DjangoCon US 2026 Review
07/09/2026
I’ve said this before but DjangoCon US is my favourite event on the Django calendar! A celebration of all things Django held in the United States each year. This year, for the second year running, the conference was held in Chicago and it was amazing to be back.
This was my 4th DjangoCon US.
The nice thing about the conference visiting the same city two years in a row is that all the things I didn't get to last year become fair game this time round. Deep dish pizza, the Bean, Lake Michigan and seeing a little more of the city itself. I ticked all 3 off during this trip.
Foxley Talent were back as a sponsor again this year with a stand in the hallway. I gave a lightning talk on the first day. My trip also involved some golf to bookend the week, hosting an open space, and tying the famous deep dish pizza.
Here's my recap of the week.
Saturday 22nd August (Travel Day)
Finally got all my bags packed and headed to London Heathrow for my 3pm flight. Grabbed a bite to eat at the airport and watched some football (Man United vs Hull) with a nice Irish couple on their way to Boston who were sat at the next table.
It was an easy 8 hour flight, my bags came off the belt quickly and I went straight through the border and into a taxi. I made it to the hotel just in time to say a quick hello to some familiar DjangoCon faces before (in theory) an early night. My body clock had other ideas. It was more like 4am UK time by the time I actually shut my eyes.
Sunday 23rd August (Jet Lag Day)
Alarm set for 5am. Met Will Vincent at 5:25am in the hotel reception, ready to head out for our day of golf.
We had a 6:30am tee time booked at Cog Hill to play “Dubsdread” a well known course in the Chicago area where Tiger Woods holds the course record. We were paired up with two guys, both good golfers, and had a really enjoyable round in the early morning sunshine. I had a hot dog at the halfway point which without realising, I had pretty much made it into a Chicago dog (I used jalapenos instead of the pickles).
We had lunch back at the club after our first round. I had the Buffalo wings which were really good and a couple of beers. Then we were ready for our second round in the afternoon on Cog Hill's Course Number 2
This time we were paired up with a lovely local couple who were relatively new to the game. Will and I took it easy, sat in the buggy, had a few more beers and shared stories. A brilliant way to spend the day.
We made it back to the hotel and straight into the first official event of the week. The Welcome Reception which was previously the Django.Social pre conference party and is now an official part of the DjangoCon experience. This was hosted by a couple of the sponsors. A really good turnout, an open bar and lots of familiar faces catching up on the year that's passed.
After the reception I had dinner with some friends from last year sharing some drinks, discussing the schedule and topics everyone was looking forward to learning about. Then it was off to bed before the main event in the morning.
Monday 24th August (Day One)
Classic 4:15am wake up. No point trying to fight the jetlag so I headed straight to the hotel gym to burn off some energy and earn my breakfast. After a shower and making a morning call home I went down to the venue to set up the stand (I'm getting quite good at this now... just under 10 minutes) and get the leaflets and giveaways laid out on the desk. This year along with my swag and leaflets, I brought over a load of miniature English chocolates which proved very popular.
The conference only really starts when Kojo has given his orientation at the welcome session. However the first morning is always very busy on the stand so was there deep in conversation and will have to watch the Keynote from Dawn Wages back when the talks are online.
I gave my lightning talk at the first session just before lunch. The same story I've told twice already this year... Tech Hiring has got a Fraud Problem! Then had lunch and some good follow up conversations at the stand for the rest of the day. The talks are not online yet but here's a link to my PyConUS version.
That evening Frank Wiles invited me out to a bar where his favourite bartender from Lawrence, Kansas had relocated to Chicago. Frank also introduced me to a glass of Chartreuse VEP... apparently a tradition of his at conferences (and any other excuse) and then a glass of Fernet something, which was less good. Like a bad Jägermeister without the Red Bull to hide behind. Back to the hotel bar for a nightcap and up to bed at about 1am.
Tuesday 25th August (Day Two)
A slightly later start after the night before. Down for breakfast at the venue and into the morning talks. The day kicked off with the opening remarks and the opening keynote from Sarah Boyce. A lovely story built around emails with her granddad, drawing a parallel to code reviews and commits and how much of a difference the way you say something makes over the words themselves. A really nice way to kick off the day.
This was followed by a great talk by Frank Wiles and Calvin Hendrix-Parker where they discussed the pro's and con's of Django vs FastAPI. This was a really engaging session and I'd love to see them give the same talk in front of an unbiased Python audience or even at FastAPI Con...
We had the conference group photo mid morning in the hotel lobby, which is where most of the hanging out and downtime happened all week too. So many of the photos I use on this site and in my blogs come from conferences, in particular those taken by the official photographer Bartek Pawlik who is at DjangoCon US every year. His photos are excellent!
Something new for DjangoCon US this year was the Open Spaces room. Set up for group discussions around a table but no formal talk, just a topic and whoever turns up. I signed up to run one in the afternoon.
The afternoon was quiet at the stand (a sign the talks were particularly good I think) so I snuck off for a gym session as I didnt go in the morning and a quick shower before running my open space. A really good discussion sharing career advice and job searching tips with a decent group of 8 around the table.
That evening Jon Banafato and I saw on slack that a small group was heading to a trivia night at an Irish bar and decided to tag along. Buffalo wings again (not quite the standard of the golf club) and six rounds of quizzing. I contributed one correct answer to the team. My American general knowledge and TV knowledge is not what it needs to be. But great fun.
From there we headed over to the Six Feet Up mixer in an arcade / entertainment bar. Really good turnout from the conference. I had a nice chat with Tim Schilling and I got to introduce some of the quiz crew to a few people from the community they hadn't met before. Then back to the hotel for one more drink before bed.
Wednesday 26th (Day Three)
An early wake up and out for another highlight of my week... a 6:30am walk to the famous Chicago silver Bean with a small group of others who had been doing it most mornings. This was led by Aman Singh and we stopped for Coffee on the way, took lots of photos when we got there, and just a really nice way start to the day. It's these impromptu outings around the conference that really make it special.
During the day I was working on a second lightning talk I wanted to give. Unfortunately I didn't get a slot as the session was over subscribed (they always are). The talk would have been about a conversation I've been having with a lot of people this year and want to turn into a podcast... in summary I want to start publicly discussing the career crossroads between staying an individual contributor in the code or moving into leading and mentoring people. I'll write more about that on the blog in due course, but I finished the slides and shared them around anyway so the story could still be told. Download that deck here.
After the conference lunch, the last of the afternoon sessions began and it was time to pack down the stand and start saying some goodbyes. I know the closing remarks are always recorded so I ducked out to get 45 minutes in the gym before the closing party.
The only mission I had left unfinished from last year... Chicago deep dish pizza. I put a note in Slack to say I was heading out and was joined by seven others. A couple of the quiz night crew, some folks I’ve worked with, Marcelo who I catch up with at every conference and Eric Holscher from Read the Docs.
Two pizzas ordered (a double pepperoni and the house special) and a couple of pitchers of beer and a really good start to the evening. The pizza was "different", but really good. I'll definitely have it again if I’m in Chicago but also won’t be going there deliberately just for the pizza…
From there we went straight to the ping pong social put on by Lincoln Loop, another long term DjangoCon sponsor. Two tables, cocktails, food and lots of games. Singles, doubles and the one where everyone lines up and rotates round the table trying to keep a rally going.
Afterwards walked back to the hotel via a beer by the river to close out the last evening. Another bar chat at the hotel until the early hours before setting the alarm for one more Bean walk in the morning.
Thursday 27th August (Travel Day)
Up early for the last Bean walk with a lot of the same crew. Coffee, photos, and then I broke off to try and tick a couple more things off my Chicago list.
I walked over to Lake Michigan (finally!) and had a look at what they call the beach. Then I spotted the electric scooters, which I really enjoyed riding at DjangoCon Durham two years ago. So I hopped on one and before I knew it I had scooted all the way down to Soldier Field, the Chicago Bears' home stadium. There was a K-pop concert on that night so there were already crowds forming at 8am. I did a lap and scooted back up the coast to the start of the river walk, before walking back to the hotel via a bit of souvenir shopping for the family.
Back at the hotel I packed up and checked out. There was now a 10 hour gap before my flight home so I had booked one more round of golf. A beautiful little course on a nature preserve near to the airport. Had some lunch there before 18 holes with a really nice couple from Chicago and another guy who joined us, all finished by 5pm. Leaving time for a shower and to repack some bags before getting a taxi to the airport.
Once through security I had a little bit more time for shopping and something to eat and drink before boarding the flight on time. I dozed off just as the meal service came round, woke myself back up for that, and then slept for a couple of hours until an hour before landing at Heathrow. The bags took a little longer at the other end but I was parked at the airport so I was home within 90 minutes. Back to the family at 1pm and straight out the door for my wife's grandmother's 90th birthday celebration.
What's Next
Another brilliant DjangoCon US in the books and I'll be back next year in Riverside, California. I've already been looking at flights and I’ll be there again in May for PyCon too.
Before that though, the next stop is DjangoCon Europe in Innsbruck, Austria in February from 17th-21st. A completely different experience to turning up in shorts and a t-shirt in the Greek heat back in April. Austria in February is when Europe goes skiing, so who knows... I might even take my snowboard instead of the golf clubs.
Thank you
Finally, a huge thank you to the organising team for another brilliantly run week.
If you are a Python or Django Developer I caught up with in Chicago, or one of the people who came to my open space, thanks for the chat. Please stay in touch and let me know how your search goes.
If you are a company looking to hire Python or Django Developers, this is all I do. Over 18 years in the Python world and a network built one conference at a time. Whether it's a single hire or building out an entire team, I'd love to help you. Get in touch for a chat.
Thanks for reading.
Jon
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