Program

How Program IsHas Been Made

How program works is (and should be) very much up to the Program Chair. What I'm going to describe here is a mixture of the general structure that I've applied when I've run it, and some specific things that have worked well (or not). The "I" in this page, at least at this time, is Benno Rice coming off the back of doing PyCon AU 2025. You should not feel chained to what is written here, and I've attempted to explain the "why" as much as the "what" so that you can try to get good outcomes out of whatever process suits you.

The Sequence of Events

1. Determine Specialist Tracks (must be done before CfP can open)
2. Call for Proposals (must be complete 4 or more months prior to conference open)
3. Finding and Locking In Keynotes (should be done as soon as practical)
4. Recruiting Reviewers (can be done during CfP)
5. Proposal Review (allow 2-3 weeks, starting ~1 week after CfP close)
6. Thunderdome (allow one day, ideally)
7. Schedule Construction (should be ready ~3 months out from conference, will change)
8. Pre-Conference (everything between initial schedule release and conference open)
9. Conference (on-the-ground cat herding)