Fresh from the plantation

Calling all IT geeks and tech-savvy people!

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:54:03 +1200

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP INCORPORATED

Media Statement August 23, 2011
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Calling all IT geeks and tech-savvy people!

Kiwi PyCon 2011, New Zealand’s conference dedicated to the Python programming language, is on this weekend at Te Whaea in Wellington. With a great lineup of speakers from Weta Digital, GitHub, a strong local and overseas contingent, as well as three international keynotes, there is still time to participate in this fantastic conference.

On Friday night there will be “CodeWars”, a fun event pitting eight teams of developers against each other in a three round competition. Saturday night will feature a conference dinner, and on Sunday morning a special women’s breakfast has been planned.

Friday night’s “CodeWars” as well as the weekend’s Kiwi PyCon conference will offer lots of giveaways ranging from software licenses, geek gadgets, t-shirts, books and loads more. Tickets are $60 for students/unwaged and $100 for everyone else. Morning/afternoon tea and lunch is included.

The event has garnered notable support, with the Python Software Foundation, Catalyst IT, Signify, the Plone Foundation, and Web Drive as major sponsors and many other well known companies including Enthought, GitHub, Mozilla, Tymar Systems Development, Weta Digital, and Tait Radio Communications all backing the conference.

Book now for this great opportunity: http://nz.pycon.org

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For media or conference enquiries please contact:

* Tim McNamara, Conference Director
* Phone: 021 499 2275
* Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org
* Website: http://nz.pycon.org

Calling all Aucklanders, Whangarei-ites & Waikato-ites and everyone inbetween!

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:55:41 +1300

This weekend at the Copthorne Hotel in Waitangi is Kiwi PyCon 2010. We’ve got a great lineup of speakers including Jacob Kaplan-Moss - the creator of the Django web framework, speakers from Weta Digital, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Catalyst IT, to name a few.

If that hasn’t motivated you to come along, we’ve also arranged a charter bus leaving from Auckland airport, Auckland University, and Massey University campuses for a ‘cheap as chips’ return ticket price of $20! The bus leaves Auckland this Friday at midday and returns Sunday night. Seats are still available so get in before the last minute rush!

The bus will arrive just in time for our Friday night CodeWars event, pitting 8 teams of developers against eachother in a 3 round competition. The winners will get a grabbag of schwag. There’s lots of schwag on offer the whole weekend, though, with giveaways ranging from software licenses, geek gadgets, MSDN subscriptions, t-shirts, laptop bags, books, etc.

Tickets are $60 for students/unwaged and $100 for everyone else. Morning/afternoon tea and lunch is included. Accommodation can be organised by dropping an email to kiwipycon@nzpug.org.

What are you waiting for, register today!

Plains FM Interview regarding Kiwi PyCon 2010

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:00:28 +1300

Edit: the podcast for the radio interview is available here

Interviewee: Tim Knapp, Organising Committee Member
Interviewer: Edward Swift, Plains FM

What is Kiwi PyCon?

To promote the use of the programming language Python in New Zealand the NZ Python User Group (NZPUG) is holding the second Kiwi PyCon conference at the Copthorne Hotel & Resort in Waitangi, Bay of Islands on November 20th and 21st.

What is Python?

Its an open source programming language that is very simple and flexible to use. In New Zealand, Weta Digital use it to produce the special effects and animation in movies such as the Lord of the Rings. In fact, Matt Provost from Weta Digital will present at the event regarding how they use Python in their datacentre.

What’s going to be on the conference programme?

The event will include talks highlighting how Python has been used in the scientific, web, mobile, gaming, and animation fields.

The main keynote speaker at Kiwi PyCon is Jacob Kaplan-Moss, the creator of Django, a successful and widely used web application framework. Interestingly, Django is the software that drives the Plains FM website.

On the Friday evening prior to the event there will also be a CodeWars event, where 8 teams of 2-4 people will compete in a programming competition consisting of 3 rounds.

The conference has also attracted a lot of interest from many universities throughout the country and staff and students from Auckland, Massey, Canterbury, and Otago universities will be attending as the event will not only be educational but is an excellent opportunity to meet-and-greet with potential employers.

How can people find out more about the event?

Head over to nz.pycon.org. We’re expecting 150+ delegates from across New Zealand and Australia. We’ve had 58 registrations thus far and the event is in 3 weeks so get in quick so you don’t miss out.

We’ve also organised a $20 bus to/from the event departing from Auckland so getting to the event is really easy.

The event has also only been possible due to the generous support of our sponsors: Catalyst IT and Microsoft. As well as Atlassian, Enthought, the Plone Foundation, the Python Software Foundation, and Tait Electronics.

Again, the website to find out more about Kiwi PyCon is nz.pycon.org.

Keep up with technology @ Kiwi PyCon 2010

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:49:08 +1300

New Zealand Python User Group Incorporated

Media Statement

For immediate release

19 October 2010

IT folks will certainly be interested in Kiwi PyCon 2010: An exciting and interesting weekend is going to show how the programming language Python is used in science, education, and high-profile companies here and around the world. It is held at the Copthorne Hotel & Resort in Waitangi, Bay of Islands Saturday 20-Sunday 21 November.

Participants will learn first-hand how Weta Digital uses Python in their datacentre, or how they can leverage cloud computing like Amazon web services and Google App Engine. The conference is also an excellent networking opportunity to meet people who have actually delivered, from industry to education to government sectors to Hollywood.

The registration fee ($100 regular, $60 student/unwaged) includes morning and afternoon tea, as well as lunch on both days, the Kiwi PyCon 2010 t-shirt, and there are also tons of giveaways this year, ranging from books, laptop bags and geek gadgets to software licenses for Python IDE’s and Amazon server credits.

An impressive sponsorship lineup includes Catalyst IT and Microsoft as Gold Sponsors; Atlassian, Enthought, the Plone Foundation, the Python Software Foundation, and Tait Radio Communications as Silver Sponsors; and Schwag Sponsors: Amazon Web Services, Wingware, Mozilla, ActiveState, Apress, Packt Publishing, O’Reilly, ThinkGeek, ANZTB, and Bitbucket.

To make your booking visit http://nz.pycon.org

For assistance with travel and accommodation, email kiwipycon@nzpug.org or phone Danny Adair on (09) 9555 101.

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For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Danny Adair, NZPUG President

Phone: (09) 9555 101

Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org

Website: http://nz.pycon.org

Major IT players support Python Conference 2010

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:45:02 +1300

New Zealand Python User Group Incorporated

Media Statement

For immediate release

24 September 2010

Over 150 computer programming enthusiasts are set to meet at the Kiwi PyCon 2010 conference on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 November at the Copthorne Hotel & Resort Bay of Islands in Waitangi.

Python, a programming language used throughout the world, has a massive following and Python conferences are held around the globe. Kiwi PyCon is New Zealand’s Python community coming together and will cover the use of Python in the scientific, web, mobile, gaming, and animation fields.

The event has garnered notable support, with Catalyst IT and Microsoft as major sponsors and many other well known companies and organisations including the Python Software Foundation, Plone Foundation, Atlassian, Enthought, Tait Radio Communications, Apress, Packt Publishing, O’Reilly, ThinkGeek, Amazon Web Services, Wingware, ANZTB, Mozilla and ActiveState all backing the conference.

Organised by the New Zealand Python User Group Inc.(NZPUG), it promises to bring together developers, designers and business people who will listen to industry speakers. US-based Jacob Kaplan-Moss, creator of “Django”, a successful and widely used web application framework along with Anthony Baxter, long-time release manager of Python from Melbourne are keynote speakers for the event.

Kiwi PyCon 2010 topics will include:

“How Python is influencing neuroscience research”
Microsoft (Australia) showing how they support Python on their “Azure” platform
Amazon web service
Gmail gadgets
“Going Global : Using Best Effort Translation To Create Multilingual Web Apps”
Python and Java
Python in Astronomy

Another guest speaker for the conference is Matt Provost, Systems Manager at Weta Digital, five-time Academy award winning visual effects facility located in Wellington. Matt will speak about “Python in the Datacentre”, as he manages all Weta Digital servers, storage and networking which occupies five positions on the Top 500 Supercomputer list.

Danny Adair, NZPUG’s founding president said “Python is used everywhere, and for anyone interested in or using the language, our annual conference is the place to be.” Kiwi PyCon 2010 registrations are now open. To make your booking for the conference or for more information visit http://nz.pycon.org

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For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Danny Adair, NZPUG President

Phone: (09) 9555 101

Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org

Website: http://nz.pycon.org

Kiwi PyCon 2010 Talk Submissions Due August 2nd

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:34:47 +1200

If you haven’t heard, Kiwi PyCon 2010 is to be held in the beautiful Bay of Islands, just outside the Waitangi Treaty grounds at the Copthorne Hotel on the weekend of November 20-21.
So far we’ve had 6 financial sponsors commit to the event and 6 schwag sponsors, which puts us in line for an excellent event with a substantial grab bag of goodies the likes of which any IT professional would drool over.

On the talk content side of things, Jacob Kaplan-Moss, co-founder of the Django project, will give Saturday’s keynote, Amazon Web Services will be presenting and Weta Digital have also got a couple of their team coming along, just to name a few. If you’d like to have your name alongside this impressive lineup, the due date for talk submissions is this coming Monday, August 2nd so head on over to http://nz.pycon.org/submit-talk today and get submitting and help contribute to the success of Kiwi PyCon 2010!
Alternatively if you’d like to come along and soak up the python goodness - further pricing information can be found here and the registration form is available here. Early bird registrations close September 1 so don’t delay!

Dominion Post article (12/04/2010): Treasury shares website know-how

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:04:02 +1200

I was interviewed by Claire McEntee for an article for The Dominion Post last week and just realised it made it into last Monday’s InfoTech Weekly section. Reproduced here for your viewing pleasure. Please ensure you come along on April 28th at the Treasury’s offices! More info here: http://plone.org/events/wpd/2010/wellington-new-zealand.

THE Treasury will host a demonstration of open source content management system Plone for government departments this month.

Tim Knapp, from the Python User Group – which is running the April 28 event – says Plone, which lets users manage their websites, has already been adopted by the Treasury, the Office of the Auditor- General, the Electricity Commission and the Women’s Affairs Ministry.

Plone differs from other content management systems in that it lets organisations manage security granularly, he says, specifying the powers various users have to make changes and run different versions of websites at the same time, so users can easily edit websites and publish updates.

Sigurd Magnusson, chief marketing officer at open source firm SilverStripe – which has developed its own content management system, says he supports government agencies working together and sharing their experiences.

However, he said it would be inappropriate if the demonstration turned into a sales pitch for Plone.

‘‘If it has some type of involvement with government then best practice would be to have a neutral position and say, ‘These are the things that have gone well and these are the things that haven’t gone well’.’’

Pushing for consistency in ICT across government

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:56:18 +1200

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP

Media Statement

April 6, 2010

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Currently a number of different content management systems are being used across government with most departments working independent of each other.

Therefore all government departments are invited to a seminar to showcase how the enterprise content management system, Plone, is being used in a number of government departments locally as well as in Australia.

“A coordinated approach to ICT web services seems to be missing in New Zealand” says event director, Tim Knapp. “Many of the government departments I’ve spoken to are in dire need of an organisation that can provide independent advice on open source web technologies, particularly as there’s so many to choose from. Australia are far ahead of us on this front, where they’ve setup the Open Source Business Cluster to fill this need”.

Mr Knapp goes on to say “Plone is particularly suited to government as it is an enterprise-level content management system, exceeds the E-government standards for government websites, and therefore was officially sanctioned by the State Services Commission back in 2005”.

The New Zealand Python User Group, is organising this free event - World Plone Day, on April 28th from 12:00pm at The Treasury department’s offices in Wellington. All those interested in attending are encouraged to register on the event’s website.

———————————————-Ends———————————————-

For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Tim Knapp, Event Director

Phone: 021 156 6405

Email: info@emergetec.com

Website: http://plone.org/events/wpd/2010/wellington-new-zealand

Kiwi PyCon 2010 - November 20-21, Copthorne Hotel & Resort Bay of Islands

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:44:19 +1300

Expect the same great lineup of talks regarding how Python is being used in the fields of science, maths, games, animation, web development and much much more.

Again we’ll have a couple of world class keynote speakers and an ‘unconference’ aspect to the event where you, the delegate, can get involved.

Add to all this the fact that it’ll be in the beautiful Bay of Islands at an excellent venue and we’re set for an even better event than last year.

Keep an eye on the conference website for updates as planning for the event unfolds.

Christchurch NZPUG Meetup This Friday

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:01:52 +1300

Just to let you all know that we’ve got the following event this Friday. Again we ask that you send an email to meeting-christchurch AT nzpug dot org so we have an idea of those who are coming along.

Again we’ll order some pizzas so please bring along some money to contribute to this (usually works out at about $7-8 each).

Details are as follows:

Date: 5 March 2010
Time: 5:30-7:30pm
URL: http://nzpug.org/MeetingsChristchurch/Mar2010
Talks:

Darryl Cousins: “Demo: Building a web application using repoze.bfg”

Look forward to seeing you all there!

Christchurch NZPUG Meetup This Friday

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:55:55 +1300

Just to let you all know that we’ve got the following event this Friday. We ask that you send an email to meeting-christchurch AT nzpug dot org so that your name goes into the draw for our giveaway book (got one on: Programming on Google App Engine).

This time we’ll really order some pizzas so please bring along a few dollars to contribute to this.

Details are as follows:

Date: 29 January 2010

Time: 5:30-7:30pm

URL: http://nzpug.org/MeetingsChristchurch/Jan2010

Talks:

Michael O’Connor & Tim Evans (ARANZ Geo): “Geological Modeling software built in Python”

Look forward to seeing you all there!

LCA2010

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:13:10 +1300

Well I just touched back down in Christchurch after returning from LCA2010 in Wellington. Overall the event was worth every penny and featured a number of high profile speakers from a number of FOSS projects. In fact, one thing that really struck me about the event was the number of ‘offshore’ speakers (in fact delegates too) - people that I would never have an opportunity to meet or hear present otherwise.

This was my first LCA and obviously coming from a Plone background, the web-related talks interested me most. So my conference itinerary consisted of (in no particular order): Puppet, Ruby, Drupal (yes I checked out ‘the competition’), Pyglet (hey it’s Python), PostgreSQL, Git, Xapian etc etc.

Some of the Plone highlights included: the PloneBoF - we ended up having 7 come along, which was more than the number that indicated they would come along on the wiki. The really good thing was that 3 of these hadn’t put their names up on the wiki so if all the BoF’ers had come we would’ve had about 9 there. There was a lot of positive comments that came out of the BoF but the most interesting comment I took away was from a Systems Architect (ex-Unisys employee) who mentioned that Plone has 3 categories of user: Enterprise who only ever install the stable releases and don’t upgrade at all, Developers who are always on the bleeding edge, and Everyone else whose initial attempt at installing Plone is via their distros package management system (there’s probably another category of user in here who downloads the installers from plone.org but this was what he said). And as the Plone packages in most of the distro repositories are pretty out-of-date, their initial experiences aren’t all to good. I was thinking that as the Plone installation process is buildout-based, this would be quite difficult to merge with the package installation process of most distros. It would be good, though, to make contact with some of the volunteers producing the various Plone distro packages and getting them to participate and interact a bit more with the core Plone community.

Attending the Drupal tutorial also opened my eyes to the excellent 3rd-party package installation experience Drupal provides for their users. Users can install 3rd-party packages directly from the administrative interface and also search for and install updates for their currently installed ones. That is something we need in Plone! Drupal does appear to be going through some of the growing pains Plone went through with content types developed thru-the-web and difficulty in porting this content type code to other Drupal instances - an essentially solved problem in the Plone space.

All-in-all an excellent event and one I’d definitely recommend to anyone. LCA2011 will be in Brisbane in February 2011 (dates to be confirmed). As an aside, I also took away some tips for Kiwi PyCon 2010, which is looking to be held in November 2010 - hopefully we’ll see some of you there!

Plone Birds of a Feather Session at LCA2010

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:37:30 +1300

I’m organising a Plone Birds of a Feather session at LCA2010. It’ll be on Wednesday, January 20th from 14:30-15:15 in Civic Suite 3 (which is apparently in the Old Town Hall building). Topics up for discussion will include:

Plone 4 and Beyond
E-Commerce in Plone
Interconnectivity with RDBMSes
Plone Theming
Plone Support in NZ
Etc

essentially whatever anyone would like to discuss.

So if you’d like to find out what Plone is all about or talk some nitty-gritty regarding some specific aspect of the Plone CMS, come along this Wednesday and have a chat (I have asked that those coming along also list their names on the Plone BoF wiki page or drop me an email, just so we’ve got a bit of an idea of numbers).

More information is available here: https://conf.linux.org.au/wiki/PloneBoF.

Conference Sets The Bar For Future Ones

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:49:34 +1300

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP

Media Statement

November 13, 2009

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

What do 150 software developers, a 2 day conference, and a programming language called Python add up to? Kiwi PyCon 2009, which was held in Christchurch this past weekend. PyCons are held annually throughout the world but this was the first time the event had been held in New Zealand.

The main keynote speaker, Joel Burton, who was flown from the US courtesy of both the Python Software Foundation and the Plone Foundation gave his presentation on the Saturday morning entitled “Why Python Web Frameworks are Changing The Web”. His presentation looked at some history of the development of Python Web Frameworks and also why Python is becoming the language of choice for many web developers.

The conference had two main tracks, with delegates enjoying presentations on project management, science and maths, games and animation, and web development. There were also more interactive sessions with conference attendees participating in short presentations or open discussions on a specific theme.

Tim Penhey, the conference’s second keynote speaker, presented his talk on the Sunday morning entitled “Launchpad: The Good, the Bad, and the OMG How Does That Work”. His presentation took a look at the lessons learned from building and running the launchpad.net project.

“The feedback we’ve received from the attendees has been really positive”, commented Tim Knapp, the conference’s Director. “Everything went really smoothly thanks to all involved and I’m so happy that we could set a high standard for future Kiwi PyCons”. Preparations to hold Kiwi PyCon 2010 in Paihia are already underway. For more information go to http://nz.pycon.org.

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For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Tim Knapp, NZ Python User Group Vice President and Event Director

Phone: 021 156 6405

Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org

Website: nz.pycon.org

Kiwi PyCon 2009 Recap

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:27:37 +1300

Just thought I’d do a bit of a recap from an insiders perspective on how things unfolded during the course of Kiwi PyCon 2009. Needless to say, the organisation of the event happened over a few months and most of the preparations had been done quite a bit in advance of the big day. So this is more of a how did all these preparations culminate and did it blow up in my face or did we bask in ‘our’ success :)

Friday

On the Friday of last week around midday, I went to the printer and picked up the conference programmes (they also combo-ed as a name badge). They looked great. I then swung back round home and picked up Dylan Jay as well as all the conference gear (i.e. signage, some food items, T shirts, lanyards + pouches, etc).

We got to the venue about 12:30pm and started unloading the car. Fortunately Party Warehouse had already delivered the 120 chairs, 2 PA systems + wireless mics, and the disposable eating utensils. Andrew Groom had already arrived and a few more helpers arrived in short order so I got them started setting up the chairs in both the Track 1 and Track 2 rooms. Meanwhile I shot off to the Effusion Group offices to pickup the power boards + extension power leads (thanks guys!), as well as a few coffee plungers.

After getting back to Cii, a few more volunteers had arrived so I asked if they could start laying out the power boards and power leads. The idea was to lay them out underneath the seats to allow the delegates to plugin during the sessions. I also asked if the projectors and projector screens could be setup and got Darryl Cousins to setup the registration area (Darryl also did an excellent job of looking after the registration area during the conference). In the meantime, Dylan and I got into putting up the conference banners.

Brian Chatterton arrived soon after with Andrew Turner and started getting stuck into setting up the wireless network. They had about 6 wireless APs, 3x 802.11a and 3x 802.11g. I better add that Brian did an excellent job of setting up and running the network during the conference (which is further borne out by the conference survey results). He also sacrificed going to the Pre-Conference Party and even the dinner we had on Saturday night to iron out some network issues.

Jonathan Harker of Catalyst IT arrived about this time and got stuck into setting up their sponsor table. Michael Hope had gotten into setting up his video camera in Track 2 and after finishing up with this I asked if he could also get the 2 PA systems setup. I was still dilly-dallying with getting the main front banner up and getting distracted with other issues so I eventually got Dylan to finish this up for me while I had to shoot away and take my dog to the vet about 5pm.

After getting back to Cii around 6pm-ish, I finished the setup of the entrance area (particularly getting the partitions for the Cii reception area in place) and also asked if Michael Hudson could confirm where he would be taking the post-registration photos. We ended up draping one of our white table cloths over one small section of wall and using this as a backdrop for the photos. I also asked if Natalia Tyan and Jane Hill (both from powerHouse) could setup the boardroom as this is where we would be putting out the conference food.

The projectors and projector screens were now setup but we were using a whiteboard in Track 1 as a projector screen and it was really not suitable as a projector screen. This was partly due to our wanting to keep the whiteboard in Track 1 as that is where the Lightning Talks and Open Spaces Sessions would be but also because we only had 1 proper projector screen (we actually had 2 but 1 was permanently fixed and therefore couldn’t be repositioned for our needs). Things were getting a little stressful as it was already about 8pm but Jane phoned up Steve, the powerHouse CEO, and he said he could bring his projector screen in for our use - what a lifesaver! Jane then made another call to another contact and arranged for him to bring in his newer and brighter projector for our use. Even better!
It was around 8:45pm now and we’d pretty much finished up the setup of the venue so Dylan and I headed over to The Twisted Hop for the Pre-Conference Party, which incidentally was a great venue and thanks to Marek had lots of yummy food!

Saturday

I woke up about 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep so got showered and dressed, woke up Dylan and headed over to the venue about 8am. Natalia had already opened up and there were already delegates lining up at the registration desk, which was a bit of a surprise given we’d said 8:30am was registration opening time. So Natalia and a few others mucked in to get them signed in and I headed upstairs to get the projector going with the event/sponsor slides and to switch on the background music.

Something that was raised the day before regarding displaying the venue’s sponsor logos was raised again and we decided to cover them up with the event’s sponsor logos. Some last minute signage was also made up for the Track 2 door, some signage on the entrance as well as the boardroom and then the event was underway with my welcome speech.

There was a good sized audience for the opening speeches. Danny Adair (NZPUG President) followed my speech with a few opening words and then Joel Burton began his speech: Why Python Web Frameworks are Changing The Web. Joel gave a captivating speech and drew a few laughs from the audience with some of his witty comments.

I’d organised for a couple of local cafe restaurants to heat up our savouries for the morning teas and this all went very smoothly both with delivery and pickup by our great team of snack runners: Dylan, Michael, Natalia, and Darryl. So following Joel’s talk we were into our first morning tea, which all went very well, including Natalia and Michael’s hardwork in the kitchen pumping out the plunger coffees.

Then Track 1 and 2 split off into 2 sessions and I chaired Track 1 while Guy Kloss chaired Track 2. I kept a fairly tight rein on the timing of the talks and Guy and myself also tweeted each of the talk titles as they unfolded throughout the day.

Papas pizzas delivered our 75 pizzas labelled and on time and I also kicked off the lunch break with our first draw of 4 books courtesy of our schwag sponsors.

Guy had spent some of the morning tea break scheduling the Lightning Talks and finished this off over the lunch break. So following lunch we all gathered again in the Track 1 room for the 12.5 Lightning Talks (the first one by Morris Johns was a very brief intro to his arduino robot).

Then again we split into 2 tracks until afternoon tea, which again went very smoothly thanks to Natalia and Michael’s efforts in the kitchen. Things did get fairly hot in the Saturday afternoon in Track 1, though, due to the lack of air conditioning at Cii but Morris did manage to prise open a window, which helped alleviate things. I also did another draw of 4 books during the afternoon tea break. All in all I did 4 draws over the 2 days, with the draw for the Webstock schwag being made on the Sunday lunchtime.

Day 1 finished without a hitch and we ended up heading off to Tulsi for dinner, which was something we organised as a spur of the moment thing on the Saturday afternoon.

Sunday

I got an early night on the Saturday night and ensured I slept at least 8 hours so I’d have enough energy for the last day. We arrived at Cii at about 8am and it was all shut up. So I used my Cii access card and security code to open up and gave the coffee barista a quick call to see how far away he was. We’d organised for him to setup outside the front entrance, where he’d serve fresh espresso coffee out of the back of his converted kombi van from 8-10am. It went down really well and the delegates lined up and handed over their free espresso voucher. Take my word for it, this coffee is the best in New Zealand!

Then at 9am the sessions kicked off again with me giving my Getting All Your Web Apps To Wear The Company Brand presentation in Track 1 and Stuart Mitchell presenting in Track 2. Again morning tea passed without a hitch and Guy used this time and lunch to organise the Open Spaces Sessions. I also made an announcement preparing the delegates mentally for aiding in the big tidyup that would be needed at the end of the event.

A couple of talks later and we were together again for the second keynote by Tim Penhey: Launchpad: The Good, the Bad, and the OMG How Does That Work. Tim also gave a great keynote and looked very poised in front of the 150 strong crowd (he even finished within time!).

Then it was time for lunch with John at Subway delivering on time and even throwing in a bunch of free cookies to boot, which were a real crowd pleaser.

Following lunch we were into our Open Spaces Sessions, which went quite well but did feel a little rushed at 30 minutes a pop (originally they were set at 45 minutes but the delegates pushed for 30).

Following the Open Spaces Sessions we had our last afternoon tea, which again went swimmingly well and then it was the homeward stretch to my closing speech, which too came off really well. As part of my speech I again called for volunteers to help out with the final cleanup and also let everyone know the 4 overseers who had been assigned to each area of the venue. The response was absolutely amazing with most of the attendees pitching in directly after my talk and the whole venue being cleaned up in about 30 minutes (some reckon it only took 15!).

All-in-all a very successful event, which I felt was organised well enough and also wouldn’t have been possible without the great team of volunteers who helped out in all of the key positions.

Looking forward to Kiwi PyCon 2010 in Paihia!

Conference Emphasises Language's Benefits

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:58:28 +1300

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP

Media Statement

November 2, 2009

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Simplicity, Flexibility, Beauty!” is the theme for Kiwi PyCon 2009, a conference being held this Saturday and Sunday in Christchurch to promote the Python programming language in New Zealand.

Python has been described as the closest programming language to the English language and is therefore very simple to learn. Due to its simplicity, Otago University have decided to teach Python as part of an introductory course to programming and there will be a presentation at the conference regarding how the course has benefited students at the university.

Python also runs the software on the XO laptops, which have been distributed to over a million children in developing countries worldwide as part of the One Laptop Per Child project. There will be a presentation regarding OLPC at the conference including a demonstration of a number of XO laptops in action.

Python’s flexibility will also be highlighted throughout the conference programme, with presentations on how it is being used in the field of animation, in computer games, on cellphones and websites. Some of the presenters at the event will be coming from England, America, and Australia.

“Registrations sold out 4 days prior to the registration closing date” comments Tim Knapp, Conference Director, “which really highlights the great level of interest in the language throughout New Zealand.” The conference starts at 8:30am this Saturday at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator. For more information go to http://nz.pycon.org.

———————————————-Ends———————————————-

For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Tim Knapp, NZ Python User Group Vice President and Event Director

Phone: 021 156 6405

Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org

Website: nz.pycon.org

Update on Preparations for Kiwi PyCon 2009

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:50:00 +1300

Its exactly 2 weeks until Kiwi PyCon 2009 and preparations are all in hand for a really great event. We’ll be releasing another media statement the week of the conference to remind the media about the event and also to get a last bit of advertising out there about the event.
Registrations closed yesterday but we actually sold out the event about 4 days before the registration closing date, showing the great amount of interest in this event, not only in New Zealand but throughout the world. We’ve got registrants coming from all around New Zealand, from across the ditch in Australia and even from as far away as England.
I’ll be sending an email reminder out to all delegates the week of the event with some conference tips courtesy of EuroPython 2009 and also with a little bit more information about the event.
All the organising has come off really well too. The T shirt design, compliments of Matthew Allen, will blow the socks off most other technical conferences worldwide (but hey I’m biased). The T shirt order has also been submitted to the screenprinter for printing. The conference programme design, thanks to Michael Dunstan, has been pretty much all done and will be on its way to the printer come early next week. Even the menu for the 2 days of the conference has been vetted by Nathan Torkington and Jenine Abarbanel.
We’ve got a last planning meeting with the Kiwi PyCon 2009 Team this coming Tuesday at 1pm and following that its just counting down to the big day. For those who are registered, see you all there on November the 7th!

Plains FM Interview regarding Kiwi PyCon

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:44:43 +1300

Edit: the podcast for the radio interview is available here.

Interviewee: Tim Knapp, Conference Director
Interviewer: Edward Swift, Plains FM

What is Kiwi PyCon?

To promote the use of the programming language Python in New Zealand the NZ Python User Group (NZPUG) is holding the first Kiwi PyCon conference in Christchurch at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator on November 7th and 8th.

What is Python?

Its an open source programming language that is very simple and flexible to use. In New Zealand, Weta Digital use it to produce the special effects and animation in movies such as King Kong and Lord of the Rings. YouTube runs on it and Google rely on it for their day-to-day operations, just to name a few companies who are making use of Python.

What’s going to be on the conference programme?

The event will include talks highlighting how Python has been used in web and desktop applications, in the field of science and maths, in gaming and animation, and in various other fields.

The main keynote speaker at Kiwi PyCon, Joel Burton, an internationally recognised trainer and presenter, will explain how Python is becoming the language of choice for developing websites.

The conference has also attracted a lot of interest from many universities throughout the country and staff and students from Auckland, Massey, Canterbury, and Otago universities will be presenting regarding how they’ve used Python in their research.

There will also be an unconference part of the event where delegates will be able to give short 5 minute presentations regarding how they’ve been able to benefit from Python. So it will be a very interactive event for everyone.

How can people find out more about the event?

Head over to nz.pycon.org. We’re expecting 150 delegates from across New Zealand and Australia. We’ve had 115 registrations thus far and registration closes on October 23^rd so get in quick so you don’t miss out.

The event has also only been possible due to the generous support of our sponsors: Canonical, Catalyst IT, Weta Digital, the Python Software Foundation, Unfold Limited and Tait Electronics. As well as Encode Limited, powerHouse, PretaWeb, VortexDNA and the Plone Foundation.

Again, the website to find out more about Kiwi PyCon is nz.pycon.org.

How a programming language is changing the Web

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:11:33 +1300

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP

Media Statement

October 5, 2009

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The main keynote speaker at Kiwi PyCon 2009, Joel Burton, an internationally recognised trainer and presenter, will explain how the programming language Python is becoming the language of choice for developing websites due to its simplicity and flexibility. The conference will be held at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator in Christchurch on November 7th and 8th.

Other tracks at the conference will include: GUI, Science & Math, Game, and Applications. The conference will also have a dedicated Web track, which will include presentations about many Python web technologies, such as: Django, Twisted, Zope 3, Grok, and Plone.

The conference has attracted a lot of interest from many universities throughout the country and staff and students from Auckland, Massey, Canterbury, and Otago universities will be presenting regarding how they’ve used Python in their research.

“As Christchurch has the reputation of being the Silicon Valley of New Zealand, its been really great to see a number of electronics companies in Christchurch support the event”, said Tim Knapp, the conference Director. Tait Electronics, a radio communications manufacturer, is a Gold sponsor for the event.

“The positive response we’ve received from the IT community in New Zealand has been really encouraging” commented Mr. Knapp. “Really, no matter what industry your business is in, this conference will be of benefit to you.”

Registration closes on October 23rd and registrations are limited. For more information visit nz.pycon.org.

———————————————-Ends———————————————-

For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Tim Knapp, NZ Python User Group Vice President and Event Director

Phone: 021 156 6405

Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org

Website: nz.pycon.org

Conference brings programming language of the year to NZ

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:17:34 +1200

NEW ZEALAND PYTHON USER GROUP

Media Statement

September 21, 2009

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

What do Google, YouTube, Weta Digital and the New Zealand Government share in common? They all rely on the 2009 Programming Language of the Year - Python, for their daily operations. To promote Python’s use in New Zealand the NZ Python User Group (NZPUG) is holding the first Kiwi PyCon conference in Christchurch at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator on November 7th and 8th.

The event will include talks highlighting how Python has been used in web and desktop applications, in the field of science and maths, in gaming and animation, and in various other fields. The programme will also include interactive sessions with the audience and opportunities for delegates to give short presentations regarding ways they have benefited from Python.

Python is used in New Zealand by reputable companies such as Weta Digital, the company behind Lord of the Rings and King Kong, and is also used extensively by the New Zealand Government, by academic institutions throughout the country and many other commercial organisations.

“We’ve got a great lineup of talks prepared and we’ve also arranged for a couple of very talented and engaging keynote speakers for the conference” said Tim Knapp, the Director of the event, “so we really do encourage all members of the IT community in New Zealand to come along, including management, to find out how Python can be used in their organisations”.

The event is supported by reputable organisations Canonical, Catalyst IT, Weta Digital, the Python Software Foundation, Unfold Limited and Tait Electronics. Other supporting organisations include Encode Limited, powerHouse, PretaWeb, VortexDNA and the Plone Foundation.

150 delegates are expected from across New Zealand and Australia and registration for the conference is now open with limited numbers. For more information visit nz.pycon.org.

———————————————-Ends———————————————-

For media or conference enquiries please contact:

Tim Knapp, NZ Python User Group Vice President and Event Director

Phone: 021 156 6405

Email: kiwipycon@nzpug.org

Website: nz.pycon.org