Python Ireland - Who, what, how

Who we are, what we do and how did we get to where we are today, such as our events (incl. PyCon Ireland), integrating with other user groups in Ireland, and so on.

Transcript

1. Python Ireland How we got here? Thursday, 26 January 12
2. 2004 Thursday, 26 January 12 First meet up. Was quite successful but the group took a break for Christmas and never met up again after the new year.
3. 2005 Thursday, 26 January 12 Sean O’Donnell (@seanodonnell) started up meet up again. He was pretty much sitting on his own nursing a pint of Guinness in the pub for a couple of months, he felt pretty sad about it all until my husband, Michael, and a couple of others turned up. I also joined soon after and there was a core six of us meeting up every month. I ended up taking over organising the monthly event.
4. Since then... Thursday, 26 January 12
5. Website revamped a few times after moving away from wiki Thursday, 26 January 12
6. Meet on 2nd Wed each month Thursday, 26 January 12
7. Events • Small unconferences • Pub meetups • Talks Thursday, 26 January 12 It was hard to drum up new joiners, there wasn't as many tech meet up groups as there are now in Dublin. Back then, there were ILUG, PHP UG. Even with talks organised in city centre universities like Trinity College, we manage to double our numbers. Over the years, we held many events, two smalls unconferences, and many successful pub meet ups and talk sessions. Numbers have steadily increased from a trickle to between 20-30 people turning up on a monthly basis. I was told by Steve Holden (PSF chair) that we were the largest active Python meet up group in 2010.
8. Squee • In 2010 - Python Ireland was one of the largest active Python user group outside of Seattle* *Chat with Steve Holden at PyCon Ireland 2010 Thursday, 26 January 12 We were lucky to have Steve Holden over to Ireland for a special event last year, it was our very first PyCon Ireland event in Dublin. The idea of the conference was borne out of a drinking session of a few of us (I don't drink though) at a pub in February and they thought it would be a great idea to host our conference in July! With no sponsor contacts, no idea what to do with venues, speakers, ticket prices, etc., we still went ahead with the plan. And it paid off. The future plan was to gain enough experience to host EuroPython in Ireland.
9. Thursday, 26 January 12
10. Thumbs up to PyCon UK Thursday, 26 January 12 So big thumbs up to PyCon UK (host of EuroPython in Birmingham) who inspired and supported us in having our own conference.
11. Thursday, 26 January 12 PyCon Ireland 2010 was successful (expected 40-70 persons) and we ended up with 98 delegates (max we could fit was 100 people physically), which surprised me and the organisers.
12. Thursday, 26 January 12 We hosted another PyCon Ireland in October, we had around 130 delegates (approx. 25 no shows).
13. PyCon Ireland 2012? Thursday, 26 January 12
14. PyCon Ireland 2012 YES! 13th - 14th October (same venue) Thursday, 26 January 12 We will be hosting another PyCon Ireland in 13-14th October 2012 at the same venue in Dublin.
15. Other cities • Galway http://091labs.com/tag/galway-python/ • Cork http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cork- Python-Meetups/190784927629789 Thursday, 26 January 12
16. Other communities Open Coffee Dublin X-Cake Dublin Ruby Ireland ILUG Coder Dojo Defuse Dublin Dublin Javascript And many more...! Thursday, 26 January 12 There are many other active user groups and events now in Dublin
17. Reaching out • Code Retreats • Joint Python and Ruby Ireland talks • Invited RabbitMQ speaker • Xmas Techie table quizes • Code Beers • Dublin Game Craft (dublingamecraft.com) • Science Gallery Ambassador / Hack the City / OpenData Thursday, 26 January 12 From 2010's conference feedback, people asked why we didn't integrate with other user groups in Dublin (& Ireland). So I extended my organising of events to other user groups which now included past successful events like - Code Retreat (3 so far - url) - Christmas Techie Table Quizes for charity - Joint Ruby Ireland and Python Ireland talks - Invited RabbitMQ speaker And invited to participate/point of contact for: - Python Ireland Ambassador (Science Gallery) - Hack the City (Dublin City of Science 2012) - Irish governments Open Data Initiative Future events: - Dublin Game Craft - Science hackday - Code Beers - Python Coding nights
18. Idea Magazine readidea.com Thursday, 26 January 12 We even have our own Irish tech magazine which just launched in early Dec - readidea.com
19. Pro-tips Thursday, 26 January 12
20. Same day for meetup Thursday, 26 January 12
21. DON’T ever take a break! Thursday, 26 January 12
22. Q & A Thanks for listening. @whykay whykay@gmail.com Thursday, 26 January 12
23. References • Python Ireland - http://python.ie • PyCon Ireland - http://python.ie/pycon • PyCon Ireland photos - http://www.flickr.com/groups/pyconireland/ Thursday, 26 January 12