Paul Graham to Keynote PyCon 2012

A record 50 sponsors have signed on to PyCon 2012 as news of Paul Graham joining as keynote speaker, a new job fair site feature, and the upcoming proposal deadline are announced.

Santa Clara, CA September 19, 2011 -- The PyCon organizers recently announced the addition of the first keynote speaker, famed programmer, author, and startup investor, Paul Graham of Y Combinator. Other recent news about the 2012 conference (held March 7, 2012) includes a record setting number of sponsors, a new job fair feature on the website, and the upcoming deadline for proposals.

Due to Python’s continued popularity among startup companies, Graham’s talk is sure to fill every seat in the house. The venture capitalist and the startup incubator he co-founded have advised and funded numerous Python-using companies, from Reddit to Justin.tv to convore, and the list is sure to expand as Y Combinator is currently accepting applications for their winter cycle. The “Startup Stories” plenary talk series from PyCon 2011 was based on a suggestion from Graham, and several Y Combinator companies participated. The series will return for PyCon 2012, telling the stories behind another batch of successful companies who use Python extensively.

While Graham is perhaps best known for his involvement in Y Combinator, his roots are in programming and the Lisp community. In addition to creating the Lisp dialect called Arc, Graham is also the author of two books on Lisp and a collection of essays on technology, titled Hackers & Painters. With such a diverse background acting as a foundation, his keynote is sure to give a great start to a day filled with the best and brightest talks the Python community has to offer.

Also added is a new sponsor benefit: the “job fair.” This new page on the PyCon web site features prominent placement of employment opportunities within sponsor organizations. Job board postings are open to Silver sponsors and above, and supplement the existing Python Job board on python.org. If you are looking for a position, be sure to keep an eye on the job fair page as new positions are added.

Proposals for tutorials, talks, and posters are open now through October 12, 2011 at http://us.pycon.org/2012/speaker/. With the news of Paul Graham on the bill and the rising buzz of the conference, competition is expected to be fierce, and submission records are likely to be blown out of the water. The organizers are ready and willing to work with submitters to create the best proposals possible. A conference like this is nothing without contributions from the community, so share your projects, your skills, and your knowledge and help make PyCon 2012 be the best it can be.

There are currently 50 companies and organizations on the sponsorship list for PyCon 2012 (10 more than PyCon 2011), and the number continues to grow. The list is topped by diamond sponsors Google and Dropbox, followed by platinum sponsors Nasuni, Gondor.io, Microsoft, SurveyMonkey, and New Relic.

The gold level sponsors are Spotify, PlaidCloud, Enthought, and Evite.

New silver level sponsors include Imaginary Landscape, FreshBooks, Aarki, WiserTogether, Threadless, gocept, Fwix, Toast Driven, and Lex Machina. Dreamhost has signed on as the Lanyard sponsor this year.

If you are interested in sponsoring PyCon, please see http://us.pycon.org/2012/sponsors/info/.

About PyCon Presented by the Python Software Foundation, the world's largest Python conference brings together a diverse group of developers, enthusiasts, and organizations to explore new challenges, launch new businesses and forge new connections within the Python community. The event runs March 7-15, 2012 and includes two days of tutorials, three days of talks, and four days of sprints. PyCon provides attendees with the opportunity to delve into the dynamic programming language employed by well-known companies such as Google, Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft and Dropbox. PyCon helps people learn new tools and techniques, present their own projects, and meet other Python fans. Press passes to the conference are available for members of the press who would like to see PyCon in person.

Jesse Noller, Conference Chair
jnoller@python.org
+1 (978) 212-9863

Brian Curtin, Publicity Coordinator
brian@python.org
+1 (630) 364-0250

about/press/paul_graham_keynote Recently modified by brian: Oct. 4, 2011, 12:46 a.m. (History)