Despite my best plans, PyCon 2008 in Chicago was not my first PyCon. I've been following PyCon blog coverage over the years, and this year's is many times better than before. And it's not a sudden increase in the number of blogs or new people - it's also that the same people are writing a lot more.
So, thanks to everyone who wrote about PyCon 2008, and hopefully I'll see you next year in Chicago.
Just randomly from the pages open from my aggregator, here are some posts:
- Processing PyCon 2008 by Mike Pirnat
- Back from PyCon by Grig Gheorghiu (he's also just written a "resources from pycon" post with his notes and links to slides)
- PyCon '08: The Brain Dump by Titus Brown
- Pycon 2008 notes by Ned Batchelder (session notes)
- A bunch from Doug Napoleone - days 0, Tutorials, 1, 2, and also a reply about the sponsor experiments this year
- A bunch from Steve Holden - on TurboGears 2/Pylons tutorial, agile testing tools tutorial, and Guido's keynote.
- A bunch from Adam Gomaa - on Tutorial day, Friday, and Saturday.
I noticed the early-bird period for PyCon pass, and wondered whether $75 would change the chances of my being able to attend. So I figured out how much it would cost...
International travel flights are always a killer, I suppose. Especially when you live in one of the farthest-away-from-the-developed-world countries. To the point where it often outweighs hotel bills to stay extra long for weird air flight bonuses.
23rd-25th March would optimally have me arrive sometime in the afternoon on the 22nd in DC, and leaving sometime after 10am on the 26th. That would cost R12000 ($1950 or so).
Accomodation is from $22 (hostel) to about $100 (single room at a hotel) a night. Four nights - $88 (R545) to $400 (R2480).
Travel on the metro, $32.50 (R200).
Conference fee: $250 (R1550).
So, excluding dinners and so forth, R14295 ($2300) to R16230 ($2620) for going just for the conference. If I try go for the sprints, it's R14800 ($2387) to R18090 ($2920). Definitely worth it to stay for the extra days if you're staying in the hostel...
$75 in $2387 is hardly worth worrying about. Even less so in $2920...
It's ridiculous for a South African to go to one of these conferences - well, at least a South African that earns what I do. Not the conference's fault at all - just the relative earning power and airfares. That's more than half a year's scrounging! I'm sure it's worth it, though. Makes me wonder at how much BSDi was going to end up paying to bring me over for FreeBSDCon.
Oh yes, I suppose there's the fact I have this "Entry denied" from the US consulate in Cape Town when I was going to talk at FreeBSDCon (4 years ago, was it?). I doubt they'll just gloss over that...