM9vej
— Eun Young Cho-조은영 (@eunEsPlata) October 06, 2019
Talking about challenges, we released blog code challenge #64 – PyCon ES 2019 Marvel Challenge for the occasion. PR before the end of this week (Friday 11th of Oct. 2019 23.59 AoE) and you can win one of our prizes …
6. PyCamp
Interesting initiative by Manuel Kaufmann to get together a bunch of Pythonistas in Barcelona, Spring 2020, to work on a couple of projects, Hackathon style. I will definitely keep an eye out for this event, see if we can contribute / collaborate …
¿Todavía no sabés lo que es el PyCamp? Tomate 3 minutos para ver esta lightning talk en @PyConES #PyConEs19 en dónd… https://t.co/Asy9CF8syh
— PyCamp España (@PyCampES) October 08, 2019
7. Coffee lovers
Katerin Perdom travelled all the way from Colombia to share her interesting graduation project about building an artificial nose to spot defects in the quality of coffee:
Desde a @PyConES #PyConEs19 #python #womenintech #WomenWhoCode https://t.co/gJb05037Cq
— Katerin Perdom (@Katerin_Perdom) October 05, 2019
Looking forward to seeing some code responsible for this project. Also another use case of Raspberry PI … lot of IoT right now! There was another talk about How to warm your house using Python, cool stuff! (Pun intended mate? Hehe – Julian)
8. Data artist
Amazing talk and interesting field:
A data artist (also known as “unicorn”) lives in the intersection of data analysis, decision-making, visualization
and wait for it… ART. They are able, not only to use a number of techniques and tools to transform complex data into delightful and memorable visualizations, but to build their own tools and workflows to create visualizations that go beyond the state of the art.
What is a Data Artist explained by @alrocar in #PyConEs19 https://t.co/xHCVWcI9wq
— Eduardo Fernández (@efernandezleon) October 05, 2019
For example look at this beautiful graph expressing global warming (#warmingstripes):
This is what you call a “data artist” https://t.co/wsQT9dMyWY
— alrocar (@alrocar) June 19, 2019
Or check this NBA graph out of 3-pointers scored (I cannot remember the player, but the project is here):
Flipando con @alrocar #DataArtist #PyConEs19 https://t.co/VmgYBBjxbR
— Elena Torró (@BytesAndHumans) October 05, 2019
9. Python is everywhere!
Apart from IoT and data science, one fascinating field is animation (kids movies). Ilion animation studios (one of the sponsors), uses a lot of Python behind the scenes. Can’t wait to watch their talk Py2hollywood – usando Python en una producción de películas de animación when it becomes available.
Another cool use case for Python are chatbots! I enjoyed Àngel Fernández’s talk about chatops which of course hit home given our (Slack) karmabot. There was another talk about creating chatbots using Rasa.
Chatops 101 con opsdroid por @anxodio en #PyConEs19 https://t.co/t2SPog5KOV
— Argentina en Python (@argenpython) October 05, 2019
Opsdroid is an open source ChatOps bot framework with the moto: Automate boring things! – opsdroid project!
Or what about astronomy?! If that’s your thing, check out: Making a galaxy with Python.
10. Experience of a Python core dev
Awesome keynote by Pablo Galindo, really inspiring and humbling knowing it’s the hard work of core devs and many contributors that has Python in the great shape and position it’s in today!
Absolutely outstanding keynote by @pyblogsal at #PyConES19. It touches me the passion and dedication he puts everyd… https://t.co/2t82BNPb7b
— Mario Corchero (@mariocj89) October 06, 2019
Conclusion
If you can attend a Pycon, be it close or far from home, do it!
You get so much out of just a few days:
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Ideas and inspiration (stay hungry, stay foolish).
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See what’s moving in the industry.
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Python / tools / field / tech knowledge.
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Meet awesome people and opportunities to collaborate.
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And lastly, be humbled: lot of volunteering, passion and hard work, give back where you can.
Join our slack and share your own Pycon experience in our #pycon channel, hope to salute you there …
Next PyConES
No more excuses to hold off a trip to Spain, next year PyCon Spain will be held in Granada!!
RT @python_granada: ¡¡¡Sí!!! La #PyConEs20 se viene a Granada. Gracias al apoyo, sobre todo a la @OSLUGR y… ¡nos vemos en 2020! https://t…
— OSL – UGR (@OSLUGR) October 06, 2019
Keep Calm and Code in Python!
— Bob