Good day,<br><br>The company I work for, Go2Africa [1], is keen to sponsor pycon-za.<br><br>This sponsorship would be in the form of our expertise in helping international and domestic delegates to find appropriate accommodation. Go2Africa would find the best and most cost-effective accommodation, prepare travel plans, and offer travel advice where required.<br>
<br>We would also like to offer a fully paid (or seriously discounted) Safari for the keynote speaker. If not fully sponsored, then perhaps pycon-za could pay for the discounted rate as a gift?<br><br>Then, I trust that you won't mind if I add my 2cents to the planning conversation:<br>
<br>In terms of Keynote, I saw that Paul Graham's name was suggested. PG is a fantastic speaker [2], but perhaps consider a speaker who is more involved in core Python development? <br><br>Tim Peters, Alex Martelli, Raymond Hettinger are all excellent speakers – however, I imagine that the choice all comes down to aligning the speaker with the goal of the conference. I'm sure that these goals include promoting python's use in South African companies and up-skilling people in Python development.<br>
<br>I also noticed that you are considering multiple tracks. May I suggest you consider a one-track event, especially for the first Conference? Single-track conferences tend to be easier to organise, and delegates don't have to make difficult choices between the great talks on offer.<br>
<br>Have you finalised the venue?<br><br>See you at CTPUG on Saturday. Have a great day.<br><br>Best,<br>Graeme<br><br>[1] <a href="http://www.go2africa.com">http://www.go2africa.com</a><br>[2] <a href="http://blog.metricfire.com/2012/03/paul-graham-consistently-says-um-7-times-per-minute/">http://blog.metricfire.com/2012/03/paul-graham-consistently-says-um-7-times-per-minute/</a><br>
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