Good news for you! Our awesome Warsaw tech community prepared more treats to make your stay here as great as possible. So what’s happening?

If you’re going to be in town on Monday (May 13th), you can’t miss PyWaw. PyWaw is a local python group. We meet every month to talk python, drink beer and eat best spinach pizza in Warsaw. This time, on Monday (May 13th) they’re holding a meeting with Russell Keith-Magee and Daniel Greenfeld - so it’s like a mini DjangoCon ;) Other than that, you’ll get a chance to meet a crème de la crème of Warsaw python developers. It’s really awesome and organizers are good friends of ours. Recommended! :)
Details: http://www.pywaw.org/13-05-2013

Tuesday (May 14th) evening is no different. Warsaw Startup community called Reaktor prepared a Reaktor Dev Meetup with David Bizer and Jean-Paul Schmetz. Each minute in the Internet there are more than one million searches performed, seven new Wikipedia articles published, 70 hours of new videos uploaded, more than 100 thousand new tweets send. If you’re excited about BIG data, you definitely want to be in Reaktor Tuesday evening. Free beer and pizza are also worth mentioning :) 
Sign up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/517078068327722/

Hope you’re excited! We will post more info about parties coming up during DjangoCon really soon.

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We cannot express enough how excited we are to announce our next Keynote Speaker. 

Daniel Greenfeld, most recently the co-author of Two Scoops of Django: Best Practices for Django 1.5 and Django contributor is joining our little circus.

Daniel Greenfeld is a developer working mostly with Python, Django and JavaScript. Daniel first heard about Python around 1999 when the Zope Corporation contacted him about possible employment. The commute was too far, so he went for a Java position instead. After half a decade of Java work he was ready to quit programming, but was re-introduced to Python in 2005 while at NASA headquarters. By 2006 he was working full-time with Python, and in 2009 he started to work with Django. He met his fiancée, Audrey Roy, during a Django tutorial at PyCon 2010. He is a principal at Cartwheel Web, a firm specializing in Python and Django applications.

Daniel believes that Python and Django have been very good for him, and is doing everything possible to pay it forward. 

We’re sure everyone who got to meet Danny in person know how great, amazing and nice he is. It’s a great honor for us to host him in Warsaw and we hope you all will enjoy his keynote on Friday morning!

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We couldn’t be more excited. Time to announce our Keynote Speaker! It’s our pleasure and honor to say that Brandon Rhodes will be joining us in Warsaw. It isn’t his first time - he already spoke at PyCon PL and he can’t wait to be back. We can’t wait, too.

Brandon is an independent developer, teacher, speaker, book author and open source contributor. He trains new Python programmers professionally and also consults on Python software projects. He started using Python in 1997 or 1998 (the exact year has been lost to history) and for 15 years has maintained the PyEphem library for amateur astronomers.

We’re sure that everyone who ever see his talk love his unique style. If you haven’t, make sure to see one of his PyVideos :) 

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It took us a while but Kuba finally put together the movie from PyCon! We’ve decided to bring 2 GoPros to California with us to make a movie for you. So here it is: enjoy, spot everyone you know, mention them and share it on twitter! 

Hope you like it!

In other news, PyCon-free Raspberry Pi & lab inspired us to do something absolutely crazy.

There is this whole maker/IOT movement thing: and we believe in it; we even organized a local HACKWAW - the hardware hackathon in Warsaw a while ago.

Let’s do stuff, create, share, learn, MAKE. Raspberry Pi lab at PyCon was amazing, but it had two drawbacks: it was way to small and way to short.

So why not make it a 3-day European workshops for makers?!

And that’s how Makerland was born.

We’re looking for 500 brave makers (or makers-wannabe) who want to join us in Warsaw during fall to create together the biggest and best workshops on Arduino, Raspberry Pi and 3D Printing yet.

It sounds crazy and challenging (and you hear this from guys who decided to throw a conference in a circus tent) but it’s also incredibly exciting and we literally can’t sleep while thinking about how important this can be.

If by any chance you’re interested in joining Makerland, please please sign up for newsletter. We’re checking how many people also think this is awesome :)

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We were overwhelmed by the amount of great submissions you guys sent for our Hoodie contents. Thanks to everyone who participate! We have a winner.

This is Django Pony Unchained Hoodie. The design was made by awesome guys from SynopsiTV who let us use it for DjangoCon. Thanks! <3

SynopsiTV is a startup from Slovakia — a personalized recommendation service and a social network centered on entertainment. The goal is one, though, to enhance the enjoyment of your entertainment experience. And they’re using Django, too. Thanks for supporting us!

So what’s the deal? We really, really want but we can’t give a free hoodie to everyone. We are going to order them for speakers but we thought we can give you a chance to have one or buy one for a friend. A hoodie will cost 30 EUR.

If you want one (or more!), go ahead and order them by clicking here. It’ll be waiting for you at DjangoCon for pickup. If you can’t attend and still want one - ask friends who are going to Warsaw to pick one for you. Also, bring cash (PLN or EUR) with you, we won’t have a credit card option.

That’s it! We’re closing the ordering form at midnight on April 30th.

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Hi everyone!

We’re now back from lovely and sunny Santa Clara and working really hard to deliver best week ever to 420 people who trusted us (yes, that’s you!). However, it’s a community driven event. It means that it’s organized by community and for community. If you feel like you’re part of the Django community, then we have a job for you. 

We’re going to print some awesome hoooodies for the speakers as a gift for taking their time to prepare a talk and travel to Warsaw (it’s a secret, so don’t tell them!). Everyone (you too!) will also get a great t-shirt. Unfortunately, we can’t afford to give hoodies to everyone, but they will be available to buy at DjangoCon for ~30 EUR. 

What’s the challenge? We have no idea what to print on them! We don’t want you to be a walking banner but it’d be nice to have a funny slogan referring to DjangoCon or circus or Python or Django or Warsaw, or all that stuff at once :) So what do you do if you don’t have an idea? You ask community!

If you have an idea for a funny slogan for official DjangoCon hoodie, then we have a very unique prize for you. Author of the best slogan will get a hoodie with a printed slogan and an invitation to a special speakers hangout a night before DjangoCon!

If that sounds like something you want to get, then tweet your ideas (as many as possible) with a @DjangoCon or if you’re shy, send it to hoodie@djangocircus.com. It doesn’t have to be a design, just plain text. The funnier, more creative and geeky, the better :) The deadline is next week - Tuesday, April 2nd.

Have a FUN week everyone!

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Your twitter feed is probably very similar to ours right now: people packing, flying, printing business cards, practicing talks and getting nervous. That means only one thing: PyCon US is in 2 days! And we’re going to be there.

Ola, Ola, Tomek and Kuba are going to spend next week with 2496 python developers in sunny Santa Clara. Rach Belaid dropped an idea to organize a small meetup (or rather a drinkup) to meet face to face with other DjangoCon attendees, speakers, sponsors and organizers before May. We think it’s excellent idea :) 

So, here is the deal: if you want to meet us, get an awesome DjangoCon sticker, grab a beer and have fun, then be in the lobby of Hyatt Regency Santa Clara at 8pm on Sunday, 17th March.

If you’re busy on Sunday, then go to our team page and remember our faces. We would love to meet you!

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Since last batch of tickets is on sale now, it’s time to think about what you need to do to come to Poland. The question is: do you need a visa to visit Poland?

If you are a EU citizen - it’s as easy as having your ID in your pocket.

For non-EU citizens, here is a bunch of information you should check out.

First step is to check if your country is on visa free country list. You can find it here: http://www.msz.gov.pl/en/travel_to_poland/entering_poland/visa_free

If you are lucky and your country is on the list and you’re planning to stay no longer than 90 days then all you need is a valid passport. Please note that for some countries on the list only biometric passports holders are not required to have a visa.

If you cannot find your country on the list, you have to apply for a visa (the sooner the better! Don’t let “bureaucracy machine” stop you from attending DjangoCon!)

To apply for a visa (C-type Schengen visa), you’ll need:

• passport (travel document) that is valid a least 3 months after your planned departure from Poland/Schengen territory, with at least 2 blank pages inside and issued within the last 10 years
• completed and signed visa application form
• biometric photo
• paid visa fee
• health insurance of at least EUR 30000, valid in the entire Schengen territory

You’ll need to supply some extra documents and confrimation about - the purpose of the visit (if you need some kind of proof that you’re attending DjangoCon, we can provide you an official letter/invitation - just email us),

• possession of accommodation;
• possession of sufficient funds to cover the cost of entry, stay and departure from the Schengen territory or Poland;
• wilingness to leave Schengen territory after expiry of the visa.

You can find further information on this page: http://www.msz.gov.pl/en/travel_to_poland/visa

A list of Polish missions abroad is available here: http://www.msz.gov.pl/en/travel_to_poland/polands_missions_abroad

If you have any questions or problems with your visa, please contact us: hello@djangocircus.com - we’d love to help!

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We’ve been quiet for a while because we had to do our math, talk with the circus guys and start to prepare cool parties for you. We also already sold 60% of all tickets (yay!).

The rest of the tickets (40%) will be on regular sale from Wednesday, 27th February. It’s the last batch, so we’re not gonna close it until it’s really sold out. 

We’re going to sale the ticket only via credit card this time until we figure out our “problems” with Paypal account (it has been frozen), as soon it gets unfrozen, we’ll enable Paypal too.

If you have any problem with tickets / payment, just let us know: tickets@djangocircus.com. We’re always there for you and we really want to help. We can accept bank transfers and we will do anything to help you get your ticket.

Please, please, make sure to let know your friends, colleagues and local Django/Python user groups that you’re going. It’s always funnier to go on a trip with a friend :)

Stay tuned for more great info and subscribe our newsletter - we’re going to announce great parties, more awesome speakers and crazier details soon!

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Wow, that was quite a week. 120 happy Djangonauts snapped their tickets  to DjangoCon, yaaay! If you add ~30 speakers and great sponsors, it’s quite a crowd already :)

First batch of 50 was gone in literally 2 minutes (we added 10 more tickets after 30 minutes). But the second batch broke some kind of world record: tickets were gone after one refresh! WOW.

After first two sales we worry there is much more demand than we thought. We planned a small conference for maximum 400 people. However, we may be able to move some walls in the Circus, so please go ahead to our ticketing site and let us know how many of you is out there by clicking “I’d be interested” button, so we can be prepared and make sure everyone will get a ticket. 

1/3 of all the tickets are now sold out. We’ll do Regular sales in 3 batches of ~80 tickets, each on different day and different time. First batch of Regular Tickets is going on saleWednesday, 13rd February, 2pm CET. There will be an option to buy more than one ticket, pay via PayPal and by credit card.

Have a good weekend everyone! ;)

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