My First PyConUS Experience
21/05/2026
PyCon US is the biggest event on the Python calendar. A celebration of all things Python held in the United States each year. This year the conference was held in Long Beach, California.
This was my first ever PyCon US and I can't quite believe it has taken me 18 years in the Python world to get there. Better late than never.
I have been to plenty DjangoCon events across the US and Europe so I am no stranger to a conference, but PyCon US is a different beast. Bigger, broader, more disciplines under one roof. The community is the same friendly bunch I am used to but on a much larger scale.
My trip to Long Beach involved a lot of conversations on the hallway track, hosting two open spaces, a lightning talk on the main stage, the PyLadies Auction, jobs fair, and some golf on the TV...
Here's my review of the week.
Thursday 14th May (Travel Day)
I dropped my youngest daughter off to school in the morning and drove to Heathrow ready for the long flight out. A really nice surprise when I bumped into my friend Afi at the gate. We were on the same flight and caught up again after security on the other side.
After my taxi from the airport to the hotel I took a quick shower and change of clothes and then headed straight down to the venue to register. I had missed the orientation session but made it in time for the welcome drinks where I immediately bumped into Wilhelm Klopp, Will Vincent, Jeff Triplett, Paolo Melchiorre and a few others. It's so nice walking into a new room, with potentially 2,000 people in and seeing a friendly face!
After a quick drink I popped back to the hotel to unpack and then went down to the JetBrains conference opening event being held in the bar downstairs. Mark Smith greeted me on the door and we had a nice catch up. By this point the jetlag had properly caught up with me. So it was an early(ish) night.
Friday 15th May (Day One)
I didn't need to set an alarm. Awake at 4:30am.
I waited it out in my room until the conference doors opened, then wandered down for a walk around the venue. Checked out some of the sponsor booths, said hello to a few people and took my seat in the main arena for the opening session.
The welcome was delivered by Elaine Wong, a really fun introduction to the conference. Then an intro to the Python Software Foundation by Deb Nicholson which was equally fun.
I sat in for the first opening keynote but it was quite technical and a bit too sales heavy for my taste so I left after a couple of minutes and went to explore the hallway track instead. Here I caught up with a few more people over coffee, submitted an open space proposal for the afternoon and signed up for a lightning talk.
By chance at lunch I sat down next to Chris Brousseau from the PyBay conference and we had a brilliant chat. Really nice to meet someone new with that much passion for the community. We caught up again later in the conference. After eating and chatting, I headed back to my hotel room for a couple of hours of sleep to take the edge off the jetlag.
When I got back to the hotel, I saw that both my open space and my lightning talk had been approved. A quick prep of both after my nap and I was ready to go.
The open space was a CV and resume workshop. I shared some of the patterns I see week to week, the easy changes people can make to their documents and offered to do a follow up one to one review for anyone who shared theirs with me afterwards. A small group, lots of great questions and plenty of positivity for the job market.
Then it was on to the Lightning Talks, hosted by Chris Neugebauer who I have got to know over the last few years. I was second up. Easily the biggest stage I have ever spoken on. I'll share the official video once it's up. This was adapted from my recent blog post... Tech Hiring has got a Fraud Problem!
A standout from the rest of the session was a developer who had used Python and a load of RaspberryPi's to Halloween-ify his house. A brilliant project and a great example of a cool Lightning talk. Check out the Lightning talk recordings of the others when they are up.
Walking out at the end of the day I bumped into Kayti Mitchell and we headed off in search of somewhere and people to meet for dinner. I had been hoping to host an informal Django.Social event but the message hadn't quite got out as I had intended. The bar I had picked for was empty so we popped next door to a Mexican place with a few others we had picked up along the way.
A great evening of conversation, including some brilliant stories from Paul Hildebrandt about his 30 years working at Disney and his actual likeness being used as the IT guy in Zootopia.
Saturday 16th May (Day Two)
A slightly slower start. I was up again at silly o'clock so I watched some of the English football and caught a bit of my village cricket team's match online before heading down to the venue.
Again my day started with a walk around the hallway track, the sponsor booths and the startup row. Some really nice conversations about hiring and what's going on in the wider market.
Late morning I ran my second open space, this time a deeper dive on the fake candidate problem in tech hiring. We talked about how it's affecting people on both sides of the table, the workarounds people are using and how job seekers can stand out and look more authentic. Another great session with plenty of follow up conversations afterwards.
After lunch I went back to my hotel for my now customary two hour conference nap. Came back fully refreshed for the evening.
That evening was the PyLadies Auction. I met Will Vincent and Mark Smith in the Irish bar across the road from the venue for a drink before heading over.
The auction itself was a brilliant experience. A lot of fun and a lot of money raised for the PyLadies Foundation. Highlights included some custom rocks with PyLadies logos etched onto them and a skateboard deck donated by GitHub.
I had submitted a Foxley Talent swag bag and a coaching package as an auction item. The swag bag went to auction and raised over $600 but the coaching part of the item unfortunately fell foul of some local non profit rules around auctioning services and couldn't be included. I'll find another way for that to go to a good home.
Back to the hotel after the food was done. Not as early a night as I had planned. I would definitely recommend attending this event next year if you are going to the conference. A great way to give back to the community and a lot of fun!
Sunday 17th May (Day Three... The Jobs Fair)
The morning kicked off with opening remarks and another excellent keynote, then I made my way down to the jobs fair.
I met with a lot of the exhibitors and had some really useful conversations about their hiring challenges. A particularly good chat with someone from Bloomberg who wants me to speak to his internal recruiters and share some war stories. They were too busy on the day itself so we'll line that one up another time.
A couple of people had also booked time slots with me during the conference for career reviews and CV/Resume writing conversations. Some really good chats and a chance to share some of the advice I've shared on the blog and YouTube before...
How to find your first Django Developer Job
How to reverse engineer your junior developer job search
Lunch was served at the end of the jobs fair and afterwards Will Vincent messaged to ask if I fancied watching some of the golf with him. So we met outside the venue and walked to find a sports bar with some big screens on and watched the closing holes of the PGA Championship. Won by an Englishman, which was a nice bonus.
I stopped at the venue on my way back for one final meeting, said a few more goodbyes and then went up to my room for the evening. I ordered room service, watched Rocky IV on the telly and had a proper early night.
Monday 18th May (Home)
Awake at 3:30am bright and breezy. Watched a series on Netflix and caught up with home before packing my suitcase and meeting Paolo Melchiorre outside the hotel for a shared ride to LAX.
When I arrived at the airport my flight was delayed by nearly an hour and a half. I made my way through security, found a quiet spot to plug in the iPad and watched the second half of the football from home.
Eventually called for the flight, picked up a few gifts on the way through and boarded. A sleeping pill, six or seven hours solid sleep on the plane and I was home in the UK and only a few hours to kill until school finished.
One of my favourite traditions when I get back from a conference is to share all the stickers I've collected with my youngest daughter. She has a couple of notebooks full of them. It's just so nice to sit and connect over something so simple.
What's Next
My first PyCon US in the books. I cannot wait to be back next year. Next year I might fly in a day or two earlier to catch some of the workshops, or even try and host one. I'll probably try to book an evening flight home on the Sunday so I can get back a bit sooner.
The next stop on the events calendar for me is...
DjangoCon US is back in Chicago this August. I'll be there as Foxley Talent are a sponsor again this year (this will be announced shortly) and can't wait to actually spend some time in the city rather than rushing about watching live sport!
If you are heading to Chicago too, drop me a message and let's grab a coffee or a cocktail.
Thank you!
Thanks to the organisers, volunteers and everyone in attendance for making it such an unforgettable experience! See you next year!
If you are still on the fence about attending one of these events, just do it. Get yourself involved. Host an open space, volunteer where you can, go to the social events, give a lightning talk. Everything you can do to make it more than just a week of talks will pay you back many times over.
If you are one of the Python or Django Developers I caught up with in Long Beach, or one of the people I sat down with for a CV review, thanks for the chat. Please stay in touch and let me know how your search goes. If we didn't get to speak, please drop me a note online somewhere.
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. Get in touch for a chat.
Thanks for reading.
Jon
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