How we do PiterPy - European Conference on Python in Petersburg

My name is Mitya, and I am a member of the PiterPy program committee. This is a cool European Python conference in the northern capital.

Want to tell you about her?

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What is PiterPy

Most IT conferences in Russia are being made by a handful of people, and it’s easy to know them all. For example,

• Fedorov with jugru.org (Joker, JPoint, HolyJS, Heisenbag),
• Bunin (Highload ++, RHS, RootConf, Frontend Conf, Whale Rider),
• Makeev (RIT, Web Standards Days, pitercss),
• IT People (DUMP, PyCon Russia, CONVERT and FailConf),
• Kalanov with IT Events (HR API, PiterPy, Linux Piter, IT Challenge). And just within the framework of PiterPy, his man is me.

What makes us different from other conferences at PiterPy?

We are about Python

This is a wonderful language with interesting tasks. He deserves your tender love!

What's more important, around Python is a rich ecosystem and friendly community. Better areas for the conference can not be found with all the desire.

We are for live communication

Developers do not like many conferences deservedly. You will come, and there the crowd of marketers pour water and the herds of Eycharov are trying to get you. Is this the case?

PiterPy's mission is to be a place of live communication between techies.

We are a window to Europe

With perseverance worthy of a better use, Russia is trying to shoot its leg. Set for self-isolation. In the age of globalism, it hurts like no other sphere :(

Time to remember why Peter the Great created this city!



We resist the negative trend as we can: we are friends of participants from different countries and demonstrate to the speakers that in St. Petersburg is cool and safe. We have created everything for foreigners to be good. And this year we even have students from Europe.

We are cozy

Python and Petersburg are the two most beautiful things in my life. Where they meet, comfort and warmth are born.



On PiterPy you are among your hundreds. Believe me, this feeling is worth trying, even if you are a hardened sociopath.

We are hardcore

The program committee is closely monitoring the topics of the reports. Let's say EuroPython takes softcore speeches like “how to admit to a team in their mistake” or “how the gender balance in our company has changed”, we are not. All our reports must be technical.



(It is not excluded, however, that someday with the increase in the scale of the conference, we will begin to take soft-software.)

How to harden PiterPy

PiterPy # 1 (2014)

Oh. The reports dragged everything in a row that at least somehow suited topics. The conference was one-day and small.



How it was: photo , video .

PiterPy # 2 (2015)

In the second year, the first foreign speakers arrived and immediately became our favorite. Hynek Shlawak from Germany and Armin Ronher (author Flask and collaborator Sentry) from Austria. From that moment on, konfa began to develop. However, to Hineck and Armin at that time was wildly boring: everything in Russian, including materials, and our audience spoke extremely badly in English. Even the main organizer (Denis Kalanov) did not know English at all. PiterPy was still one day old.



How it was: photo , video .

PiterPy # 3 (2016)

Here I already participated as a speaker, my first piterpay. For the first time, he was a two-day (hurray!). And for the first time with a fully English first stream (albeit without translation), the second stream is still in Russian. But it was obvious that the speakers are interested in the fact that they communicate with each other. Materials and badges are already in English. There were about seven foreign speakers.



At the conference, starting from the second time, the afterparty for the speakers was asked, and on a separate day. On this day, an excursion is arranged either in the city or in some cultural place. After the tour we spend time in a cozy restaurant.



On PiterPy # 3, there was a very funny dissonance: it would seem, a tour of the Catherine Palace, and the guide broadcasts to you in English and you listen to this with a group of foreigners. When it was over, a small train of two cars drove to the 300th anniversary park, where they drank wine on the bay and joked in broken English about Russia and our way of life.

How it was: photos , videos , impressions of one of the participants .

How we do PiterPy

Who are we?

We are looking for speakers

Searching for speakers is something like searching for a person in a team. Since Denis Kalanov was originally from the recruitment process, it was easy to deliver the process.

There are two main ways. The first is a passive search: we post an ad and wait for it to respond. So we got about half the speakers.

And the second option - search active. Often we took already held speakers with names, or familiar to us. There are dudes who always give very cool reports (like the same Hinek or Armin), we try to take them. This year we actively watched the speakers from EuroPython, voted by the program committee and then watched them.

Some small part of the speakers later become the organizers - such as me. This means that we have internal vertical mobility. Conferences are generally pushing people to do their projects, they have a very correct spirit in this regard.

We care about speakers

We try as much as possible (it should be understood that the budget of the conference is limited) to cover the transfer and accommodation for our speakers. In practice, we cover almost everything. At the same time, part of the speakers incur the expenses of their companies, becoming travel sponsors, for which they are thankful - this helps us to keep afloat.



For foreign speakers, we do a business visa for a year. To do this, we send an official invitation to the consulate on behalf of the office. This is necessary, in particular, for the fear to disappear from the speakers “they suddenly incriminate me that I had no right to speak on a tourist visa.” Probably no one bothers with documents as much as we do.

Earlier, when our conference was held at the Sokos Hotel, a participant from our conference met all foreign speakers at the airport. Accompanied, told and still managed on the way from Pulkovo to conduct a tour.

We care about the participants and cultivate the atmosphere

Between the days a large informal party is arranged. We get down to the restaurant. A noisy table, we vote for reports, we communicate, we discuss, we laugh, it goes with a bang.

Inside the day we feed tasty and arrange coffee breaks with tartlets.



Each participant can speak with lighting talk (report for 3-5 minutes), and we encourage it.

We control the quality

This year we run all the reports. This is a basic measure of paid conference quality assurance reports.

In addition, we very carefully read the slides: we try to have them at the highest level.

Traditionally, all performances we shoot and lay out in access . See for yourself how the quality has grown over time: sound, video; A picture-in-picture slide screencast appeared. We try to do this time even better.

The most fiery is, of course, our photographers, of which half of those who attended the conference regularly cut new avatars from their high-profile photos.

Watch the price of tickets

It doesn't matter if you do PiterPy or HolyJS, the most common question you hear in communities is “why is it so expensive ?!”

Ok, let me try to answer this with a reasoned argument.

What do you need if you want to make a class conference? The place where lunch will be delicious and in the halls will not be stuffy. High-quality sound and light. A team of serious photographers and cameramen. You also have to pay typography and telegram-bot developers.

It is expensive to make a good conference in Russia, also because of foreign speakers. Indeed, without interesting reports, you will not be buying tickets, and then the conference will cost even more. And the speakers still need to bring-arrange-place.


Katharina will come to us from Berlin

The cost of paying for speakers sometimes rises sharply: for example, suddenly the speaker from the USA (Portland, Oregon) agrees, and 150 thousand rubles will be spent on him alone. However, we have never taken speakers from Australia, perhaps this is so far even outside our budget. For these reasons, we prefer Europe.

The budget layout of PiterPy in 2017 looks something like this:

• 35% hotel
• 15% synchronicists
• 15% cost for speakers
• 5% photo
• 7-10% video
• 20% other (force majeure, printing, design, purchase / rent of equipment not available at the site)

An open secret: even PiterPy and a business project, but the main benefit from it is still not in money. There were years when it was generally closed to zero under the budget (i.e., without generating income).

What to do if you do not have enough money for a ticket or you feel sorry for the money?

We have a 35% discount for students , there is a 10% group discount . You can also ask to pay for a conference ticket at the company where you work. All decent offices now have a budget for employee training - use it.

What's new this year: PiterPy # 4

Program Committee Changes

The most noticeable permutation is that this year Grigory Petrov does not help us (because of the workload in Voximplant ). Grisha, you are a clever and honored patriarch, thank you for remaining our friend. Looking forward to seeing you again next year.

Instead of Petrov this year I will open PiterPy. Do not worry, it will be fine.

Changing the date

The year began with a failure: due to the International Economic Forum and the finals of the Confederations Cup, the conference had to be postponed from June to November.

How have we responded?

• We tried to call and reach out to all participants and speakers without exception.
• They gave a public announcement with a detailed explanation of the situation and reasons: vk , fb .
• We went to an unprecedented measure: everyone who managed to buy tickets to St. Petersburg or book a hotel here, we reimbursed all expenses. (Except for one foreigner, to whom we still have not given 600 dollars, because it is technically difficult for him to transfer money. But we will also give him to him).

Site redesign (piterpy.com, piterpy.ru)

it-events.com is an open platform, which we also use for our conferences.

To make it convenient, comfortable and fast (for both orgam and visitors), the site received a redesign about a month ago.

It was:



It became:



Find any problems, let us know!

Linux Piter: an experiment with parallel confes on one site

This year we are holding a conference in the Crowne Plaza. The HR API was already held there, and it became clear that the site was large and comfortable. It fits our tasks a little more than Sokos, which we used before.

Actually, the site is even too big for one conference. From this came the idea that you can hold PiterPy and LinuxPiter together, killing two woodcocks with one shot. Moreover, these conferences are fairly easily compatible: the pythonists are interested in Linux, the linuksoids are interested in python.



This is also cool in terms of savings. Still, I want to reasonably spend financial and human resources (both our own and those attracted).

At the same time, both conferences remain completely independent of each other - in everything. You will simply have the opportunity to freely visit them both by buying a ticket for only one of them. Tickets are absolutely the same, unless you get a different starter pack with merch at the entrance.

We will definitely tell you how this experiment went.

English and synchronicists

We have already written to Habr, why it is important to hold a conference in English .

So: PiterPy this year is entirely in English. For the first time, we try to translate everything (!) At all.
In each hall there will be synchronists, each person will have headphones.

Synchronists fucking translate even our complex technical reports. But this very “fucking” has its price.

First, the guys are seriously preparing for this translation. For the week we send them maximum information, including slides. Secondly, good synchronists are not cheap. According to the most modest estimates, this year they will eat 15% of the budget.

By the way, we will have a translation from English into Russian. In fact, we are opponents of this, so here again something like an experiment. Anyone who does not know English is your chance to finally listen to something really on the level!

Something else?

Yes, there are a couple of surprises up their sleeve. Come to the conference not to miss them.

We need you

Come yourself and call your colleagues from the CIS and Europe. You can boast that in Russia there are international conferences of the European level. People who do not know Russian will be comfortable with us.

Buy tickets here: piterpy.ru
And keep the promo code at 5% discount: habr . It will work 15 times.



And we also seem to have a speaker slot. So if you have something to share with the world, feel free to contact us :) If you are wondering why an IT person should speak, then here’s a detailed article on this topic.