Our highlights from DjangoCon US 2022
DjangoCon US is a 6-day conference composed of talks and collaborative work spaces that focuses on software development with Django. We have participated in the conference as sponsors and speakers in 2019 and, most recently, in 2022. In this blog post, we highlight the aspects our team enjoyed from this year’s event.If you like what you read here, you should definitely consider attending next year!
Increase your Django knowledge
Among talks, stands, and other interaction spaces, the DjangoCon is the ideal place to gather insights about this backend framework and other tech tools. In our case, the 2022 edition was incredible to connect with fellow devs from companies similar to Octobot, such as Vinta and Six Feet Up, and also devs working on Django tools such as Kolo.
We also gathered resources such as the podcasts Django Chat and the Python Community News, which also has a newsletter similar to Django News and Real Python. Below is a list of a fewDjango experts and tech influencers (some of whom we met during the event!):
Give a talk on a topic you’re passionate about
DjangoCon US always has open applications for speakers and anyone can postulate. Based on our own experience as a software development company that loves working with Django, we encouraged all of our team members to think about presentation ideas. Practical tools and good practices, challenges and how to solve them, and successful Django implementations are just a few of the topics to explore.
To apply, one must come up with a presentation title and brief description, and send it to the conference team for evaluation through their online platform. You can follow DjangoCon US’s Twitter account to stay posted when they open applications. However, if you can’t make it on time, there’s another opportunity to become a speaker: during the event, they organize Lightning Talks, open spaces in the conference’s schedule in which anyone can register to give a quick talk about a Django topic they’d like to share. The spaces fill quickly, so be sure to register in the spreadsheet they share at the beginning of the conference!
This year, four speakers from Octobot gave presentations and Lightning Talks at the event. We enjoyed the chance to share our Django learning experiences with other software developers. In order to best prepare, the speakers worked with their teammates to define what and how to present, as well as with Octobot’s marketing team to practice and polish the presentations’ messages and visuals.
Connect with diverse professionals from all over the world
DjangoCon is an international event that reunites folks worldwide! This year’s edition was a hybrid format, so attendees could join online or in-person in San Diego, California. Regardless of how you attend, it’s the perfect opportunity to get to know and learn from other devs with different seniority levels and experiences.
In the talks, during the lunches and happy hours, or even in the hallway chitchat, you will be in touch with people from different realities and their different ways of using technology to solve real-life problems. It’s so insightful to connect with professionals living and working in different conditions, facing multiple challenges, and coming up with creative ideas to build skills and successful software solutions.
Also, you can contribute to Django itself, since part of the conference is dedicated to improving the framework, solving bugs, and expanding its capacity. Anyone is welcome and it doesn’t matter if you are a junior or senior dev. The important thing is to be open and willing to collaborate, and that’s the mindset guiding the whole event.
Travel to a fantastic destination
Since its foundation, DjangoCon US has taken place in San Diego, which is a great place to visit besides the conference grounds. Despite whether or not the 2023 edition will take place in San Diego, we can wholeheartedly recommend California as a beautiful destination.
The conference hotel is comfortable and easy on the eyes, and we also loved being able to visit tourist attractions such as Balboa Park, Santa Monica’s pier, and Los Padres baseball stadium. There are also myriad restaurants and pubs in which to have a great time. Another plus: in October, when the conference happens, the climate is comfortably sunny and warm.
Hope you found our insights useful for deciding if you’d like to attend DjangoCon next year. We’ll definitely meet there if you do! Also, stay attuned to our social media to find out more about our experience this year. We will be promoting our video presentations given at the conference soon, so give them a watch!
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