Open Spaces are self-organizing meetup-like events which happen in parallel with the main conference. They will be held at Room H-103 on the day of the conference.

While most of the conference is planned well in advance, Open Spaces are created “just in time” by PyConf attendees during the conference. They provide a way for you to self-gather, self-define, and self-organize any way you like.

How do I participate in an Open Space?

It’s pretty easy: Just show up :)

We are also accepting early proposals in this form. Please fill the form in case you want to keep your Talk in the queue.

During PyConf, there will be an Open Spaces board near Room H-103, maintained by a facilitator from the organizing committee. The board acts as a time table for all the Open Spaces. If a topic is not listed yet, find an open time slot and describe it to the facilitator!!

The speaker/host can decide the way he/she uses that space and time. Furthermore, the activities/talks at Open Spaces are not officially recorded in any ways, thus any topics that are more critical compared to the regular conference talks are welcome.

Ideas for Open Spaces

Since the PyConf attendees are a diverse bunch, the Open Spaces are too. There can be some discussions about plenty of the usual suspects of technical subjects, from computer security to your favorite Python project to professional occupations like DevOps.

Here are a few ideas for potential Open Space topics and activities:

• Hacking/networking/devops
• How to contribute to open source - a help / mentoring group for beginners
• Framework specific Open Spaces, for example, Django or Flask
• Data visualization/science
• Natural language processing and generation (e.g. chatbots)
• Quantified Self
• Hacker space (maker projects) that use Python
• A space for organizers - of conferences, workshops, diversity initiatives (Django Girls, PyLadies, etc.)
• Support - how to avoid burnout
• Recruitment workshops

If there’s a certain Open Space you’d love to see at PyConf but you don’t want to host it yourself, please suggest it on our list and maybe someone else will take up the topic and host an Open Space about it.

Role of the Facilitator

A facilitator would be available to make sure PyConf attendees have everything they need to do self organize and also ensure the open spaces happen in an orderly fashion.

When there is more than one idea, competing for the same time slot, facilitator will resolve the same thru voting/or any other means he deems fit.

The facilitator is responsible for maintaining the schedule for Open Spaces and also updating the rest of the attendees on social media.