PyTexas Dates

We have a little news to announce.

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.

The Sponsor Prospectus is now available here: http://www.pytexas.org/2013/sponsor/.

More to come...

Calling 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.


If you could also link to the PyTexas sites we would be grateful.  Thank you all!

Twitter - @PyTexas
Conference site - PyTexas.org
Blog - blog.pytexas.org

For anyone who needs to contact committee members, the committee email addresses are:

• chair@pytexas.net
• conference@pytexas.net
• programming@pytexas.net
• promotion@pytexas.net
• sponsorship@pytexas.net
• venue@pytexas.net

Announcing PyTexas 2013

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.

We are excited about the possibilities this year and are hoping to make this the largest PyTexas yet.

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: conference@pytexas.net.

We have created several email addresses to facilitate quick communication.  At the top the conference chair can be reached at, chair@pytexas.net.

Speaking proposals, and the questions about the conference schedule should be emailed to programming@pytexas.net.

For anything related to the promotion of the conference, such as this blog, twitter, community outreach etc... email promotion@pytexas.net.

Sponsors, or anyone needing to discuss sponsorship should use sponsorship@pytexas.net.

For any questions regarding the venue contact venue@pytexas.net.

Any other correspondence can be directed to conference@pytexas.net.

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 @PyTexas, on the Texas Python mailing list, as well as on the PyTexas.org website.

PyTexas 2012 next weekend; paid registration exceeds 100

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.

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.

Btw, it looks like a few more talk proposals have been added:

http://www.pytexas.org/chance/1/talks/

Hopefully soon we'll get some news about the schedule...

PyTexas 2012 T-Shirt Features Cute Doggies

Register Today or Pay the Procrastination Price

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?)

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.

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.

Others may not yet have registered, unsure of whether the cool factor is great enough. Perhaps the outstanding lineup of talks 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.

PyTexas 2012 T-shirt Front

Thanks very much to Kat Metzger from Flexible Creations for creating this image for the PyTexas t-shirt.

What's with the Cute Doggies?

The pug dog has sometimes been spotted on Python user groups (PUGs) websites over the years, but has recently by official proclamation been named the Python community mascot.  And of course, College Station locals know that the Python Pug's companion in this image refer to Reveille, the mascot of Texas A&M University.

Last day for PyTexas $25 registration and talk proposals

Just wanted to send out this quick reminder--today is the last day for PyTexas $25 registration; starting tomorrow it will cost $50.  Btw, you need to actually pay the $25, not just register.

Today is also your last day to post your talk proposals.

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.

PyTexas 2012 Call for Proposals

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:

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. 

If there's anything you would be interested in speaking about at the conference, please post your proposal at http://www.pytexas.org/2012/.

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.