History of PyCon Taiwan

Before PyCon Taiwan

Thinker Li organized PyCTW, the predecessor of PyCon Taiwan, in both 2008 PyCTW and 2011 PyCTW. They were one-day events gathering Pythonistas in Taiwan together.

2012 the first year of PyCon Taiwan

The first PyCon Taiwan was founded in 2012, by yyc. The topics focused on scientific computation as well as introduction to Python-based tools. The organizers decided to follow the Everybody Pays policy originated from PyCon US: Everyone, is required to pay for the ticket. The principle distinguishes PyCon Taiwan from other conferences in Taiwan.

2013 Expand the annual meeting

The 2013 annual meeting was expanded and the registration was very active, and the annual meeting even piloted paid teaching activities.

2014 Python APAC

We hosted the PyCon APAC/Taiwan, in both 2014 and 2015. We were lucky to invite Jessica McKellar, director of Python Software Foundation, and many contributors as our keynote speakers. We also arranged programs like Show Time and Job Event to promote the sponsors. Tutorials covering several topics were held, ranging from Python introduction to web crawling and data mining.

2015 Python APAC

PyDay, an activity for new programmers hosted jointly by PyCon Taiwan and top universities in Taiwan, was also held for the first time in 2015. Keynote speakers from PyCon Taiwan came to the PyDay event, and share their experience throughout the sessions.

2016 “Implement the Future!”

In 2016, under the slogan “Implement the Future, Together!”, was stronger than ever. We invite jserv and Audrey Tang, including Paul Hildebrandt, senior engineer at Disney Animation Studio, Steve Dower, software developer at Microsoft. Paul brought us an speech about how Python is applied to animation production in Disney. We also made new attempts including a FinTech session, interactive games combining sensor technology and a vending machine, and experience-sharing talks about teaching programming to young adults. The 2016 Blog and photo albums have our most treasurous memories.

2017 “Future”

In 2017, all of our keynote speakers, including globally renowned machine-learning expert Hsuan-Tien Lin, are not only recognized in their respective fields, but also community leaders, trend-setters, and visionaries for the next generation. We also held an “unconference conference”, looking forward to spurring discussion in the community, to great success. The late-night party was also expanded to include contributions from community members with various talent.

2018 “Acceleration”

Largely the same team were brought back to host PyCon Taiwan in 2018. Continuing the established theme, the image was set to “acceletation”, both in the technical sense and community-wise.

2019 “Innovation”

We retrospected the role of PyCon Taiwan as a community platform in Taiwan in 2019. We have continued to improve our agenda by introducing wonderful activities and experience from the other Python Conferences. We also enhanced the exchange of experience between local-to-local and local-to-international Python communities, and adopted innovative plans.。

2020 “Moving Southward”

To promote local communities to the attendees, we hosted PyCon Taiwan in Tainan for the first time. And we introduced Community Track, hosted by eight local communities such as Taipei.py, Taichung.py, Tainan.py, etc. People can decide which local communities to interact with, and while doing so, understand the unique culture of different communities.

2021 “Reunion”

This year is the 10th anniversary of PyCon Taiwan. Besides passing on the experience in communities, we are also introducing brand new activities, like PyCasts and Young Inspirers, to facilitate and encourage discussions among different groups. Let’s get together and make PyCon Taiwan more professional, accessible, and energetic than ever.

2022 Awesome Python Awesome Community

PyCon Taiwan will once again be hosting PyCon APAC for the third time. PyCon APAC 2022 will be a fully remote conference. We will be incorporating events from the past decade in PyCon Taiwan into PyCon APAC this year, such as: Open Space, Young Inspirers, PyCast, and more. “Awesome Python Awesome Community” is our view of the “APAC” in PyCon APAC for 2022. The Python community is not established overnight.We look forward to meeting with all the Python developers in APAC.

2023 “Rebirth”

Having overcome the challenges of the pandemic, PyCon Taiwan 2023 is poised to guide attendees from the virtual world back to physical conferences. Over the past two years, developers have had fewer opportunities for face-to-face interactions. This year, we are returning to Academia Sinica to host an in-person annual conference and several offline activities, including meetups and sprints. Allowing participants to directly engage with speakers/project hosts, once again experiencing the warmth of human interaction. Furthermore, we have invited past chairs and Keynote speakers to record documentaries and promotional videos and host panel discussions to infuse the Python community with innovative ideas and energy.

2024 “Connection”

Last year, PyCon Taiwan guided attendees back to physical conferences from the virtual world. In PyCon Taiwan 2024, we’re taking attendees to Kaohsiung! Drawing inspiration from other Python Conferences worldwide, this year’s program introduces Poster Session to bridge the gap between speakers and attendees. We aim to foster closer connections through face-to-face discussions, sparking creativity and exchanging ideas.