PyBay's Talk List … and How to Dive Deeper with Speakers

In my last post, PyBay Reinvented, I talked about how we’re making PyBay SOCIAL and creating a robust hallway track for Python developers to beat the isolation blues. But PyBay is not just about Pythonistas hanging out over a virtual beer. It’s about exposing you to new developments in Python and lessons learned from other developers — in a FUN way, even if we’re doing this online.

Photo by Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash

Here is our list of amazing talks and fireside chats:

*Skip to the next section to see how you can dive deeper with speakers at PyBay2020 than an onsite conference

You can also see the program, displayed on your timezone, on pybay.com/program

Talks

• Data deduplication with Python: Applying modern tools to the ‘classic’ linkage approach — Adam Jones
• Scalable Hyper-parameter Optimization using RAPIDS and AWS — Akshit Arora, Srishti Yadav
• Microservices Made Easy — Alex Weavers
• pytest: A Live Intro — Andrew Knight
• Onboarding for Inclusion — Anshul Aggarwal
• Understanding Probabilistic Data Structures with 112,092 UFO Sightings — Guy Royse
• Lung Ultrasound for Automatic Differential Diagnosis of COVID-19 — Jannis Born, Nina Wiedemann
• Identifying trends and influencing factors via Social Media interactions using open APIs and NLP — Jyotika Singh
• Why you’re getting understandability wrong — Liran Haimovitch
• An AsyncIO Web App in 30 Minutes with Starlette — Łukasz Langa
• Advanced asyncio: Solving Real-World Production Problems — Lynn Root
• Structures and Patterns: Wrangling Nested Data in Python — Mahmoud Hashemi
• There’s a Snake in the Birdhouse! Building a Python Culture at Vrbo — Mason Egger
• Why Change? — Moshe Zadka
• Survival of the Analysis, with Lifelines — Raul Maldonado
• Mastering Python Exceptions — Raymond Hettinger
• Ray: A System for Scalable Python and Machine Learning — Robert Nishihara
• Serverless Web Apps in Python — Sanjay Siddhanti
• What happens behind execution of an `import` statement? — Shivashis Padhi
• 30 Golden Rules of Deep Learning Performance — Siddha Ganju
• Effective Code Reviews To Be a Better Developer — Surashree Kulkarni

Fireside chat:

• Ethics in AI with Rachel Thomas. Co-founder of fast.ai. Researcher-in-residence at USF, Selected by Forbes as one of “20 Incredible Women Advancing AI Research.
• Always something interesting and educational with Raymond Hettinger, Python core developer and trainer
• Always something inspirational with Jessica Mckellar
• Ask me anything with Wesley Chun, author of “Core Python” book series & companion videos (corepython.com), co-author of “Python Web Development with Django”
• Ask me anything session with Alex Martelli, Author of “Python in a Nutshell” and Python Software Foundation Fellow
• GPT3 — the impressive parts and the caution
• Race / equality
• Maintaining mental health
• …more coming!

Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash

JUST ADDED — 2.5 hours workshop on Monday 8/17 at 2:00pm PST

• Beyond “def”: Exploring Python functions — Reuven Lerner, author of “Python Workout” by Manning and “Better Developers” weekly newsletter.

You can also see the entire program, displayed on your timezone, on pybay.com/program

How you’ll interact with speakers at PyBay2020

With your ticket, you’ll enter a virtual conference environment.

Just turn on your mic and camera and you’ll be talking with people at your table. Not sure who you’re talking to? Hover over their avatar to find out. In most cases, speakers will have a badge on their avatar too.

When a talk is in session, you can ask your questions in chat and upvote other questions. If you have a piece of technical info to share, you can add it to the talk’s dedicated Slack channel so you can continue the conversation with the speakers and others long after the conference is over.

Expo Hall with Ray and Rookout taking some of the booths

After the talk, follow the speakers to the Expo Hall to continue with Q&A in a smaller, round table setting. If too many people want to talk to the speakers and you don’t get a seat at the table. Wait around for a seat to open up, chat with other folks near you, or find out what the sponsors have in store for you.

Attendees chatting with Peter Norvig after the keynote last year — now you can do this via our virtual platform

Yes, it will be a lot like an in-person event. If synchronicity strikes and the conversation is so engaging you miss the next talk, no need to worry. Most talks will be recorded. Some fireside chats will be too. You can feel free to mingle and chat with old and new friends. That’s the whole point of a hallway track, right? :-)

In my next post, I’ll share more on how to sign up for lightning talks and host Open Spaces / Birds of a Feather sessions.

Until then, please get a ticket so you can get into our virtual platform and experience the synchronicity typically only available at in-person conferences.

Photo by United Nations COVID-19 Response on Unsplash

Your financial support is appreciated when you register.

Every little bit counts so we can promote diversity and offer the event FREE for Black, Latino and female devs!

However, if you are feeling generous and can donate more, please do.

If your company has at least 2 developers attending and is interested in participating in PyBay’s job fair, please drop me a line ASAP!

See you soon at PyBay 2020, August 15–17!

Grace Law
PyBay Conference Chair