It has been 3 years to attend face-to-face Conference since PyConWeb 2019.

In PyConWeb 2019, I’ve decided to attend next conference as Speaker. Why? I see that speakers don’t have to be a Python core contributor or bad-ass developer. People have a lot of talks like sharing experiences about a problem they encountered and solved or providing perspectives about infrastructures or frameworks.

Since pandemic is getting over, I thought that it is the right time for this experience.

About what?

As far as I see, either a thing you don’t know well but curious about or a task you do multiple times and got experienced are possible good items to start with.

In Hipo, Interns and part time developers are promising candidates of core team. As the core team, We put a lot of effort for mentoring them. Therefore, They make their path to core team easier and more solid. Interns work on real-world projects from their 2nd or 3rd week. Part time developers also take responsibilities of bug fixes, tests or improvements.

Nevertheless, Most of the Hipo Interns already have solid knowledge about computer science basics like complexities of algorithms, object oriented programming etc. or even advanced topics like multi-threading programming or distributed systems. However, They weren’t interested much about backend development in bachelor degree.

Since we have a lot of newcomers, It means that some repetitive jobs for the seniors. The request-response cycle, HTTP principles, separation between frontend and backend, application/network layers would be myths for newcomers. These knowledge are not rocket science but required to build a web application. Brain-storming these topics take my first weeks with each newcomer. Therefore, I’ve thought that this is a task I do multiple times and got experienced.

At the end, It comes to “All about HTTP and Files” talk.

Preparation

In Hipo, We also have a good tradition which is Hipotalks. Each week randomly picked and announced one person (used to be 3 people!) makes a talk on every Thursday. You may think it like lightning talk. It can be technical or not! I’ve made talks about running, Nasreddin Hodja, making beer at home or tweet classification and more up to now. Therefore, I’ve already had practice of presenting.

Local community gatherings are great for pitching a new presentation. So, I’ve thought that I can present this in Python Istanbul weekly meetup in my native language. Then, I’ve made the “Serving files through HTTP” presentation. It was super-nice. Why?

• Feedbacks and questions of community members. Therefore, you can shape up the presentation and see the missing dots in it.
• Time estimation. You’ll have a slot in the conference day. It might be 30 or 45 minutes. But, Does your talk fit this duration?
• Finally, You have a draft. Once you have a draft, You just need to iterate over it for make it perfect!

Then, I’ve applied to the PyCon DE & PyConData 2022 call for proposal. Preparing CFP is also another task. But, I was a member of CFP selection department in the PyCon Turkey 2020. Thanks to that, I know what are good to haves in the CFP.

• An outline with time duration.
• A catch introduction for getting attention of people at the conferance.
• An evident of your proficiency. An earlier talk you made in local community, package/framework you’ve implemented or a blog posts.

Do not forget that you don’t need to finalize your talk while you are applying to the CFP. It is enough to have the schema in your head.

Then, I’ve got the approval email from the PyConDE. The acceptance rate was about 24%.

Doom Days

The opening talk in the Kuppelsaal was magnificent.

Now the #PyConDE conference has officially started with the opening session. 🎉🐍🇩🇪

CC @PyConDE pic.twitter.com/XOJi29Eeil

— Paolo Melchiorre 🐍 (@pauloxnet) April 11, 2022

The big conference room, enthusiastic audience who are not attending any event for 2-3 years. After couple of minutes, I’ve found out that my talk will be on the same conference room! It makes me even more excited. Then, I’ve spend my spare time for rehearsing again and again.

Also, I have familiar faces in the conference.

• Gönül Aycı (she was also speaker), Sercan Doğan and Emre Yılmaz from PyIstanbul community.
• Katharine Jarmul, Tania Allard and Cheuk Ting Ho from PyCon Turkey 2020.

So, It would be nice if you have somebody with you at the conference. It makes you calm.

Then?

Big relief.

Travelling the world by attending conferances is a great opportunity. I’ve travelled to Basel, Munich, Paris, Bratislava, Vienna and Berlin by this way. So, I’m eager to push myself to submit more CFPs on areas I don’t know deeply but curious about.

Making a speech should be bucket list of all developers. To be honest, It might not be fun at all. You might have pain in the stomach or regret for appeal at the morning of the presentation day. However, Life is vivid when we push our boundaries and see that these weren’t hard glass limits.

It’s worth to give it a try.