tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25235232057093011312024-03-18T20:05:37.786-07:00PyTexas BlogPyTexas 2013, the sixth annual Python programming extravaganza for Texas and the surrounding region, will take place this year in College Station at Texas A&M University August 16-18 (three whole days!)Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-16302608021768797042013-08-12T06:28:00.000-07:002013-08-12T06:28:00.785-07:00Schedule Released<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The<a href="http://pytexas.org/2013/schedule"> schedule has been released</a>. If you have any questions please contact us at <i>conference at pytexas dot net.</i></div>
Glen Zangirolamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17107263454881467883noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-71030341070674251482013-08-07T10:52:00.001-07:002013-08-07T10:53:10.777-07:00Hotel blocks are now available<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Great news! If you were having trouble finding a hotel we now have blocks allocated for PyTexas attendees. Just <a href="http://pytexas.org/2013/venue/hotel-blocks/">call the hotels listed on the PyTexas hotels block page</a> and mention that you are with the group "PyTexas".</div>
Glen Zangirolamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17107263454881467883noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-53020031645731380052013-08-04T14:59:00.001-07:002013-08-04T14:59:43.761-07:00PyTexas 2013 Updates and Information<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div>
<a href="http://pytexas.org/2013/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">PyTexas 2013</span></a> is under way and begins in <b>less than 2 weeks</b>.
Our chairs are doing a wonderful job making this a memorable event! We
have a fantastic event in store with meaty talks, t-shirts, stickers,
prizes and wonderful sponsors including <b>Rackspace, MapMyFitness, HBK, Stormpulse, ZeOmega, Tendenci and more</b>. <br />
<br />We are looking forward to our talk submissions and the schedule being posted. Don’t forget, <a href="http://pytexas.org/2013/talks/add/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">the deadline to submit a talk is TODAY Sunday, August 4, 2013</span></a>. We had some great speakers submit talks and we would love to hear from you!<br />
<br />Here is a little event information in case you missed it:<br /><br /><b>Schedule</b></div>
<ul>
<li>The conference is Friday August 16th – Sunday August 17th</li>
<li>The deadline to submit talks is TODAY, Sunday August 4th 2013. <a href="http://pytexas.org/2013/talks/add/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">Submit your talk now!</span></a></li>
<li><b>Friday</b> - Tutorial day. If you need help with anything Python
then Friday is a good day to some out. Come and get all the Python lore
you can stuff in your cranium!</li>
<li><b>Saturday</b> - Standard talk
schedule (to be released after this weekend) with drinks after. We
currently do not have a sponsor for drinks so bring some cash. Most
likely we will be hangout out at a bar in College Station. Announcements
will be made at the conference about the location.</li>
<li><b>Sunday</b> – More talks until we run out. </li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /><b>Registration</b><br /><br /><b>Registration is still open and is currently $50 USD.</b><br /><br />If you have not registered please <a href="http://pytexas.org/2013/register/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">register and pay on the PyTexas site</span></a>.
Some people may have received a cancellation email after registering;
this was due to payment not being made. We recommend you <a href="http://pytexas.org/2013/register/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">register again and pay through our site</span></a>. If online payment is not an option, just show up at PyTexas and we will register you at the door (Cash or Charge welcome).<br />
<br /><b>Food</b><br /><br />• <b>Friday</b> – We will serve only coffee for breakfast so eat something before you come out. Lunch will be served<br />• <b>Saturday</b> – Both breakfast and lunch will be served<br />• <b>Sunday</b> – Both breakfast and lunch will be served<br />
<br /><b>Lodging</b><br /><br />Hotels are starting to fill up so get your
lodging now! We do not have hotel block pre-allocated. Stay tuned for
announcements on <a href="http://pytexas.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">PyTexas.org</span></a> and our <a href="http://twitter.com/pytexas" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">twitter account</span></a>. <b>We recommend that you go ahead and book your hotel!</b><br />
<br />A quick <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=hotels+in+college+station&oq=hotels+in+college+station&aqs=chrome.0.69i57j0j69i60l2j0l2.3230j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">Google Search</span></a> will give you a list of hotels in the area. <br />
<br />Some hotels around the area on Google Maps:</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Hotels+near+275+Joe+Routt+Boulevard+,+77844+College+Station,+TX&ie=UTF-8&ei=Epr-UafhCYrUqAG1w4GYCg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg" target="_blank">https://maps.google.com/maps?<wbr></wbr>q=Hotels+near+275+Joe+Routt+<wbr></wbr>Boulevard+,+77844+College+<wbr></wbr>Station,+TX&ie=UTF-8&ei=Epr-<wbr></wbr>UafhCYrUqAG1w4GYCg&ved=0CAgQ_<wbr></wbr>AUoAg</a></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
This includes:</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Super 8 College Station</div>
<div>
La Quinta Inn College Station</div>
<div>
Vineyard Court Designer Suites</div>
<div>
Comfort Suites</div>
<div>
Hampton Inn College Station</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<a href="http://pytexas.org/2013/venue" target="_blank">More information about the venue on the PyTexas site</a>.<br /></div>
<div>
<b>If you book your hotel on Hotels.com mobile site or app you get $25 off $200 or more with the coupon code MOB25OFFUS.</b><br />
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div>
PyTexas 2013 is going to be a great event and we hope to see you there!</div>
</div>
Glen Zangirolamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17107263454881467883noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-26744152757171535152013-07-15T09:57:00.000-07:002013-07-15T09:57:15.969-07:00An Overview of the PyTexas 2013 ScheduleSome people have been asking for the schedule for PyTexas 2013, since it is not finalized and on the main website here is a quick overview of the plans for the conference. Please note that breakfast will be served on Saturday and Sunday; and lunch will be served on Friday and Saturday.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Friday August 16</h3>
On Friday we will have two large rooms for the tutorial tracks and a smaller "break-out" room.<br />
<br />
No breakfast will be served on Friday<br />
<br />
9:00 A.M. - Two tutorial tracks start<br />
Noon - Break for lunch. Lunch will be provided.<br />
1:00 P.M. - Second tutorial starts in each track<br />
4:00 P.M. (or 5:00 P.M) - Break for the evening<br />
<br />
<h3>
Saturday August 17</h3>
On Saturday we will have the two large rooms for the talks and four smaller rooms for things like BoF, smaller talks etc...<br />
<br />
9:00 - Breakfast will be provided<br />
9:00 - 12:00 talks<br />
Noon - Break for lunch. Lunch will be provided.<br />
1:00 - 5:00 talks<br />
<br />
<h3>
Sunday August 18</h3>
On Sunday we will have two large rooms for the tutorial tracks and one of the smaller "break-out" room.<br />
<br />
9:00 - Breakfast will be provided<br />
9:00 - ?:?? talks<br />
<br />
<br />
All of this information is subject to change as the plans are finalized. We will update this post with new information as it becomes available.<br />
<br />
Today (7/15) is the last day for early registration, so if you are coming, now is the time to <a href="http://pytexas.org/2013/register/">register</a>. Information about registering can be found <a href="http://blog.pytexas.org/2013/06/announcements-for-pytexas-2013.html">here</a>.opritchehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770869584657213010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-75316429882287650262013-07-11T19:36:00.000-07:002013-07-11T19:36:53.305-07:00More Announcements<h3>
A New Logo for PyTexas</h3>
The planning committee for PyTexas commissioned a new logo for PyTexas. After considering quite a few submissions the following logo was selected. Let us know what you think about it in the comments below. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz7nS0vIb5_TQqvcN4eyMQbdq1MBUG0S_uR_OrXQaSjM_TxoqvEodIT1IM4UEVlOGc4afg2E8pxc4VdwfoH66WL1S5ZPNpKV5sqEvmisoyJryD72L5_qX8V1VFnmcK2JNFLOrEa9jyXuE/s1600/pyTexas-logo-2013.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz7nS0vIb5_TQqvcN4eyMQbdq1MBUG0S_uR_OrXQaSjM_TxoqvEodIT1IM4UEVlOGc4afg2E8pxc4VdwfoH66WL1S5ZPNpKV5sqEvmisoyJryD72L5_qX8V1VFnmcK2JNFLOrEa9jyXuE/s320/pyTexas-logo-2013.png" width="262" /></a></div>
We hope everyone likes it!<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Sponsorship Goals</h3>
<div>
We are progressing nicely towards our base goal for sponsorship funds, but we are not quite there yet. If anyone wants to be a sponsor, or if they know someone who may want to sponsor PyTexas 2013 please go to the website <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2013/sponsor/">here</a> or contact the Sponsor Chair Jeremy Boyd at the email address <a href="mailto:sponsorship@pytexas.net" style="background-color: #efefef; color: #992e2f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">sponsorship AT pytexas DOT net</a>.</div>
opritchehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770869584657213010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-13573068343959777072013-07-11T07:31:00.003-07:002013-07-11T07:31:45.789-07:00A Quick Announcement<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'times new roman', serif;">Since we announced the deadline for talk proposals later than we had intended, we are extending the deadline for talk submissions. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'times new roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'times new roman', serif;">More announcements to come later today!</span>opritchehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770869584657213010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-45855553795268869512013-07-08T10:07:00.001-07:002013-07-08T10:07:51.208-07:00PyTexas 2013 early registration ends soonHey Pythoneers, early registration for <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2013/">PyTexas 2013</a> ends on July 15th so, if you want to save some money, go to the <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2013/register/">website</a> and register!<br />
<br />
While you are there, why don't you submit a <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2013/talks/add/">talk proposal</a>.<br />
<br />
And, if you can, try to spread the word about PyTexas 2013.<br />
<br />
Thank you!<br />
<br />
<br />opritchehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770869584657213010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-7089966757491267032013-06-26T19:34:00.000-07:002013-06-26T19:34:18.356-07:00Announcements for PyTexas 2013We have a number of things to announce (or re-announce).<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Registration</b><br />
Registration is up on the PyTexas.org site now!<br />
<br />
To register for PyTexas 2013 you will need to log into the <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/">PyTexas</a> website. If you don't have an account you can log in with Twitter, Google or LinkedIn; or you can create a local account.<br />
<br />
Once you are logged into the site go to the <span id="goog_1864751913"></span><a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2013/register/">Registration</a> <span id="goog_1864751914"></span>page where you will need to include your name, email address and a few other bits of information. To pay your registration fees, once you are logged in and registered, you need to go to the <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2013/register/registrations/">My Registration</a> page and select the 'Pay Now' button.<br />
<br />
What was actually finished today was the payment module, registration has been up for a while. Anyone who registered previous to today, June 26, should go to the My Registration page and use the payment options there.<br />
<br />
<b>Speakers</b><br />
We are looking for more people to give <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2013/talks/">talks</a>, if you are interested in giving a talk you can submit your proposal <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2013/talks/add/">here</a>. All submissions will be considered, but the following topics have been requested this year so, if you can give a talk about these topics that would be appreciated.<br />
<br />
<ul style="background-color: #efefef; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 9px 25px; padding: 0px;">
<li>Web</li>
<li>GIS</li>
<li>Scientific Computing</li>
<li>Visualization</li>
</ul>
<br />
Of course talks about Python programming in general are always welcome. <br />
<br />
Topics that are tangentially related to Python, or completely unrelated to Python will be considered if they seem to be of interest to the Python community in Texas. Also feel free to submit multiple talks!<br />
<br />
<b>Sponsorship</b><br />
For anyone interested in being a PyTexas 2013 sponsor, the sponsorship prospectus is up <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2013/sponsor/">here</a>. We have several levels of sponsorship (Bronze $200, Silver $500, Gold $750 etc...) and several exclusive benefits are still available.<br />
<br />
<b>Venue</b><br />
PyTexas 2013 will be held in August on the 16th through the 18th. The conference will be held in the same location as last year in College Station, TX at the Texas A&M University <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=Texas+A%26M+University+campus&data=!1m4!1m3!1d1578!2d-96.3421614!3d30.6114866!2m1!1e3!4m11!1m10!4m8!1m3!1d106894!2d-96.827798!3d33.1502648!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!17b1&fid=7">campus</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Information</b><br />
To get up to date information about PyTexas subscribe to or follow these sites:<br />
<br />
Twitter - @PyTexas<br />
Conference site - PyTexas.org<br />
Blog - blog.pytexas.org<br />
<br />
<b>PyTexas 2013 Committee</b><br />
For anyone who needs to contact committee members, the committee email addresses are:<br />
<ul>
<li>chair@pytexas.net</li>
<li>conference@pytexas.net</li>
<li>programming@pytexas.net</li>
<li>promotion@pytexas.net</li>
<li>sponsorship@pytexas.net</li>
<li>venue@pytexas.net</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
opritchehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770869584657213010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-46036269565171641652013-03-18T11:31:00.002-07:002013-03-18T11:32:27.013-07:00PyTexas DatesWe have a little news to announce.<br />
<br />
PyTexas 2013 will be held in August on the 16th through the 18th. the conference will be held in the same location as last year in College Station, Tx at the Texas A&M University campus. <br />
<br />
The Sponsor Prospectus is now available here: http://www.pytexas.org/2013/sponsor/.<br />
<br />
More to come...<br />
<br />
<br />opritchehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770869584657213010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-19794483122598500862013-02-28T20:05:00.001-08:002013-02-28T20:05:21.083-08:00Calling all Texas Python Bloggers...and any other bloggers who are interested. PyTexas 2013 would like your help. Please consider posting about the conference on your blogs throughout the year. We think that this may help get the word out to people who may not be aware that there is a Texas regional Python conference. We appreciate any efforts on your part regarding this. <br />
<br />
<br />
If you could also link to the PyTexas sites we would be grateful. Thank you all!<br />
<br />
Twitter - @PyTexas<br />
Conference site - PyTexas.org<br />
Blog - blog.pytexas.org<br />
<br />
For anyone who needs to contact committee members, the committee email addresses are:<br />
<ul>
<li>chair@pytexas.net</li>
<li>conference@pytexas.net</li>
<li>programming@pytexas.net</li>
<li>promotion@pytexas.net</li>
<li>sponsorship@pytexas.net</li>
<li>venue@pytexas.net</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />opritchehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770869584657213010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-91628089794991292692013-02-25T19:26:00.000-08:002013-02-25T19:26:57.875-08:00Announcing PyTexas 2013<br />
I would like to announce the formation of the PyTexas 2013 Committee! A meeting was held Monday (2/18) and 6 people volunteered to be on the committee this year. <br />
<br />
We are excited about the possibilities this year and are hoping to make this the largest PyTexas yet. <br />
<br />
The conference will be held at College Station, Texas at Texas A&M again this year, with 28-29, Oct. 5-6 and Oct. 12-13 as possible dates. If anyone knows of possible conflicts let us know at: <complete id="goog_840304063"><a href="mailto:conference@pytexas.net">conference@pytexas.net</a>.</complete><br />
<complete><br /></complete>
<complete>We have created several email addresses to facilitate quick communication. At the top t</complete>he conference chair can be reached at, <a href="mailto:chair@pytexas.net">chair@pytexas.net</a>. <br />
<br />
Speaking proposals, and the questions about the conference schedule should be emailed to <a href="mailto:programming@pytexas.net">programming@pytexas.net</a>. <br />
<br />
For anything related to the promotion of the conference, such as this blog, twitter, community outreach etc... email <a href="mailto:promotion@pytexas.net">promotion@pytexas.net</a>. <br />
<br />
Sponsors, or anyone needing to discuss sponsorship should use <a href="mailto:sponsorship@pytexas.net">sponsorship@pytexas.net</a>. <br />
<br />
For any questions regarding the venue contact <a href="mailto:venue@pytexas.net">venue@pytexas.net</a>. <br />
<br />
Any other correspondence can be directed to <a href="mailto:conference@pytexas.net">conference@pytexas.net</a>.<br />
<br />
Over the next few weeks we will be finishing the Sponsorship Prospectus, choosing the date for the conference and calling for proposals. We will be posting about these things on this blog, on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/pytexas">@PyTexas</a>, on the Texas Python <a href="http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/texas">mailing list</a>, as well as on the <a href="http://pytexas.org/">PyTexas.org</a> website.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />opritchehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770869584657213010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-15669314277212780222012-09-08T10:15:00.000-07:002012-09-08T10:15:18.652-07:00PyTexas 2012 next weekend; paid registration exceeds 100<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
PyTexas 2012 is next weekend, so if you have not yet registered, please think about doing so. I believe we have reach critical mass of attendees and presentations to make it a worthwhile regional conference.<br />
<br />
So far, I see 117 registrations for PyTexas, or which about 15 have not been paid yet. So, we have just over 100 confirmed registrations. This is lower than last year at the same time; we had around 300 registrations last year, and only about 150 showed up. So we need about 50 more paid registrations to catch up to last year's attendance.<br />
<br />
Btw, it looks like a few more talk proposals have been added:<br />
<br />
http://www.pytexas.org/chance/1/talks/<br />
<br />
Hopefully soon we'll get some news about the schedule...<br />
</div>
Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-35450054702146584662012-08-31T13:52:00.000-07:002012-08-31T14:36:36.970-07:00PyTexas 2012 T-Shirt Features Cute Doggies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Register Today or Pay the Procrastination Price</h4>
<br />
Yesterday I mistakenly thought that Aug 30 was the last day of the month and thus the final day to register for PyTexas at the $25 price, as well as the last day to submit a talk proposal. So I posted this to every relevant publicity outlet I could access. (Was this a clever plan of my subconscious mind or just an "off by one" error?)<br />
<br />
So...you still have today, which in the US Central Time Zone gives you perhaps half an afternoon to procrastinate if you read this right away, but most readers will spot this later in the evening and suddenly realize they are out of time and need to register. right. now.<br />
<br />
I hope we can get at least 150 attendees to match last year's attendance. It looks like so far we have 92 attendees registered at the moment, most of whom have paid. A few may be holding off just because they actually want to pay the full $50 price in order to boost the PyTexas coffers.<br />
<br />
Others may not yet have registered, unsure of whether the cool factor is great enough. Perhaps the <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/chance/1/talks/">outstanding lineup of talks</a> will convince them, or the prospect of prizes, but my hope is that the awesomeness of this year's PyTexas t-shirt will close the deal for the fence-sitters.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<br /></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
PyTexas 2012 T-shirt Front</h4>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.pytexas.org/media/cms/37/dogs5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.pytexas.org/media/cms/37/dogs5.png" width="269" /></a></div>
Thanks very much to Kat Metzger from Flexible Creations for creating this image for the PyTexas t-shirt.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<br /></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
What's with the Cute Doggies?</h4>
The pug dog has sometimes been spotted on Python user groups (PUGs) websites over the years, but has recently by <a href="https://twitter.com/jessenoller/status/228644489630212098">official proclamation</a> been named the Python community mascot. And of course, College Station locals know that the Python Pug's companion in this image refer to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reveille_(dog)">Reveille, the mascot of Texas A&M University</a>.</div>
Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-1824007469014984112012-08-30T13:39:00.001-07:002012-08-30T13:39:33.623-07:00Last day for PyTexas $25 registration and talk proposals<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
Just wanted to send out this quick reminder--today is the last day for <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/chance/1/register/">PyTexas $25 registration</a>; starting tomorrow it will cost $50. Btw, you need to actually pay the $25, not just register.<br />
<br />
Today is also your last day to<a href="http://www.pytexas.org/chance/1/talks/add/"> post your talk proposals</a>.<br />
<br />
Btw, there is going to be a PyTexas t-shirt given away with every registration. I've seen advance drafts which are beautiful, drawn and colored by Kat Metgzer, the same artist who did the PyTexas 2010 t-shirt. This evening after work I might be able to post the artwork.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-50533663475815763402012-07-24T19:26:00.000-07:002012-07-24T19:29:08.711-07:00PyTexas 2012 Call for Proposals<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">PyTexas 2012 is well under way, in the capable hands of Ben Liles at Texas A&M who posted this announcement to the statewide Texas Python mailing list:</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">PyTexas 2012 will take place this year in College Station at Texas A&M University on September 15-16. The venue on campus has been moved to the newly renovated Memorial Student Center which boasts a beautiful, 16,000 sq foot ballroom that can be subdivided for the conference.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If there's anything you would be interested in speaking about at the conference, please post your proposal at <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2012/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.pytexas.org/2012/</a>.</blockquote>
<div>
I really appreciate the hard work Ben Liles is doing to put this together. It really shows with the new website. I'm sure our community will pull together and have a lot of fun at this event. </div>
</div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-7043817209064787282011-09-24T14:22:00.000-07:002011-09-24T14:26:33.727-07:00PyTexas 2011 Memories: Lighted Sign by Paul Bonsor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Paul Bonsor made a really cool lighted sign for PyTexas 2011 using a laser cutter.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZgakK5F-LTs/TmVXhJ2HSsI/AAAAAAAAEGk/R1KHNeLQiD4/s800/IMG_20110905_181207.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZgakK5F-LTs/TmVXhJ2HSsI/AAAAAAAAEGk/R1KHNeLQiD4/s320/IMG_20110905_181207.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
More images can be found where Paul <a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/112099101569953169394/albums/5649020548865375953/5649017534696344258">posted them on Google+</a>.</div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-27252299906239028422011-09-07T21:50:00.000-07:002011-09-08T13:45:09.136-07:00PyTexas 2011 Schedule Firmed Up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhPmDnJC8EfldDFiTldOWEctQzNVVkV0ZC15ZXR2bGc&hl=en_US">PyTexas 2011 schedule</a> looks pretty solid at this point, though we are still looking for your feedback <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2011/schedule-survey/">via this survey</a> to help us to make sure we have the biggest crowds in the biggest rooms, and let us know if you plan to give a lightning talk, or want to participate in the Python Teach-In. Please <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/2011/schedule-survey/">take the schedule survey</a> if you have not already done so.<br />
<br />
Here are some notes about the schedule:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>We have two TAMU faculty for the Python in the Classroom panel discussion, and another volunteer who could be on the panel or could be a moderator. We are looking for at least one more participant who has experience with Python in classroom settings or in a university environment.</li>
<li>All the speakers on the current schedule have confirmed that they will be present for the specified timeslots. Over the course of the last few weeks a couple of speakers had to drop out, but everyone currently named on the schedule will be there.</li>
<li>One of the speakers, Eric Malloy, who had to drop out was going to give a talk on VirtualEnv/Pip/VirtualEnvWrapper. I believe this is an important talk for beginners and hope we can find someone else willing to give a talk. Eric has posted the <a href="http://blog.ericmalloy.net/2010/08/introduction-to-pip-virtualenv-virtualenvwrapper/">presentation slides online </a>which could be used for inspiration, if anyone wants to step forward. </li>
<li>Currently the schedule is a Google Docs spreadsheet, but soon it will be posted as part of the Django-based new <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/">PyTexas website</a>. Speakers interested in logging into the Django admin interface to modify their talk descriptions and bio should let me know, and I'll provide a login.</li>
<li>We have added a Blender tutorial at the last minute after learning that TAMU faculty and students have a high interest in that tool because the university has a strong emphasis on data visualization. To make it fit, we had to split it across several days. Special thanks go to Gordon Fisher for agreeing to travel from Little Rock to give the tutorial.</li>
<li>Unfortunately the OpenStack speaker had to drop out, and we're looking for a backup speaker for that slot.</li>
</ul><br />
All in all, I'm very proud of this schedule and the speakers who have stepped forward to give presentations and tutorials. It has a nice balance of both advanced and beginner talks, and we were able to make sure every time slot has something of interest to beginners, and something of interest to advanced Python developers.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-82138524523837964562011-09-05T21:07:00.000-07:002011-09-05T21:09:23.462-07:00Free Food and Drinks at PyTexas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I'm pleased to announce that PyTexas has new sponsorships in the category of food and drink.<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://arch.tamu.edu/">Texas A&M College of Architecture</a> has generously agreed to provide breakfast, snacks, and drinks for all attendees on both Saturday and Sunday. This includes that all important caffeine source, coffee, which we conspicuously failed to provide at last year's PyTexas. Never again. </li>
<li><a href="http://snoball.com/">Snoball.com</a>, already a Platinum Sponsor and active instigator of ideas and encouragement for PyTexas 2010, has decided to go all-out by throwing a party for the whole conference on Saturday evening evening at <a href="http://www.visitaggieland.com/Things-to-Do/Entertainment/Live-Music/Fitzwilly-s-Bar-Grill">Fitzwilly's Bar and Grille</a>. Everyone gets food and drinks, including free beer. The upstairs is reserved for us with pool tables, darts, and places to chill and sit. You'll need to pick up your invitation at the PyTexas registration desk in the form of a Snoball.com dog tag.</li>
</ul><br />
I'd also like to mention that members of both these organizations have contributed significantly to PyTexas as volunteers, so they both deserve our thanks for helping make PyTexas an awesome conference.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-57699050029135466552011-09-04T16:28:00.000-07:002011-09-06T09:38:26.793-07:00PyTexas 2011 Attendance Up, T-Shirts Nearly All Reserved<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Wow. <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/">PyTexas 2011</a> registration has continued to grow beyond expectations, with 192 people registered, with 162 confirmed attendees, 29 tentative, and 1 "can't make it". We might double last year's attendance of 94.<br />
<br />
There is a good chance of a last minute spike in attendance as students find out about the Blender tutorial, and Jeff's Friday morning presentation to a CompSci 101 classroom may inspire additional students to attend. Btw, TAMU's CompSci 101 uses Python to teach computer science concepts.<br />
<br />
Seeing the writing on the wall in early August, I nearly broke the budget boosting the numbers t-shirts and swag bags. I ordered 187 t-shirts total, and 175 swag bags. Two of the Platinum sponsors requested setting aside a total of 23 t-shirts. Details on the sizes and costs of the order are publicly visible on <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhPmDnJC8EfldHIzcXcwTm8tTFB2Ump3UGEwUm8zUUE&hl=en_US">this spreadsheet</a>. The first sheet shows the updated order, and the second sheet shows the original order of 153 t-shirts.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What if we run out of awesome PyTexas 2011 t-shirts?</span><br />
<br />
The t-shirt and swag bag will be hot items, thanks to the <a href="http://static.pytexas.org/art2011/">artwork by Dave Birch</a>. We will have to limit these to one per person, with the exception of a couple of the Platinum sponsors who paid to have them made. Let's remember that PyTexas is free to attendees, and the t-shirts are given away for free.<br />
<br />
The rule will be that every attendee who pre-registered as "confirmed", and who shows up before noon on Saturday Sept 10 should be given a t-shirt. After noon, the shirts are fair game for people who registered as tentative, and we'll give away what sizes we have remaining.<br />
<br />
<b>Disclaimer</b>: I had to order these shirts before the registration counts were all in, and I had to extrapolate the percentage of each size based on the registration numbers. At the time I didn't expect attendance to grow this high, and thought there was some wiggle room. Most of the t-shirts are unisex, but I took the risk of ordering a few designed specially for ladies. It's possible that we will run out of the size you requested.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
</div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-15900717534083110442011-08-29T20:07:00.000-07:002011-08-29T21:14:42.938-07:00New PyTexas Website!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">We have a new <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/">PyTexas website</a>!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
It looks almost exactly like the blogspot site (which has a new URL btw at <a href="http://blog.pytexas.org/" style="color: #0000cc;" target="_blank">http://blog.pytexas.org/</a>), but seriously, it's not built using Blogspot.:)<br />
<br />
The new site is built using the same Python-based Django/Pinax Symposion software used to create the US PyCon 2011 website, as well as DjangoCon 2011 and PyOhio 2011. This will allow us to soon start enabling many of the same features as those websites, most importantly the talk schedule.<br />
<br />
Thanks go to <a href="http://theglenbot.com/">Glen Zangirolami</a> of Houston for all the technical setup of putting this site together, including creating developer environment VirtualBox machines to make it easy for others to contribute and test changes. Let us know if you're interested in helping out!<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://github.com/pytexas/pycon">code for the new website</a> is in the PyTexas organization on GitHub. If you're interested in contributing, let me know and I'll add you to the team. We can help you get the development environment set up.<br />
<br />
Currently I'm the primary maintainer of the page content of the new site, as well as the blog and the wiki. I need help! There's a lot of info about PyTexas which I simply have not had time to post in a presentable fashion. (For example, Snoball is hosting a big party on Saturday evening...that goes somewhere on the website, right?!)<br />
<br />
Now the family of PyTexas websites has a URL organization which looks like this:</span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.pytexas.org/" style="color: #0000cc;" target="_blank">www.pytexas.org</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://pytexas.org/" style="color: #0000cc;" target="_blank">pytexas.org</a> redirects to <a href="http://www.pytexas.org/" style="color: #0000cc;" target="_blank">www.pytexas.org</a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://blog.pytexas.org/" style="color: #0000cc;" target="_blank">blog.pytexas.org</a> -- The blogspot site (the old URLs still work, though)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://pm.pytexas.org/" style="color: #0000cc;" target="_blank">pm.pytexas.org</a> -- Redmine issue tracker for PyTexas (go ahead, enter some tickets!). I've started to add a number of <a href="http://pm.pytexas.org/projects/pytx2011/issues">to-do items</a>, hoping for volunteers to assign themselves.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://wiki.pytexas.org/" style="color: #0000cc;" target="_blank">wiki.pytexas.org</a> -- MoinMoin wiki. Do we still need this? Please discuss.</span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> There is also an IRC on Freenode, at #pytexas. Hey, and don't forget to join the PyTexas mailing list.<br />
<br />
Hey, btw...we have over 150 registrations for PyTexas. This thing is becoming a monster which I can barely keep up with (I have a full time job which is running out of vacation days!). Please let me know if you can help out; there is a lot to get ready in the next two weeks! I want to have a meeting soon with volunteers and get all the tasks documented.</span></div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-4848756624693704182011-08-08T07:04:00.000-07:002011-08-09T16:09:23.081-07:0010 Reasons You Should Attend PyTexas 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Registration is Now Open</span><br />
<br />
Please do stop by the <a href="http://pytexas.blogspot.com/p/general-registration.html">registration page</a> and fill it out ASAP. PyTexas is free and open to the public, and the form takes less than a minute to fill out! Even if you can't make it this year, please register to let us know you count yourself as an interested party for future years.<br />
<div><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">10 Reasons You Should Attend PyTexas 2011</span><br />
<br />
If you're on the fence about attending, here are 10 reasons you should attend PyTexas, in no particular order:<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Excellent variety of presentations and topics.</b> The schedule has a lot of awesome talks planned. Here is the <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhPmDnJC8EfldDFiTldOWEctQzNVVkV0ZC15ZXR2bGc&hl=en_US">current draft</a> of the schedule, and we're continuing to work to make it even better. Watch for some surveys coming up to gauge your interest in various talks, panels, sprints, etc.<br />
<br />
<b>Socialize with the Texas Python community</b>, and experience the kind of energy and ideas that PyCon and PyTexas are known for. This is a very friendly community animated with lively ideas, and I'm confident everyone will have a great time.<br />
<br />
<b>Receive a free PyTexas 2011 t-shirt</b>, which has a great design by Dave Birch of College Station. Here's a near final draft of <a href="http://bradallen137.webfactional.com/pytexas/PyTexas2011_t-shirt_front.png">the front</a> and <a href="http://bradallen137.webfactional.com/pytexas/pytexshirtBack2.png">of the back</a> (the Enthought logo is missing but will be added). If you're a youngster confused by how the imagery relates to Python, go watch an episode of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python's_Flying_Circus">Monty Python's Flying Circus</a>, the groundbreakingly absurd British sketch comedy which inspired the name of the Python programming language.<br />
<br />
<b>One free O'Reilly ebook per attendee</b>. You'll receive one free ebook of <i>your choosing</i> from the O'Reilly complete catalog. O'Reilly ebooks are DRM free, and you can read them on a wide variety of devices. Thanks to O'Reilly Media for this generous gift to each PyTexas attendee!<br />
<br />
<b>Prizes drawings</b>. So far we have plans to give out print books from O'Reilly Media and No Starch Press. In addition we'll give away a Wing IDE license from Wingware. However, additional ideas are in the offing; if we have sponsor money left over we might add a nifty additional prize or two. For the latest, check out our <a href="http://pytexas.blogspot.com/p/prizes.html">prizes</a> page on the tab at the top of this page.<br />
<br />
<b>Open Space</b> slots in the schedule allow you to create ad hoc discussions or informal presentations of your own choosing, unconference style (similar to BarCamp). Bruce Eckel has created a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD3S0wlbek0">screencast explaining the PyCon Open Space concept</a>, what they are, how they work, and how to make the most of your time. It is a must see. So <i>make PyTexas yours</i> by using an Open Space to create an event on whatever topic you wish.<br />
<br />
<b>Sponsor Expo</b>. We have a lot of excellent sponsors this year who have generously contributed financially to PyTexas, several of whom will be setting up booths and tables at the conference.<br />
<br />
<b>Lightning Talks</b>. These are five minute presentations crammed together back to back, and are frequently one of the most popular and entertaining events at PyCon and PyTexas.<br />
<br />
<b>Strengthen the local Python community</b>. When we come together as a community, we can accomplish great things and provide mutual support in areas such as professional development and networking, fun projects, and general socializing.<br />
<br />
<b>Supportive Venue</b>. Texas A&M provides <a href="http://wiki.pytexas.org/VenueInfo2011">a great environment to meet</a> and is interested making PyTexas a successful conference. Python has become an important part of the curriculum, and we expect involvement from both faculty and students. Their willingness and interest helps make PyTexas possible. TAMU will provide free wifi access, and even allows food and drink in the halls and classrooms! PyTexas can run till 10pm in the evening if we want.<br />
<div><br />
</div></div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-69647983097084887472011-08-08T06:20:00.000-07:002011-08-08T07:07:15.858-07:00PyTexas 2011 general registration is now open!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Please do stop by the <a href="http://pytexas.blogspot.com/p/general-registration.html">registration page</a> and fill it out ASAP. PyTexas is free and open to the public, and the form takes less than a minute to fill out! Even if you can't make it this year, please register to let us know you count yourself as an interested party for future years.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-40821570826364673612011-08-06T16:15:00.000-07:002011-08-06T16:16:05.624-07:00Which O'Reilly Books Should be PyTexas Prizes?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This year, O'Reilly Media will sponsor PyTexas 2011 by offering both ebooks and print books as prizes.<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Every attendee will receive one free ebook of their choosing (DRM free!)</li>
<li>We will have prize drawings for the print books</li>
</ul><br />
O'Reilly has asked which print books to ship to PyTexas. Please fill out <a href="http://pytexas.blogspot.com/p/oreilly-survey.html">this survey</a> to provide feedback on which print books should be included.<br />
<br />
This survey has no impact on which ebook you receive personally for attending PyTexas--you will pick that out separately after attending PyTexas. This is for our prize drawings of printed books.<br />
<br />
<div><br />
</div></div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-75215737746209556852011-08-03T21:01:00.000-07:002011-08-04T15:14:25.238-07:00PyTexas 2011 Grab Bag: News, Help Wanted, and Jeff Rush Alert<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">There's been a lot of PyTexas activity over the past week and I've barely had time to post details about progress and plans. The new website/blog has been an indispensable tool for building our public presence and sponsors are continuing to step forward.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Registration Starts Mon Aug 8</span><br />
<br />
Next Monday Aug 8 I'm planning to open attendee registration; several surveys will follow soon after. Sponsor logos will be prominent alongside the registration forms and surveys, and I'm pushing to get sponsors signed up before that date to maximize the visibility of those logos. <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Sponsor News</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Sponsorships have continued to build; the money has started to roll into the PSF as several pledges sponsors utilized the PSF payment gateway for PyTexas. New sponsors have joined:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Wing IDE joined at the Silver Level and will also be offering prizes. </li>
<li>O'Reilly Media will be offering prizes</li>
<li>Enthought, the major sponsor of SciPy, and a significant Python employer in Austin, TX, has joined the roster of Platinum Sponsors. </li>
</ul><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The t-shirt design will also be finalized on Mon, Aug 8. After that it will be too late for additional Platinum Sponsors.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Volunteer Help Wanted</span></div><div><br />
</div>So far several volunteers have tested the <a href="http://pytexas.blogspot.com/p/general-registration.html">registration page</a> and we haven't had problems reported.<br />
<br />
Does anyone have any feedback on additional form elements which need to be added to the registration page? (Bear in mind there are several separate surveys planned http://pytexas.blogspot.com/p/pytexas-2011-registration.html)<br />
<br />
I could use some help on the Sponsor Descriptions page, which is not yet published. I want to follow the same concept as on the new PyCon website (http://us.pycon.org/2012/sponsors/), which is awesome by the way. Anybody want to help with it?<br />
<br />
Also, if anyone wants to contribute to the PyTexas blog, let me know and I can give you a login.<br />
<br />
Overall the new site still needs work, and I have a number of specific ideas in mind. I could use some consultation, as I want to point pytexas.org to the new site, but set up some form of URL redirection to make sure the legacy links pointing to http://pytexas.org/whatever can still go back to the wiki at http://wiki.python.org/whatever. My web experience is limited, and time is short; can anyone advise?<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Bonus News Flash -- Jeff Rush Alert</span><br />
<br />
Jeff Rush has offered an extensive <a href="http://wiki.pytexas.org/TalkProposals2011">list of presentation proposals</a>, which we'll all soon vote on by survey.<br />
<br />
I'm personally a fan of Jeff's presentations from past PyCon, PyTexas, and DFW Pythoneers events, and it's great to have a wide selection of interesting topics for the community to choose from. Jeff's presentations are often encouraging to beginners yet teach new things to advanced Python developers, and all have been excellent.<br />
<br />
</div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523523205709301131.post-6550496000336654582011-07-31T19:19:00.000-07:002011-08-01T11:41:00.527-07:00PyTexas 2011 Status -- 6 Weeks To Go<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div>Here are a few notes on how things are going with regard to PyTexas 2011</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I'm strongly leaning toward using this blog as the primary website for PyTexas; it looks better and has most of the needed functionality which the wiki lacks. There are still a lot of pages linking to the wiki from the outside so I'm not going to shut it down; it still has uses that this blog does not yet fulfill. It might make sense to point the domain pytx.org to this blog, and keep pytexas.org for the wiki for legacy reasons. I have already setup <a href="http://wiki.pytexas.org/">http://wiki.pytexas.org</a> and hope everyone can use that going forward when linking to the wiki.</li>
<li>The <a href="http://wiki.pytexas.org/Sponsorship2011?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=PyTexas_2011_Sponsor_Prospectus_v2.pdf">Sponsor Prospectus</a> has gone out, the PyTexas Sponsor <a href="http://psfmember.org/d/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=3">payment gateway</a> has been set up, and sponsor donations have started to roll in. Thanks go to Kurt Kaiser of the PSF for getting the payment gateway set up. </li>
<li>We now have sponsor pledges for $3925, though not all have completed payment. Thanks to OpenStack, BitBucket, Snoball, and ZeOmega for stepping up to Platinum Sponsorship. Thanks to Luna Data solutions of Austin agreeing to sponsor at the Gold level. Likewise, thanks to FreshBooks of Canada for buying a Silver Sponsorship even though they are nowhere near Texas. Fish Technologies of Dallas has also sponsored at the Silver level. Even some individuals have started to donate at the $25 "friends" level. Not all the sponsors are yet displayed since I'm still lacking logos.</li>
<li>There is a good chance we'll have video recordings of PyTexas this year...stay tuned.</li>
<li>The submarine battle programming competition will not be ready to run in time for PyTexas, so we'll have to save that for a later event. That means that Sunday can be filled with additional presentations, tutorials, sprints, etc.</li>
<li>We have a <a href="http://wiki.pytexas.org/TalkProposals2011">decent variety of talks</a> planned, and I have some ideas about filling out the schedule further:</li>
<ul><li>Workshops aimed at helping beginners and intermediate developers expand their skillset around installation, building, and distribution of Python packages. I'm confident we can get experienced volunteers to help out running such workshops, provided they can be done in an ad-hoc manner with little preparation required.</li>
<li>Jeff Rush mentioned an idea about having panel discussions; a web framework "hot seat" might prove popular.</li>
<li>"Open social" timeslots to make sure people have time to interact with the attending sponsors, eat snacks, etc.</li>
</ul><li>The draft schedule is not yet posted but I plan to have that done soon.</li>
<li>I've decided to use Google Docs for surveys and registrations, in the name of expediency. I have <span id="goog_833678015"></span><a href="http://pytexas.blogspot.com/p/pytexas-2011-registration.html">several surveys planned</a> <span id="goog_833678016"></span>and general registration is <a href="http://pytexas.blogspot.com/p/general-registration.html">ready for testing</a>.</li>
<li>If anyone wants to help out with managing the design/layout of this site, or contribute blog postings, please let me know.</li>
</ul><div><br />
</div><div>Lastly, I'd like to show off Dave Birch's design for this year's t-shirt graphic, inspired by Monty Python:</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-2gki-vgW_eUIIoJ-yxIEFsIsPAjeskdIAMtum646UrEN6EFkSsgprRUpSeCFvGeKRxnLTxpeZRf5jFKuJCsXhEGpddfsKRthPGOKv9Yy1qy4r5Pt_ov4sXzpLniBOeFLz9SuzupIOPM/s1600/PyTexas2011_t-shirt_front.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-2gki-vgW_eUIIoJ-yxIEFsIsPAjeskdIAMtum646UrEN6EFkSsgprRUpSeCFvGeKRxnLTxpeZRf5jFKuJCsXhEGpddfsKRthPGOKv9Yy1qy4r5Pt_ov4sXzpLniBOeFLz9SuzupIOPM/s400/PyTexas2011_t-shirt_front.png" width="400" /></a></div></div>Brad Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02649701916459616864noreply@blogger.com1