Announcing PyCon Africa 2019

Welcome to the official blog of Pycon Africa, the largest pan-African gathering of the Python community. We are excited to announce that the first rendition of the conference is set for August 6 through 10, 2019. The event will include talks, workshops and collaboration between Pythonista’s from across the continent and around the world. 

Venue

For the inaugural gathering we have chosen Accra, Ghana as our launchpad. This beautiful city was home to last years Pycon Ghana and served to host hundreds of developers from across West Africa. The city is well known for its gorgeous coasts, delicious food and friendly residents. I experienced all of this first hand in 2018 and can say with confidence that I’m looking forward to returning again this year!

The venue will be the University of Ghana, one of the oldest and largest universities in the country. It is easily reached from across the city and offers modern facilities in large-capacity halls. The Legon campus has an easy blend of well built spaces surrounded by tropical nature, making one remember, if they ever forget, that they are in the heart of Africa. 

Website

We officially launched the new PyCon Africa website on 1 April 2019. The site was created and designed by our team of multinational volunteers and is graciously hosted by Divio. Our design reflects the colourful and varied backgrounds of our team, all united by a shared interest and love for the python community. On the site you can find the conference schedule, our sponsorship packages and information about the CFP. We’ll also be starting sale of tickets in just a few days, you can buy your tickets directly off our site as well. 

Speakers

There are many reasons why you should submit your proposal to PyCon Africa. You could talk about new and cutting edge uses of Python programming, or features of well-known tools. You could also tell us about real-world Python use cases, as well as presenting your own research. As long as the presentation is interesting and potentially useful to the Python community, it will be considered for inclusion in the program. This year we are accepting proposals for talks (typically 30-45mins) and tutorials (typically 3 hours.)

Important Dates 

7th April CFP opened

31st April Financial aid applications open
1 June CFP closed
10 June Accepted talks announced and Financial aid applications close
15 June Financial aid announced

PyCon Africa will be organised into four distinct tracks, namely Python and Data, Web, General Python, and Python Community. You will be required to classify your proposal under one of these tracks. You can have a look at them in detail here. 

Call for Sponsors

The Python community is growing very quickly and the interest in developer communities across the continent is evidenced by the large number of companies establishing headquarters in various African cities. We are grateful to be part of this growth and hope to invite you to join us. PyCon Africa can only happen with the support of sponsors and the community. 

Your sponsorship will enable us to provide the best experience for every attendee and make plans to expand our reach for next year. Our African Leader workshop at the beginning of the conference allows us to empower community organisers from across the region to run better conferences, meetups and workshops. The PyLadies lunch and auction, as well as Django Girl and beginner workshops help us introduce and support outreach to underrepresented communities. Sponsorship also makes it possible for us to provide financial aid to attendees who would otherwise not be able to make it.

Sponsorship does not only benefit our attendees but we offer packages to make sure it goes both ways. Organisations have many options for sponsorship packages, and they all benefit from exposure to an ever growing audience of Python programmers. If you're hiring, as a sponsor you’ll be able to share open positions directly with attendees through an exhibition booth, our mailing list or our blog. See a full list of our sponsorship packages at …. and contact sponsors@africa.pycon.org with any questions.

We Look forward to sharing more information about the conference with you in the coming days. To keep up with it all check out our website at africa.pycon.org and follow us here on the blog and at @pyconafrica on Twitter.