I'm back from Djangocon and wanted to write up a few notes regarding the trip. Like most people have already commented, Djangocon was a great conference. The talks were almost universally well done - interesting, engaging and I had some good learning from almost every one. The overall tone of the conference was extremely vibrant and energizing. There were enough people there that I felt like the Django community really had momentum but it wasn't so big that I felt like a number. To be honest, I really felt privileged to be a part of it all. I hope that future Djangocon's can continue to find a way to harness this energy.
Other people have noted this but I really want to thank Google for their extremely generous hosting of the event. The facilities were first rate with plenty of good food, wi-fi and awesome AV support. I hope that Google will continue to provide this support in the future. I know it cost them some time and money but I hope they will able to see that it's a wise investment.
Satchmo Presentation
I wasn't really sure what the reception would be for our Satchmo talk. The conference was divided into 2 tracks so people consciously had to make the choice to see Satchmo. I was really happy to see that the room was pretty full. I'd estimate there were about 70 or more people in the room. The other really cool thing was seeing all the people in the room that had installed or used Satchmo.
Bruce and I gave the presentation and I will post it shortly. Also it is going to be on YouTube so I'll have the always delightful experience of seeing myself on camera. I'll be sure to post a link here once it is posted. Since I've never been to a conference like this, I wasn't sure of the right level of detail to go to in the presentation and the talk. I'd like feedback from folks that were there so that we can improve it in the future. Hopefully we'll have the chance to do this sort of presentation in future events. Just a quick note - if you did see the presentation and have any ideas for improving it, be sure to let me know! Thanks.
Afterward, I had many folks come up and talk to me about Satchmo and what they liked or didn't like about the framework. I think we accomplished our goal of building some more awareness of Satchmo and learning more about what we can do to improve it. I will say that it was somewhat nerve wracking to have the Django experts like Adrian, Jacob, James Bennett, and many others sitting through our presentation. Every time I speak with one of them I feel like I'm not using the framework to the fullest. To their credit, they were all very supportive and complimentary of our efforts.
The People
By far, the best part of the conference was meeting people I have met online as well as meeting new Django enthusiasts. From a Satchmo perspective, we had the awesome opportunity for Bruce, John, Jag and I to spend several hours together hashing out some design decisions for improving Satchmo's Product framework. I will post more on this at a later time. For now you can see some very rough notes on the wiki .
Once again, I'd like to thank the DjangoCon team for inviting us to speak. I found the whole experience very exciting and look forward to trying to apply some of the new found knowledge to Satchmo.
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