(Please feel free to pass this onto any Girl Geek-related mailing lists that you think may benefit from this -- we want to get the word out about this as much as possible. :) )

PyCon Australia and Google Australia are pleased to announce that they're joining forces to offer gender diversity delegate grants to women who wish to attend PyCon Australia in 2012. These grants will cover up to $AUD500 of travel, accommodation and registration costs for women living outside of the Southern Tasmania region to attend this year's conference.

These grants aim to reduce the financial barriers to attending PyCon Australia 2012, by subsidising the registration and travel costs of people from diverse groups, who contribute in important ways to the Python community.

More information can be found at http://2012.pycon-au.org/diversity_grants

==== Eligibility ====

In order to be eligible for one of the grants, you must be:

- A woman, aged 18 or older - A professional, enthusiast or student interested in, or currently working in Python-related fields or projects - Planning to attend both days of PyCon Australia 2012 - In order to be eligible for the travel and accommodation grant, you must additionally: live further than 150 km (by road) from the conference venue.

(If you are unsure, please visit http://maps.google.com.au/maps/place?q=Wrest%20Point,%20Tasmania and use the "Get Directions" link in the upper left-hand corner to calculate the driving distance from your place of residence to the venue.)

More information can be found at http://2012.pycon-au.org/diversity_grants

==== Award Amount ====

All selected grant recipients will be extended the Early Bird registration rates to PyCon Australia, provided registration is completed prior to 13 July.

In addition, recipients of the travel and accommodation grant will be reimbursed up to $500 in travel and accommodation costs.

More information can be found at http://2012.pycon-au.org/diversity_grants

==== Timeline ====

Applications for the gender diversity delegates grants are open now, and will close on Friday 15 June We will notify all successful recipients of their award by Friday 22 June so that you can have ample time to complete your travel plans.

More information can be found at http://2012.pycon-au.org/diversity_grants

=== About PyCon Australia ===

PyCon Australia is the national conference for the Python Programming Community. The third PyCon Australia will be held on August 18 and 19, 2012 in Hobart, Tasmania, bringing together professional, student and enthusiast developers with a love for developing with Python. PyCon Australia informs the country’s Python developers with presentations, tutorials and panel sessions by experts and core developers of Python, as well as the libraries and frameworks that they rely on.

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2012, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact@pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Gold sponsors: Google Australia (www.google.com.au), and the Australian Computer Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au); our Event partner, Secret Lab; and our Silver sponsors: the Python Software Foundation, the Django Software Foundation, Anchor Systems, Red Hat, ekit, RimuHosting, and CSIRO.

-- --Christopher Neugebauer Conference Coordinator and Sponsor Liaison

PyCon Australia: Hobart 2012 -- http://2012.pycon-au.org -- @pyconau Early bird registration and accommodation deals now available! See our website for details.

Jabber: chrisjrn@gmail.com -- IRC: chrisjrn on irc.freenode.net -- WWW: http://chris.neugebauer.id.au -- Twitter/Identi.ca: @chrisjrn