PyCon US 2026 offers more than just talks and workshops! It is a chance to engage with the community and contribute to shaping the event through opportunities like Open Spaces.
Open Spaces consists of self-organized gatherings occurring at one-hour intervals within designated rooms across the conference venue. While most of the conference is planned months in advance, Open Spaces are created "in real time" by PyCon US attendees throughout the conference.
Open Spaces let you self-gather, self-define, and self-organize any way you like. They're a chance for attendees to come together and discuss a wide range of topics, from technical subjects like computer security and data science, to fun activities like board games and AcroYoga.
So whether you're interested in Python-powered maker projects, diversity initiatives, or just want to connect with other attendees, Open Spaces at PyCon US 2026 are the perfect way to do it. Don't miss out on this unique and exciting part of the conference – be sure to show up and see what's happening!
How do I participate in an Open Space?
It's pretty easy: Just show up :)
During PyCon US, you can view the Open Spaces Schedule. If a topic is not listed yet, find an open time slot and submit it!
What Open Spaces are there?
There are Open Spaces on many subjects a bunch of PyCon US attendees would like to discuss. Since the PyCon US attendees are a diverse bunch, so are the Open Spaces. In past years, we've had a mani/pedi party, a feminist hacking space, an AcroYoga space, and a board games room. There are also plenty of the usual suspects of technical subjects, from computer security to your favorite Python project to professional occupations like DevOps.
Where and when are the Open Spaces?
The Open Spaces are in a set of dedicated rooms during all three of the conference days (Friday, May 15, Saturday, May 16, and Sunday, May 17). Some rooms may be needed for other events during portions of some days; please consult the Open Spaces boards onsite for the final word on what's going on and where. The Open Spaces boards will be near the registration desk in the Main Entrance Lobby.
How do I host an Open Space?
The best part? Anyone can host an Open Space! Open Spaces submissions are once again digital! Starting on Thursday, you will be able to sign up for Open Spaces at PyCon US via us.pycon.org. The link to book your open space will be available during the conference.
Signups for a given day will open the day before, and is allowed up to 1 hour before the current time!
Ideas for Open Spaces
Here are a few ideas for potential Open Space topics and activities:
- Hacker space (maker projects) that use Python (e.g. in Raspbery Pis, iOT, home automation, robots / drones / blimps auto piloted with Python)
- Hacking/networking/devops
- Data visualization/science
- Natural language processing and generation (e.g. chatbots)
- Quantified Self Diversity initiatives, for example a feminist hackerspace
- A space for organizers - of conferences, workshops, diversity initiatives (Django Girls, PyLadies, etc.)
- Framework specific Open Spaces, for example, Django or Flask How to contribute to open source - a help / mentoring group for beginners
- Git
- Support - how to avoid burnout
- Recruitment workshops
If there's a certain Open Space you'd love to see at PyCon US but you don't want to host it yourself, please add it to our list and maybe someone else will take up the topic and host an Open Space about it.
Planned Open Spaces
If you have an idea for an Open Space and a day and time when you would like to meet, you can log in to your us.pycon.org/2026/ account and submit this proposal form here to have it listed below. You must be registered for PyCon US 2026 to submit an open space proposal.
PLEASE NOTE: Filling out this form does not book your open space. You will still have to submit your Open Space via us.pycon.org/2026/ when at PyCon US to officially book a time slot and a room for your Open Space. The link to book your open space will be available during the conference.
2SLGBTQI+ Open Space
A get together of all folks that align with 2SLGBTQI+ to get to know each other and find allies at the conference.Accelerated Python Open Space
Have questions about how to add acceleration to your project? Bring any and all questions, concerns, hurdles, dreams, aspirations, etc., to this casual, "Connect with Experts" session following the AI Track When: Friday, 6pm-7pm Where: Rm 202C (Just down the hall from Ballroom A where the AI Track will be hosted; we'll walk over together)Accessibility at Python Events
The PSF Diversity and Inclusion Working Group is developing practical accessibility guidelines for Python meetups, conferences, workshops, and community events. Our goal is to make the guide concrete and useful. We also want to ensure that event accessibility fosters inclusivity and belonging, and meets the needs of the entire Python community. If you have suggestions, examples, resources, or lessons learned, we’d love to hear from you.
Agentic Software Engineering on Brownfield and Serious Projects
Agentic software engineering is brilliant. I'm personally a huge fan of spec-driven development. You can build things from the ground up really quickly. That said, we are still in the process of discovering best practices. A lot of things just are not obvious. For example, teamwork on serious projects - if you have a team of productive engineers, each with AI at their disposal, how do you team? How do you maintain alignment and quality? Where are the touchpoints? Also, brownfield projects generally were not built in an AI-first kind of way - asking an LLM to make a change can lead to surprising results because of the shape of the context. How do you approach this? This space is not about green-field work and vibe coding; it's about emerging best practices and how professional teams are adapting.
Agentic/Vibe Coding
Open space for Python developers exploring agentic coding and vibe coding. Let's gather and share experiences, tips, favorite tools, and some vibe coding horror stories.
BeeWare
Ever wanted to write an application for your phone using Python? Or to write a GUI application for your laptop and package it so someone else can run it without installing Python? Come along to the BeeWare Open Space to find out more, and to try out the BeeWare tools in person. Or - want to share ideas about how you are already using (or want to use) BeeWare? The core team will be there to discuss your ideas.
Board Game Bonanza
Pythonistas like games. Games fun. Come have fun game time! If you want to share what games you are bringing or where folks might be playing check out https://hackmd.io/@crazy4pi314/pycon26-boardgames
Build cross-platform apps in Python with Flet
Come chat with the Flet team and learn how to build web, desktop, and mobile apps with a single Python codebase. Let's have an open conversation about the future of Python app development in the era of AI — and why Flet may be a compelling choice for both humans and coding agents building modern applications. We can also talk about packaging and distributing Python apps across web, desktop, and mobile platforms: current solutions, real-world challenges, platform limitations, performance considerations, and infrastructure costs.
Building Agents with Microsoft Foundry
Sharing how we build agents or LLM applications using model endpoints hosted on Microsoft Foundry and using the suite of tooling provided by Foundry including our Agent Framework, Azure SDK for Python, etc.Civic Data & AI
What is happening in the civic data space? With the turn down of Google Civic Information API representative endpoints and other changes in the field, who is working on what? How are people addressing changes from AI or using AI tools? Hosted by: https://civicdatatech.github.io/CivicTech
Let's talk about tech that powers governments, municipalities, and activists. It's never been more important to have reliable, best-effort secure, and best-effort resilient technology to support activist causes where you live, across the country, and across the world.Conference Organizer Discussion
Do you organizer a conference or other technical event (or want to?) Come by and share tips, tricks, and stories with each other and network with other organizers.
Developing Qt applications with Python
If you are working with the Qt framework, and are using Python or other languages, let's hang out to talk about it. A new project was added to the Qt Project, in order to bring more languages to the Qt Ecosystem, join this session to learn more!
DjangoSocial
A social meetup where Django is the conversation starter. Come along, meet up with your friends from the conference or make some new ones. Meet at the The Auld Dubliner next to the venue on Friday 15th from 7pm.
Docs Discussion
Talk about the latest changes in documentation tools, workflows, AI, and everything else related to making documentation for your users.
Financial Data with Python: APIs, Open Data, and Better Investment Workflows
Financial data powers investing, research, risk management, portfolio construction, and many other investment-related workflows, but it can also be expensive, fragmented, difficult to license, and hard to integrate cleanly into modern Python tools. This Open Space is for anyone interested in market data, fundamentals, ETFs, portfolio analytics, risk models, alternative data, financial APIs, or building investment-related tools with Python. We’ll discuss practical questions like:- When should you build your own financial data store versus relying on APIs or vendor platforms?
- How do different financial data sources compare on cost, coverage, quality, licensing, and ease of use?
- What do existing platforms such as Bloomberg, FactSet, MSCI Barra, LSEG Data & Analytics, and others do especially well, and where are there still opportunities for better developer experience, interoperability, transparency, or accessibility?
- How can Python, open standards, better APIs, and community-driven tooling improve financial data workflows?
- What would a modern, Python-native financial data platform look like?
Guild of Educators
The Guild of Educators is a free and open community for folks who teach code. It exists to connect and support educators. We have a lot to talk about. Want to get involved? You can join to share and learn, or get involved in a bigger way by contributing to the running of the community. This open space will focus on sharing what the Guild is all about, how it works, its plans, and gaps. I'd also very much like to hear from the educators in the room - how might such a community support the work you do?
Hbomberguy Fan Meetup (Unofficial)
Do you like the YouTuber hbomberguy? Do you want to talk about his videos with other nerds? Come join us at this unofficial fan meetup! We'll talk about our favorite videos and how some of the ideas discussed in hbomberguy's videos and fan community relate to the world of open source software.
Ice Cream Selfie Flash Mob with Mariatta
Let's celebrate 10 years of ice cream selfies with Mariatta. We'll walk to Long Beach Creamery together (10 minutes walk). Order your own ice cream (vegan options available). Then we'll take a selfie together as one big group. Walk back to conference whenever you're ready (anytime after the photo). By participating, you agree to have your photo taken and posted on social media and on Mariatta's personal website at https://mariatta.ca/posts/ice_cream_selfies/
Improv Threatre
Join us for an hour of communication games, scenes, and shameless silliness. Whether you've never set foot on stage or if you're a seasoned improviser, bring your imagination we'll handle the rest!Juggling
No experience necessary! We will teach you. Yes, actual juggling: physical objects under the influence of gravity, but you are their master!
LGBTQ+ Social
Come pull up a chair, say hello, and hang out in a welcoming environment. Chat about anything, or just sit back and listen. Friends/allies welcome. There are dozens of us!Learn How To Run For Office! (Or support someone who is!)
Ever wanted to be involved in politics but had no idea what to do or where to begin? Come to get a crash course on what it's like to run for a local election!
Let's talk Rust!
“Let’s talk Rust!” is an open space session for Python developers curious about Rust and the growing overlap between the two communities. Many Rustaceans start their journey in Python, and many Python developers are increasingly drawn to Rust and we can talk about what motivates the interest. From there, let's share personal stories and practical advice on getting started with a language that’s powerful, but often perceived as complex and hard to learn. Participants are invited to discuss learning strategies, favorite resources, and the tools that make the transition smoother. Whether you’re just Rust-curious or already experimenting, this session is a chance to exchange experiences and insights in an informal, collaborative setting. Come with questions, opinions, and your own journey to share.
Litestar: The Web Framework
Come chat with the maintainers of the Litestar organization! We will talk about Litestar, Advanced Alchemy, SQLspec, Polyfactory, and more!
No Starch Press: Meet the Python Authors
Join No Starch Press founder Bill Pollock and some of our Python authors for a casual meet and greet. Confirmed authors include Al Sweigart (Automate the Boring Stuff with Python) and Brian Ward (How Linux Works), with additional authors likely to be confirmed soon. Stop by to chat, ask questions, and grab some No Starch swag — all Python-curious folks welcome.Open Source Contributions in the age of AI agent
- How to volunteer a project for longer term?
- How to be consistent and win trust?
- How to avoid burnouts?
Orb Pondering
Bringing back the Open Space from PyCon US 2024, come learn about Tarot, and astrology, and how you can explore both with Python.
Picture for Juggling open space?
(sorry)
PyCon Running
Casual meetup for runners and fitness-minded Pythonistas. Chat about races, training, gear, travel runs, recovery, and balancing tech life with endurance sports. Optional easy waterfront walk/run afterward for anyone interested.
Python Dataclasses and Serialization
Casual discussion around Python dataclasses, de/serialization, typed models, JSON parsing, and related tooling. I maintain Dataclass Wizard and would love to hear how others approach data modeling in Python.
Python Game Development
Come talk about game development with Python! What tools/libraries are you using? What works well and what hasn't worked so well? How can Python game development be improved?Python Lesson Planning (industry & academia)
Likely sub-discussions:- top-down versus bottom-up
- depth/breadth & completeness
- cognitive load
- motivating learners
- … in the age of LLMs
Python With 💗ART
Python is for everyone! That includes all the artists--amateur, novice, intermediate, professional, curious... Stop by and meet other artists. Showcase, conversation, music, and more...
Python libraries for Bible data
If you're interested in working with Bible texts, references, data, etc. ... me too! Let's meet up and compare notes. I've been working on Clear-Bible/Biblelib: Utilities for working with Bible books, references, pericopes, and other units. for a few years: PRs welcomed. There are several other useful datasets and libraries:- Bible Aquifer: a large collection of openly-licensed Bible content in multiple languages.
- eukras/refspy: A Python package for working with biblical references in human-written text.
- nida-institute/awesome-biblical-data: a curated catalog of high-quality datasets and tools.
QA and Test Automation
Are you a tester, an SDET, or any other kind of automationeer? Let's chat about what's been working for you, what's been hard, and what cool Python hacks you've figured out along the way. Pick up some tricks of the testing trade and maybe swap some career advice.
Scroll Lock Zine
There's a zine going out at PyCon this year. Inside, for those who look closely, there's something else. If that sounds like your kind of thing, the door is open. Come find us in the open space. (Zines at the sticker exchange table. Open spaces every day.)
Security for Open Source project maintainers
Gather with fellow open source project maintainers to discuss current challenges, feedback, or tool suggestions regarding security for open source Python projects. Vulnerability reporting, forge and workflow security, standards: it's all on the table for discussion. This open space is intended primarily for open source maintainers and current/potential open source contributors. Listening in is welcome. No product pitching, please.So you want to get into 3D Printing...
The maker landscape changes every year. Folks who are thinking about buying their first printer have a lot of questions to answer and a lot of questions they don't even know are questions! Come to a mini-presentation and discussion with the person behind the largest physical 3D printing archive in the world (filamentcolors.xyz) in a space where no question is a dumb question!Tabular data
All things tabular... Pandas, polars, XGBoost, scikit learn. Discuss what you are doing. How you are incorporating AI.
Web Scraping
This open space session is for Python developers interested in scraping, browser automation, and data extraction. We’ll discuss tools like BeautifulSoup, requests-html, Playwright, and other Python-based scraping solutions, along with real-world challenges like JavaScript-heavy pages, changing HTML, rate limits, anti-bot systems, and ethical considerations.
When AI Agents go feral
Bring your worst or funny story. The small ones count most. Show up to swap real stories about AI agents losing the plot. The ones that didn't make the news. The ones nobody on your team believes until they see the logs. You probably have at least one:- You told it not to. Explicit, capitalized, written three times in the system prompt. It did the thing anyway. Then apologized. Eloquently.
- The agent that won't unlearn. You asked it to design a system. Then asked it to implement one small piece. It built the whole design. Cheerfully.
- The workaholic worker. Your multi-agent setup has one agent that just… won't stop. Claims tasks that belong to other agents. Finishes them faster than the agent who was supposed to do them. The system runs, but nobody knows who's actually doing what.
- The git commit that apologized to you. "I'm sorry — I realize this isn't what you asked for, but I went ahead and refactored the entire module."
XR Devs and Enthusiasts
The world of "extended reality" (VR/AR, etc) is just getting started. Apps that go beyond basic gaming are beginning to seeing the light of day, but reimagining software to bring us out of Flatland is essentially still a greenfield project. Come share your XR successes, failures, and ideas as we contemplate Python's present and future in the XR development landscape.conda x PyPI: Building Bridges That Actually Hold
The Python packaging ecosystem has two main package index types, two metadata formats, two resolver conventions, and increasingly one user base that expects them to work together. If you have ever hit a wall trying to get PyPI and conda packages to coexist, you belong in this room too. We'll open with a hands-on look at conda-pypi, now in beta: native wheel installation directly into conda environments, no conversion required. Bring your environment, try it live, and tell us what breaks. From there, the agenda is yours. Likely threads: Name mapping as shared infrastructure: parselmouth is one of the more mature implementations, but the ecosystem needs an agreed source of truth. What would it take to standardize this across pip, uv, and conda? pip and uv going the other direction: what would conda-awareness look like in PyPI-native tools, even partially? Lockfile interoperability: pylock.toml is now a final standard. Can conda participate by consuming the PyPI portion of a lock or emitting one? What is missing for mixed conda and PyPI environments? What should stay separate? Not everything needs to merge. Where is independence the right answer? A great outcome is leaving with a clearer picture of where the real blockers are, what work is already underway, and where collaboration across tools could actually move things forward.t-string-apalooza
PEP 750 template strings landed in 3.14. It's been quiet above water, but lots has been going on behind the scenes. Come hear what's been happening, share ideas, join in:- tdom to reimagine Python web development
- A really interesting tree-sitter idea for tooling
- Community work that uses t-strings
- A proposal for tprompt, a template string for agent harness prompts
