PyCon India 2020 - The Road Ahead?
Hi everyone, I'm dropping this email to discuss the road ahead for PyCon India 2020, around the current situation of COVID-19. COVID-19 was one of the first topics we discussed within the team and we're giving a close watch with its developments. We planned that we would come back to the topic later if situations worsen. The team discussed it hours before it was declared a pandemic by WHO and had a formal meeting this week. I would like the community to actively participate in this discussion thread. Problems ======== - COVID-19: The rate of spread for COVID-19 is high, and even there is no timeline to when things would get better. - Hotel Booking: Sheraton has prepared the contract and we have to send out our payment and book the venue, but the situation is quite volatile now. Paying the hotel would mean we would be locked with the venue and if things go south, then we will end up losing money. - Complete Isolation: At this point in time, it is better to stay in complete isolation, and same goes for the volunteers. - Keynote Speakers: With the current VISA situation, we cannot fly in any of the keynote speakers from outside - Sponsors: The team talked to other organizers, and the companies at the moment are refraining from sponsorships. This is not true for all companies but a fair percentage of them. - Travel, Tickets & Participation: We also fear ticket sales. Till the time things don't get better, people might be reluctant to buy tickets. - Lockdown: If things don't get better there is a possibility of lockdown which means any public gathering would be banned How are we planning to go ahead? ================================ We are planning to do some research with other options in hand, which means we won't be doing it at Sheraton. The options that we have are: - Smaller conference: We are planning to have talks with smaller venues like NIMHANS, BIC. The plan is to talk and negotiate with the cancellation. This means the expected crowd will fall down - Online conference: The other option is to have an online conference. We need to do budgeting for both the options and do some research if we go for the online conference option. The plan is we will closely monitor the situation and make the decision on which option to opt for. It would be great to have the community come forward with questions, suggestions to make PyCon India 2020 a success. -- Sayan Chowdhury On behalf of PyCon India 2020 team
- Online conference: The other option is to have an online conference.
Putting effort into this depends on why PyCon India is being conducted in the first place. The "people physically getting together at a common place" adds a lot of value to the conference. Since that is indubitably not going to happen if we take the online route, then why are we putting in the effort for this? 1. So that the consistent chain of PyCon India conferences that has been happening won't break? 2. What do people get from an "online pycon india" happening that they won't be able to get otherwise? I mean that if the focus is the "content", then isn't really good content already available that people can consume online? What more would they gain? I don't mean this in a discouraging tone, but unless there is a proper tangible value that comes out of people attending a conference this way, again, "why" do it?
We need to do budgeting for both the options and do some research if we go for the online conference option. The plan is we will closely monitor the situation and make the decision on which option to opt for.
I am not completely aware of the venue booking policies that these places have, but since things are in a flux as you've already pointed out, and also since no payments and bookings and other formalities have been made (or have they been made already?), why not relax the October dates as of now and keep it December or so? Obviously because this would give us more time (2 more months at least) to monitor the situation and then make bookings accordingly. A lot of conferences already seems to have made this decision around the globe. Do we have any other concerns that force us to stick strictly with the October dates? If there are, then maybe prioritize them based on which of them we can sacrifice considering this unexpected setback. -- Haris Ibrahim K. V. http://sosaysharis.wordpress.com @harisibrahimkv
Putting effort into this depends on why PyCon India is being conducted in the first place. The "people physically getting together at a common place" adds a lot of value to the conference. Since that is indubitably not going to happen if we take the online route, then why are we putting in the effort for this?
"Hallway Track" is the unofficial part of the conference which all of us look forward too. And in no means, this can be replicated in the online one. Why? The core of "Hallway Track" is fluidity and serendipity. Which I don't think any of the online platform can replace. But I've dug into platforms which can help us do that. Obviously, the hallway track would be replaced by video/audio calls. The closest match I've found is Hopin[1].
1. So that the consistent chain of PyCon India conferences that has been happening won't break?
It can be indirectly inferred, yes but A lot of people actually look forward to PyCon India as a place to meet people, talk to people and listen to wonderful talks. A year of cancellation means another year of wait. Even if the conference is online, and if we can replicate the hallway track in its minimalistic form it will a beneficial to a lot of people. Making it online also increase the reach of the conference with more people getting to attend the conference.
2. What do people get from an "online pycon india" happening that they won't be able to get otherwise? I mean that if the focus is the "content", then isn't really good content already available that people can consume online? What more would they gain?
This would apply to an offline conference as well. Content is indeed available over the internet so there would be no point of having talks in online/offline conference but this is not true. The reasons talks happen: - Content is scattered. Talks provided an excellent way to aggregate this into one place. You get to know about new things, get an update on projects, trivia and more in one place. You spend a lesser amount of time to cover more domain. - Experience: A lot of time these talks provide an excellent way for the presenter to present their experience, which is not usually available over the internet. This is one of the ways new content is created. - Discussion: Talks provokes ideas and discussion. A good talk can start a discussion around a topic and work around it. This does not happen in a silo but happens quite often in the hallway tracks of a conference. This year one of our plans is to set up an editorial working group whose sole responsibility is to find good speakers and topics they can talk on. This is also in the lines of what Anuvrat had suggested as an "Advanced Track" in one of the previous PyCon India 2020 emails.
I don't mean this in a discouraging tone, but unless there is a proper tangible value that comes out of people attending a conference this way, again, "why" do it?
Not at all discouraging. I appreciate the questions which are the point of the email thread.
We need to do budgeting for both the options and do some research if we go for the online conference option. The plan is we will closely monitor the situation and make the decision on which option to opt for.
I am not completely aware of the venue booking policies that these places have, but since things are in a flux as you've already pointed out, and also since no payments and bookings and other formalities have been made (or have they been made already?), why not relax the October dates as of now and keep it December or so?
Obviously because this would give us more time (2 more months at least) to monitor the situation and then make bookings accordingly. A lot of conferences already seems to have made this decision around the globe.
Do we have any other concerns that force us to stick strictly with the October dates? If there are, then maybe prioritize them based on which of them we can sacrifice considering this unexpected setback.
We are open to a reschedule. We even talked with the Sheraton hotel where they said we can reschedule the conference up to 3 months but that would still be a risky move. Depending on how things turn out we might move dates to November or December. Under no circumstances, we will move PyCon India 2020 into next year. As of now, the first option is to have smaller offline conference, if that fails then online. [1] https://hopin.to/ -- Sayan Chowdhury <https://yudocaa.in/> GPG Fingerprint : 0F16 E841 E517 225C 7D13 AB3C B023 9931 9CD0 5C8B Q: How can I use more inclusive language? A: https://heyguys.cc
On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 6:13 PM Sayan Chowdhury <gmail@yudocaa.in> wrote:
Hi everyone,
I'm dropping this email to discuss the road ahead for PyCon India 2020, around the current situation of COVID-19.
COVID-19 was one of the first topics we discussed within the team and we're giving a close watch with its developments. We planned that we would come back to the topic later if situations worsen.
The team discussed it hours before it was declared a pandemic by WHO and had a formal meeting this week.
I would like the community to actively participate in this discussion thread.
Problems ======== - COVID-19: The rate of spread for COVID-19 is high, and even there is no timeline to when things would get better. - Hotel Booking: Sheraton has prepared the contract and we have to send out our payment and book the venue, but the situation is quite volatile now. Paying the hotel would mean we would be locked with the venue and if things go south, then we will end up losing money. - Complete Isolation: At this point in time, it is better to stay in complete isolation, and same goes for the volunteers. - Keynote Speakers: With the current VISA situation, we cannot fly in any of the keynote speakers from outside - Sponsors: The team talked to other organizers, and the companies at the moment are refraining from sponsorships. This is not true for all companies but a fair percentage of them. - Travel, Tickets & Participation: We also fear ticket sales. Till the time things don't get better, people might be reluctant to buy tickets. - Lockdown: If things don't get better there is a possibility of lockdown which means any public gathering would be banned
How are we planning to go ahead? ================================
We are planning to do some research with other options in hand, which means we won't be doing it at Sheraton.
The options that we have are: - Smaller conference: We are planning to have talks with smaller venues like NIMHANS, BIC. The plan is to talk and negotiate with the cancellation. This means the expected crowd will fall down - Online conference: The other option is to have an online conference.
We need to do budgeting for both the options and do some research if we go for the online conference option. The plan is we will closely monitor the situation and make the decision on which option to opt for.
It would be great to have the community come forward with questions, suggestions to make PyCon India 2020 a success.
It looks like the biggest risk is the money getting locked with the hotel. If the situation continues to be the same till October, that means the economy would be severely hit and I don't think we will be able to find a single sponsor. Given this situation, I think it may be too risky to spend any money on the venue at this point in time. One option that can be considered is to plan the event at an academic institution, of course we need to plan for a smaller size conference. For example, IIM Bangalore has a good auditorium and connected rooms and we can talk to them and see if they are willing to host the event. I'm sure we can even talk to many engineering colleges in the city. This allows us to run the conference of if the situation improves, but not lose any money if have to cancel the conference. This also gives us confidence to run the conference even if we don't find any sponsors as budget is very low. Anand
My own opinion that we should cancel it. The situation is too unpredictable and we really don't know when things will clear up. A lot of commitments financial and otherwise have to made upfront to conduct the event and making these at a time like this is short sighted. -- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in
Check out this Virtual Conference Streaming being conducted by Stanford Medicine to find out how they are conducting it. This will give us an idea of how Virtual PyCon may look like and help in decision making! It's going on right now. https://hai.stanford.edu/events/covid-19-and-ai-virtual-conference/livestrea... On Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 11:20 PM Noufal Ibrahim KV <noufal@nibrahim.net.in> wrote:
My own opinion that we should cancel it. The situation is too unpredictable and we really don't know when things will clear up. A lot of commitments financial and otherwise have to made upfront to conduct the event and making these at a time like this is short sighted.
-- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in _______________________________________________ https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon Mailing list guidelines : http://www.shakthimaan.com/downloads/glv/presentations/mailing-list-etiquett...
Within 20 days itself (from when this mail chain started) the world has changed a lot. No one knows where this generation is going to stand in the coming months. In my opinion, we should hold onto this for 1-2 Months and then discuss if we need to cancel or go with other options. Holding it in College or some other place Is a very good option as this will help with the budget. (expecting less sponsor this time) Thanks Nitin Kr On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 10:08 PM Ravina More <the.ravina@gmail.com> wrote:
Check out this Virtual Conference Streaming being conducted by Stanford Medicine to find out how they are conducting it. This will give us an idea of how Virtual PyCon may look like and help in decision making! It's going on right now.
https://hai.stanford.edu/events/covid-19-and-ai-virtual-conference/livestrea...
On Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 11:20 PM Noufal Ibrahim KV <noufal@nibrahim.net.in> wrote:
My own opinion that we should cancel it. The situation is too unpredictable and we really don't know when things will clear up. A lot of commitments financial and otherwise have to made upfront to conduct the event and making these at a time like this is short sighted.
-- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in _______________________________________________ https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon Mailing list guidelines : http://www.shakthimaan.com/downloads/glv/presentations/mailing-list-etiquett...
_______________________________________________ https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon Mailing list guidelines : http://www.shakthimaan.com/downloads/glv/presentations/mailing-list-etiquett...
It would be great to have the community come forward with questions, suggestions to make PyCon India 2020 a success.
PyCon US 2020 have done completely online conference. https://us.pycon.org/2020/online 1. Instead of live event online they recorded the event started posting in youtube for tutorials (workshops) and Talks 2. DevSprint we can go online format for PyCon India 2020 What will happen if we go online, 1. We don't break the chain of PyCon India 2. We can conduct a completely free event to the opensource python community 3. We can almost reduce 90% of our expenses for the conference. May be no sponsor conference. Volunteer efforts is the key as like every year PyCon India. Regards Rengaraj
We can have workshops on multiple locations as well with limited people space. Volunteers can help them to follow the workshop. On Sun, 19 Apr 2020, 9:43 pm Rengaraj D, <sakthirengaraj@gmail.com> wrote:
It would be great to have the community come forward with questions,
suggestions to make PyCon India 2020 a success.
PyCon US 2020 have done completely online conference. https://us.pycon.org/2020/online
1. Instead of live event online they recorded the event started posting in youtube for tutorials (workshops) and Talks 2. DevSprint we can go online format for PyCon India 2020
What will happen if we go online,
1. We don't break the chain of PyCon India 2. We can conduct a completely free event to the opensource python community 3. We can almost reduce 90% of our expenses for the conference. May be no sponsor conference.
Volunteer efforts is the key as like every year PyCon India.
Regards Rengaraj _______________________________________________ https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon Mailing list guidelines : http://www.shakthimaan.com/downloads/glv/presentations/mailing-list-etiquett...
participants (8)
-
Anand Chitipothu -
Haris Ibrahim K. V. -
Nitin Kumar -
Noufal Ibrahim KV -
Ravina More -
Rengaraj D -
Sayan Chowdhury -
Vellanki Koti