PyCon Italia 2023: code and inclusivity

June 21, 2023, by Anna Lisa Di Vincenzo

Community

Making the most of conferences, being an active part of the community and sharing what we learn with others is in 20tab's DNA.

Here is our report of this year's experience at PyCon Italia 2023.

What PyCon means to us

For us, PyCon is the place to go when it comes to development.

20tab was founded a few years ago by a small group of super technical professionals, Python enthusiasts and experimenters. Our story of growth and evolution began here, leading us to expand our vision and delve into product management and development.

Throughout all these years, one thing has remained constant: our participation in PyCon, the second-largest Python conference in Europe.

Despite attending international editions for years - our CTO often has a packed suitcase and a talk in his pocket - the one in Florence continues to be a sort of grand reunion for us, where friends and colleagues come together, sharing not only work and skills, but also values and principles.

And just like last year and all the years before, PyCon Italia has been for us one of the highlights of 2023.

Community

As individuals and as a company, we strongly feel a sense of belonging to this community, the community of Python enthusiasts, passionate individuals and professionals who love to share and exchange knowledge and insights.

Being a Patron like 20tab and fully immersing ourselves in the atmosphere of this event and all the networking moments planned, is always a pleasure for us.

Curiosity

This is the mood we have every time we set foot in Florence: we are curious to meet other experts, listen to talks, ask questions, seek advice, opinions, receive feedback and gain new insights.

And PyCon never disappoints our expectations.

International

PyCon Italia is one of the largest Python-themed conferences: the second-largest in Europe and the only truly vertical one in Italy focusing on a technology. The international community flocks to this event every year, confident in finding business excellence and high-quality talks, not to mention the unique location.

For this reason, attending the conference also means connecting with an organization that goes beyond national borders and being able to have a chat and exchange contacts with the top companies associated with the community, both in Italy and beyond.

Stage

At 20tab, we encourage all our employees and collaborators to step out of their comfort zones: to step onto the stage, propose a topic and give a talk based on what we study and put into practice every day at work.

Once again this year, several members of our team gave talks, some for the first time, others as in previous years, but always with the same excitement.

Our talks

One of the aspects we love most about this event is that it is experienced every year as a team: almost all 20tab members propose topics and participate in the Call 4 Speakers, drawing directly from their daily work in the company.

If last year we broke all records with 11 talks on stage, this year we have a truly special record: our Juliana Nicacio took the stage for the first time to talk about her entry into the world of open source contributions.

In her talk My First Experience of Contributing to an Open Source Project, she shared the limitations, useful mechanisms and how important the team's drive was in convincing and supporting her to submit proposals for changes to the Django framework. A narrative that also touched on Juliana's transition from biology (and her master's degree in sea turtles) to programming, a tale that intrigued and amused the listeners.

But also our designers, Virginia Capoluongo and Laura Lezcano, took the stage to explore the issues of usability and accessibility, which are often still too distant for technicians, sharing their work done on a website that is familiar to conference-goers: djangoproject.com.

Virginia and Laura created a talk - How to improve the usability of a site: the case of djangoproject.com - which could be described as interactive. They bridged the gap between the dev audience and their analytical work, actively seeking feedback and valuable information from the platform's users.

If you’d like to contribute too, you can find the form to participate in the research here.

And then, with Maps with Django, our CTO Paolo Melchiorre reaffirmed the Pythonic principle that 'simple is better than complex': in his talk, he explained how to create a web map with Django, the Python-based web framework, using its GeoDjango module, storing geographic data in the local database on which to perform geospatial queries.

Last but not least, Raffaele Colace participated in a panel discussion with Peter Bittner, Michel Murabito and Francesco Sciuti, provocatively titled: Nobody does Continuous Delivery: prove me wrong! It was a thought-provoking moment to think outside the box, sparking many reflections and questions that continued during networking and over a beer.

The importance of being at PyCon Italia

It goes without saying that there were some truly unique moments at PyCon Italia this year: from the opening keynote by Carlton Gibson, former member of the Django Software Foundation, on the topic of open source, to the video connection with Samantha Cristoforetti, and the kudos for our Juliana.

However, what we brought back from the conference is the belief that we are doing the right thing every time we actively participate as a team in events like this.

For a company like 20tab, which values sharing and continuous improvement, being at PyCon means not only learning about new technologies and methodologies, but also engaging with others, gathering experiences and impressions, and expanding our perspective.

By exposing ourselves and sharing our work, we bring our small contribution to the growth of the industry and the improvement of society beyond the walls of our offices. At the same time, we gain a lot from the community, forge new connections, and strive for technical excellence.

Furthermore, encouraging 20-tabbers to personally participate allows us to stimulate the personal and professional growth of individuals and teams, as well as further develop that team spirit that motivates our employees and collaborators to support, advise and push each other to reach their full potential.

In this edition, we also witnessed how the overall mood of the conference is consistently based on the same passion, the desire to get to know each other and exchange points of view and inclusiveness, with an increasing percentage of women among speakers and participants (we also contributed with a majority of female speakers).

An event that grows every year, inspiring us and teaching us something new each time, PyCon Italia will remain one of the most important training and networking events for 20tab, also in 2023.

• Photos: