Hello Everyone,
2022 is here so we would like to open the stage for new teams to come
forward and pitch for PyCon India 2022.
We would also like to share the learning we had from hosting two
editions of PyCon India online so that we could discuss within
the community to decide on what format of conference the 2022 edition could be.
*2020*
The first year of online edition. Soon after we started to plan the
conference, the lockdowns were put in place to control the spread of
the virus.
We had a hard time gauging the seriousness of the virus, and if we
should continue planning an offline conference or the online one.
The platforms were not mature enough and were still in the
implementation phases during the early months.
Only around August, the platform seems to be mature enough and we
could decide on the platform.
With just a month left for the conference, the team worked round the
clock to get the sponsor onboard, build designs for the platform,
selecting the best talks, mentoring the speakers for the new-age of
conferences and trying to build the best experience for the attendees.
Thanks for all the good words, all the hard work really paid off.
*2021*
- In 2020, we bought the one-year subscription for Hopin in a way that
we could accommodate the 2021 conference too if possible.
- During PyCon India 2020, we realized giving the sponsors the value
for money was a very difficult task.
You would need to give sponsors ideas on how to engage with the
crowd on an online platform.
The Majority of the audience in an online platform are listeners,
and the sponsors need to come up with innovative ideas for the
audience to interact with them.
We have been having a good long-standing relationship with our
sponsors. Due to this reason we decided to not have sponsors for the
online editions
and it would be better to reach out to them when we are back doing
offline conferences.
- People were tired of staying online. The screen time had increased
drastically over the pandemic and after almost two years of online
activities,
people were having screen fatigue and were also tired of online
events & meetups. CFP and the Tickets took a huge hit.
Given the lack of sponsors, to make things even we had a minimum
number of tickets to be sold but we had a very hard time achieving it.
- The second wave of COVID-19 was very tough on the volunteers. The
volunteers team had a hard time concentrating on the tasks with the
situation around them.
This merely a volunteer task, we asked folks to take health and
family first. The team went quite lean during this period.
- I would say almost all the members of the team suffered Online
Fatigue, which could be highly attributed to collaborating online.
Though we had all the learnings from 2020, the second year felt
somewhat tougher than the first. It was all because of the volunteers
that made PyCon India 2021 possible.
COVID-19 is still very much around, and new variants and new waves are
still making headlines.
Even though states had relaxed norms, the future is still far from normal.
So I would like folks to discuss, based on the learnings of 2020 and
2021, how we want to move ahead with the 2022 edition of PyCon India.
Here are the few options which we thought of:
- Have a full-scale event.
- Have a Hybrid conference(with the primary conference being offline,
but having a online presence for folks to join and not travel)
- Have a small-scale event.
- Hold until everything is back to normal
We urge the community to discuss this topic. If any new team wants to
lead PyCon India 2022, please come ahead with your suggestions and
proposals.
The 2020 & 2021 PyCon India team would be happy to guide.
Stay safe and continue wearing a mask!
With Regards,
Sayan Chowdhury & Chandan Kumar
(On behalf of PyCon India 2020 & PyCon India 2021 team)
