9th edition actually started a day earlier - on Wednesday 16th of October, when in the late afternoon PyLadies workshops had begun. For the first time this workshops at PyCon PL had the long format (three days) with attendees which were not limited to those attending the conference (contrary to previous years). PyLadies workshops had been supported by a wide group of sponsors, especially by Python Software Foundation. What is worth to mention, is that besides the mentors that have been selected before the event, also some ad hoc mentors from regular conference attendees appeared on PyLadies workshop.
PyCon PL agenda was full of interesting talks and workshops which had been chosen through Call for Proposals, but also included invited speakers and instructors. Among keynote speakers following persons appeared: Christian Heimes, Jessica McKellar, Nicholas Tollervey and Kasia Jachim.
Their costs were partialy financed from the Python Software Foundation funds, which also funded financial aid programme for attendees that normaly wouldn't be able to afford participation in the event. The total sum of funds that PSF gave for the conference was $4500. On Thursday afternoon CPython sprint happend, which was conducted by Maciej Szulik. Maciej shared useful tips how to contribute to the project. There were quite many attendees that participated in this part and results came quite quickly.
Yay, my tiny fix for CPython docs has been merged! Thank you for organizing of the CPython sprint at #pyconpl , @soltysh!
— Roman Podoliaka (@rpodoliaka) October 19, 2016
Alternative for the sprint were Open Spaces. There, people in small groups had a chance to talk on various, Python and software development topics and get to know other people. This activity was especially useful for people looking for new contacts, inspirations and ideas.
Traditional point of last PyCon PL editions is the team programming challenge, where pairs of attendees try to solve various, usually funny tasks and problems. This time the challenge background story was set in the fantasy world.
Like every year board games nights had a big popularity. The room was full of people that enjoyed the time playing games and having interesting conversations. As an extra add-on to that a Retro Zone was created, where you could play classic computer games from old video game consoles and computers.
Another activity that happened during the conference and brought many people was workshop by Łukasz Langa. Some people took part in it even from outside of the workshop room!
Education is also an important matter in the Python community, so it shouldn't be a surprise that Micro:bit dojo organized by Nicholasa Tollervey had a big popularity. You could try there Microbit boards and create various projects based on this hardware using Python.
One of the novelties, introduced for PyCon PL 2016 was a mobile app which contained conference agenda and worked offline, so you could use it anywhere and anytime not worrying if you have a WiFi connection currently. Moreover sponsors gained a dedicated and spacious area for their company stands.
PyCon PL 2016 was also very calm contrary to some of the previous years - Anna Wszeborowska who was in charge of Code of Conduct didn't receive a report about any violation.
After the conference some attendees prepared short reviews of PyCon PL 2016:
http://blog.cesarcd.com/2016/10/pyconpl-2016_18.html
http://build.sh/pycon-2016-personal-impression/i
http://restlessbeing.pl/blog/2016/10/18/pycon-pl-2016/
http://krzysztofzuraw.com/blog/2016/pyconpl-2016.html
Also one of attendees created a photo gallery:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/drsatanowski/sets/72157675163989675/
