Second Python Adventure: PyCon UK
It’s time to tell you my PyCon UK conference story that happened this September in Cardiff, Wales.
After my talk in PyCon SK, Bratislava. I got an invitation to give a talk in PyCon UK which is the biggest Python Conference in UK. It was such an honour to get invited!
PyCon UK was a big, long conference that lasted for 5 days and was held in the City Hall of Cardiff. The venue was amazing! The rooms were super elegant. There were about 500 people who joined the conferences from many different countries; so many interesting talks, so many python enthusiasts. The conference had some special tracks as well; one for teachers: where developers were coding with programming teachers who are teaching Python in schools. One day was a childrens day where kids showed us what they’d done with Microbits programmed with Python. It was fascinating! I feel so lucky being part of Python community.
I had never been to UK before so I was very excited about it overall. This time my topic was more related to Python. I gave a talk titled “I love being Pythonic. You?” Its language was for beginners and I pointed out some important areas that needed to be focused on when one is new to the language.
I learned programming at university. We started to learn coding with C Programming Language and continued with C++, C#. When I started with Python, I needed to learn its characteristic. So, in my talk, I shared my story of starting with Python Language and how I adopted the language into my profession.
My family and many of my dear friends wanted to watch me online during my talk. I thought there would be live streaming of talks but there was not. I was therefore so lucky to have Gabriel Nhinda, who Facebook live streamed during my talk. A giant thanks to him! With his help, people who shared my excitement were able watch me online. It was amazing to see my friends support me! My talk was in the biggest room in the morning after the keynote. Just before I was incredibly excited. By the time I started to talk, I was more relaxed. After my talk I had great feedback.
There was a teacher, Mr I. Major who came to me after my talk and shared his very positive feedback with me. He then asked if he could share my presentation with his class in his school. I was honoured to share it with him. There were other people who also gave me positive feedback about how my talk had refreshed their knowledge of the language, and filled gaps in their knowledge. I was so happy to see that my talk was received by the people whom I was targeting. There is no way to know that until you have feedback. Thanks to those people who shared their thoughts!
The video of my talk was recorded very professionally by Conference Organization. I would love to hear your feedback if you are interested in watching it. Here it is.
Five days was long enough to meet with great people and share stories with each other. At the end of the conference, we all felt like we had known each other for years. It was a beautiful experience.
Since it was my very first time in Cardiff, I wanted to have a couple of hours to do some sightseeing. Before my flight back to Budapest, I had some hours to visit the city. Cardiff Castle is in the middle of the city. I visited and it took quite a long time luckily, my dear friend Lorenzo was my companion during our castle tour. Here are some photos.
Last but not least, I would like to send a BIG THANKS to Daniele Procida, Peter Inglesby, Vincent Knight, all the conference organisers, my family, my friends, my professor from Turkey, my colleagues and my company for supporting me on my journey. I am so grateful to have you all.
Love,
Busra
