Present at Kiwi PyCon XIII

Published by

Tom

on

2024-04-14

Kiwi PyCon XIII is shaping up to be the best one yet.

We’ve got a gorgeous venue on the Wellington waterfront. Ticket sales are well underway, and we’ve got one amazing keynote so far and we’re about to announce the next!

Now, the goal is for us to put together the best programme of talks we’ve ever had at a Kiwi PyCon, and that’s where all of you come in: A conference isn’t something that the organisers construct and then present to you, it’s something that all of us have a hand in turning into the experience that we want it to be.

Chelsea Finnie, Kiwi PyCon XII in Waihōpai Invercargill

I’d like to warmly encourage you submit a talk proposal to Kiwi PyCon. Presenting a talk at a community conference is deeply rewarding. Is there a subject that you’re interested in or enthusiastic about? We want to hear you telling us about it!

A question people often ask themselves is if they’re “qualified” enough on a subject. If we can see you are in to what you’re talking about, we probably will be, too: Enthusiasm is infectious. And you can ask anyone: the process of writing a talk about a subject is a quick way to get much better informed on it yourself.

This year Kiwi PyCon is a two-track conference. Our goal is to have one stream weighted towards beginner-friendly topics, and the other weighted towards more advanced material. For that reason, we’re looking for a broad range of subjects to cover, and you don’t have to worry about whether you think the topic is too “basic”.

How to propose a talk

Refer to the CFP page for the details, but I want to mention a few things here:

You’ve got time: the final date for submitting proposals is 22 May, 2024.

But you don’t want to leave it to the last minute: Here’s what I recommend you do: once you have the seed of an idea, log into pretalx and create your submission. You can update it and elaborate on it right up until the deadline.

The best things about this is (a) you’re getting your foot in the door, and (b) you’ll inevitably come up with ideas that would make your talk better, a week or two after you submit it, and so by getting the submission in early, you can update it!

Let us know if you’d like to mentor inexperienced speakers

Finally, if you’re an experienced speaker who is willing to spare a bit of time hearing from new prospective speakers, please let us know! Mention it in your social media circles, or contact us so we can connect you with anyone seeking some advice for their talk submission.