My experience at PyCon Italia

This year I got the opportunity to be a speaker at PyCon Italia held in Florence. It was my first time speaking at a Python conference outside of India, and I had a great time there. Here are some of my takeaways from the conference.

But first, if you want to listen to my talk, you can find it right here on YouTube:

The talk is about the match statement which was introduced a few years ago in Python 3.10. match is not a commonly used syntax in Python code, in my opinion mostly because the docs make it sound like an obscure feature for compiler writers. But that's not true and match is great for the day to day code that we write. If you want to know more, check out the video above 👆🏾

After I returned, I wrote on my LinkedIn that PyCon Italia was probably the best organised conference that I have attended. Here are some reasons why.

(PS: All the photos are from the conference photo stream)

Visa Preparedness

My first interaction with the team was to get the documents in order to apply for a visa.

I have previously been in the organising team of events where we had many international speakers and I know how messy the visa application process can be to handle from the event side. The applicant needs to get an invitation letter from the conference, and then depending on the country they are applying from, there are a whole set of other documents that are required. The Schengen visa, in particular, is quite a nightmare to navigate as they ask for all sorts of strange documents like a copy of the passport of the contact person from the inviting party.

I have spoken at some other (non-python) conferences abroad and usually I have to send an email and say I need this document and I need that document. The whole process can take a few weeks as I go back and forth between the consulate and the conference organisers.

So, I was pleasantly surprised that the PyCon Italia emailed me straight away with a form to get the required documents. When I filled the form, I got all the required documents right away. They knew what all documents are required to apply for the visa, and had everything ready right from the start. Yes, including the copy of passport of the contact person. There was even a dedicated email address for questions related to the visa. Very professional.

Registration Desk

For any big event, the registration desk can get crazy on the first day as hundreds of people line up to get their badges, lunch coupons and what not. PyCon Italia had 800 people at the conference, and I don't know what was the magic, but they managed the registration desk superbly. There was not much crowding at the registration desk and the whole process only took a few minutes.

Social Events

I have said this before, but the primary purpose of attending a conference is to meet and network with the other participants. After all, most of the bigger conferences, especially community conferences like PyCon, will record the sessions and put all the talks online. So, if you want to learn the topics you just need to wait a few weeks and it will all be available for free. No need to attend the conference!

But the reason you still want to go to the conference it to talk to people. You can find out what others are working on, which companies are hiring, what are the hot topics, build relationships with thought leaders and more. And if you keep attending, you will bump into the same people over and over and make friends in the industry.

Given that it's a surprise that most tech conferences just don't have enough time for socialising. I never really thought about it before, until I attended PyCon Italia and the organisers have really thought hard about it and filled the conference with so many avenues so socialise.

First, the lunch break. I have only attended conferences where the lunch break is an hour, you spend 20 minutes in a queue, then you have to hold the plate in one hand, eat with the other and somehow try to socialise in the little time remaining.

Lunch break at PyCon Italia was two hours. That was great. We had ample time to get the food, sit down and chat with others without feeling like you are running a race to finish before the conference starts again. If there was one take away that I wish more tech conferences would adopt, it would be this one.

Then there were all the social events. There was the cocktail get together one night, and a dinner get together the next. There was an option every day for participants to go together on a tour of the surrounding areas. And the conference discord made it easy for participants to announce where they were and get others to join in.

Volunteer Support

At conferences, there are always last minute issues. The computer does not recognise the projector. The resolution does not match. The colours look strange. Typically these happen just as the speaker is about to start the session, and then everyone has to wait for 5 to 10 minutes while it gets resolved.

PyCon Italia solved this problem by having dedicated volunteers for every room. Contact information is shared between the speakers and the room volunteers. They reach out to speakers for that room well in advance and you can test out your laptop and get everything checked out. When it is your turn to speak, everything is ready to go.

Oh, and another cool thing - all volunteers wear a bright yellow "STAFF" shirt that can easily be seen from a great distance, so you can easily find them at any time.

Summary

Overall, I had a great time at PyCon Italia. Not only that, I learned a few things myself about some practises to implement in conferences back home. Especially the two hour lunch break is an easy win that can be implemented painlessly.