PyCon 2004 Post Mortem

We made it back to Fort Wayne last night around 9:30PM. If anything sticks out from our weeklong it’s the relative pleasantness of our air travel. Nearly every trip over the past year has been marred by delays, unsympathetic agents and bitches manning the ticketing counters. This trip, my first on Continental, came and went without a hitch and with no significant delays. Impressive.

So a brief wrap-up of the week I spent in DC. Was it worth it? Without a doubt. My TODO.txt file expanded exponentially through the week, with a combination of projects to investigate and possible software ideas.

It felt like the schedule this year was more compact, with fewer simultaneous sessions. Whatever the reason for this, it was a good thing. While not every session inspired me equally, they were much more consistent than last years. Additionally, there were more sessions I was actually excited about than last year. So I’d say the tighter schedule was a definite improvment.

As important as the actual sessions was the ability to discuss and exchange ideas with peers I hold in the highest esteem. That social interaction is by far the most valuable aspect of PyCon and what will bring me back next year.

So here it is; the highlights of the week (in no particular order):

• the Chandler BOF with Mitch Kapor * sprinting on Zope 3 with Stephan Richter and Jim Fulton * IronPython: finally, a reason to screw around with Mono? * Starkiller: “f’in A” * Bruce Eckel’s keynote * presenting my work and getting positive feedback