So here’s my quick pitch to come to PyCon US 2026.

When I attend PyCon US, I use my vacation days.

My coworkers often tease me for my choice of vacation, but I have to say, PyCon US is my version of summer camp. I get to spend multiple days (up to 8 days if you count starting from tutorials, summits and sprints!) learning a lot of new things, hang out with old friends, meet new people and because I’m that type of person, I also get to thank so many great people for all their work in making my life easier when I am using tools they help maintain that I get to use in my daily work.

In the end, I stay up way too late, from playing board games, having intense conversations about making things better, losing my voice from screaming during karaoke and probably don’t get enough sleep. This is my once a year excuse to be a total nerd, and nerd out with so many people from around the world and I love it.

And I always come home, exhausted but incredibly giddy from all the insights gained from the in-person conversations, the energy, and the sheer amount of learning that happens. I also spend a lot of time writing in my notebook “When I grow up, I want to do exactly what this person is doing.”

This year, I’m excited to be back at PyCon US as the Conference Chair. It’s a bit bittersweet, it’s my last year as chair, and I feel like there’s always so many things I wanted to do, but didn’t get a chance to implement it for the conference. But, I’m thrilled to be passing the baton to the amazing Jon Banafato, who will do a fantastic job.

I got a few things off my wish list as my final year as chair, mostly because I had a lot of help from the amazing volunteers and the PyCon US team. My big dream from 2025 was to really showcase the diveristy of the Python community at PyCon US and this year, we have a Spanish-language keynote!

But, I want to back-up a second and reflect back on my first PyCon US. I went to my first PyCon US thanks to a Travel Grant back in 2016 and my work agreeing to convert some personal days into professional developments days for me to attend.

I was a working journalist at the time, and I was just starting to use Python to help me with my career, with a focus on data journalism.

At first, I felt a little fish out of water, questioning why I was here, but the community was so welcoming and kind, from meeting folks at the Cookiecutter booth, the overwhelming welcome that PyLadies PDX gave me, and even the Canadians who I bumped into, gave me a sense of belonging, that I am here to nerd out and everyone wants to nerd out too.

And I really didn’t realize how ridiculously welcoming the community really is. Up until now, conferences always felt like a place where you had to already know someone to vouch for you but this was totally not the case here. I ended up being friends with a Flask maintainer through randomly showing up to breakfast one year thanks to a message in the Python IRC channel. He even helped get me out of a sticky situation when I dared to say I enjoyed tabs over spacing. A person who I randomly saw at the conference was also staying at the same place as me once, so we ended up chatting and he turned out to be the author of one of my favourite Python books, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. And, at my first PyLadies luncheons, I met some fellow Canadians, who turned out to be some of the most amazing people I know and doing fantastic work in the Python community.

But if someone told me 10 years later, that this event would become a yearly vacation for me, I would have just laughed at them. I only get 15 days a year, why would I use it all up at one conference? But, outside of the panademic years, it has been my main vacation, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

But, if you need a few more reasons to come to the conference, here’s a few more:

• Dedicated AI and Security talk tracks this year, but the whole talks track is really amazing. Let’s not forget the Charlas track either, the lovely 2 day talk track in Spanish!
• Summits like Education, Typing and Webassembly on Thursday May 14th, Packaging on Friday May 15th and Maintainer on Sat May 16th
• Open Spaces where you can grab space and find like-minded folks on a topic of your choosing
• We have a great line-up of Keynotes! (I’m biased since I helped pick them but I promise you they’re great!) Big thanks to Lin, Pablo, amanda and Tim and Rachell for all agreeing to speak!
• PyLadies Auction on Saturday night! A lot of great conference stories start with PyLadies Auction. It’s the annual fundraiser for PyLadies organization, and your ticket purchase and bids help support the organization’s mission to promote, educate, and support women and marginalized genders in the Python community.
• Pyladies Luncheon on Sunday. It’s the annual celeration of all the great work that PyLadies has done over the year, and a chance to connect with other members of the community.
• Sprints on Monday and Tuesday after the talk days. They are a great way to sink your teeth into an open source project you want to help out with and the opporuntity to use your skills to make your mark in open source!