Getting ready for PyCon 2013

PyCon US 2013 is nearly upon us. This is my first PyCon and completes my attendance at both major US Python conferences (after attending DjangoCon last September). So thanks to my employer for letting me attend.

I haven’t left for Santa Clara yet but I already feel part of the conference because of several factors:

• The conference schedule has been made available via Guidebook and Lanyrd. Guidebook is an excellent medium for keeping track of your schedule across tutorials, talks, poster sessions and more. Plus the organizers can (and already have) update the information making it the goto source of information.  The only gripe I have is I can not find a way to sync my schedule between multiple iOS devices.
• I’ll check back with Lanyrd later to collect the slides from SlideShare for talks I attended and importantly those I couldn’t.
• Various events outside the regular talks have been posted on Eventbrite (which also features Passport integration on iOS now).
• Of course you can follow everything on Twitter via the #pycon hashtag and @pycon feed.

Attending a conference with thousands of attendees feels much more personal when these tools are available. I may not be able to catch speakers after their talks (or even attend the talk at all) but I can tweet them to seek answers and potentially arrange to meet or I can grab their slides from SlideShare. I would encourage all speakers to share a contact medium of their preference and post their slides online.

All that is left for me to do now is try and pick my schedule from the plethora of interesting talks and other sessions running!