About

The original PyCon was formed in North America in 2003, and now there are many conferences being run in the PyCon spirit around the world.

PyCon Taiwan is an annual convention in Taiwan for the discussion and promotion of the Python programming language. It is held by enthusiasts and focuses on Python technology and its versatile applications. We welcome people who are interested in Python to join PyCon Taiwan to share knowledge, exchange ideas, make connections and to help us grow our network.

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

The first PyCon Taiwan was founded in 2012, by yyc and volunteers from communities. The topics mainly 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, including the staffs and speakers of PyCon Taiwan, is required to pay for the ticket. The principle, which we honor to this day, distinguishes PyCon Taiwan from other conferences in Taiwan. The chairperson, yyc, cheerfully recorded this milestone in his blog.

In 2013, the re-elected chairperson, yyc, decided to expand the scale of PyCon Taiwan, and tried several new events. A paid Python tutorial was hosted in collaboration with caterpillar before the conference. It was highly successful. We also held the Birds of a Feather (BoF) event for the first time, featuring with a night market style activity, in which participants enjoyed the buffet with live music performance, and walk among booths hosted by various communities. These new events became a signature for PyCon Taiwan. yyc again summarized some thoughts about the conference in his blog.

We turned to host PyCon APAC/Taiwan, as PyCon for the APAC area, in both 2014 and 2015, lead by chairpersons Tim Hsu and Keith Yang. We were lucky to invite Jessica Mckellar, director of Python Software Foundation, and many prestigious contributors in the community as our keynote speakers. During the BoF, we launched a problem-solving competition in collaboration with CheckIO, as an entertaining activity. We also arranged programs like Show Time and Job Event in order to promote sponsors. Tutorials covering several topics were held, ranging from Python introduction to web crawling, data mining, signal processing, and even interaction with Raspberry Pi.

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

We passed the APAC flag to South Korea in 2016, and put our focus back to the native Taiwanese community. But PyCon Taiwan, now under the slogan “Implement the Future, Together!”, was strong as ever, and received a overwhelming amount of proposals and participants. We were lucky to invite jserv and Audrey Tang, both famous Taiwanese community leaders and established hackers, as well as foreign speakers including Paul Hildebrandt, senior engineer at Disney Animation Studio, Steve Dower, software developer at Microsoft, and Amber Brown, manager of the Twisted project. Paul brought us an enlightening speech about how Python is applied to animation production in Disney, which the audience greatly enjoyed. Along with the first local keynote speakers at PyCon Taiwan, 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 photo albums have our most tresurous memories.

Now, as the calendar flips to year 2017, we again set our new goals under the slogan: “def future”. We welcome all of you who are interested in Python technology to come to this event, and define the future with us!

Hsinchu — Python Hsinchu User Group (PyHUG)

PyHUG, founded by yyc and Albert Huang in 2011, is the first Python user community in Taiwan. The meetup was first located at Operations Center for Industry Collaboration, NTHU, and was later moved to Information Technology Service Center, NCTU. Speakers were invited on a monthly basis. The majority of participants were university students, along with engineers from Hsinchu Science Park, linguists, and even Hsinchu police officers. Therefore, topics were mostly about scientific application in Python, which affected the focus of first PyCon TW. In recent years, the meetup, held in a coffee shop with around 20 attendees on every Wednesday, turns to be "eating, chatting, talking about Python and everything". Currently the community is organized by Dainese. They are looking for new face to join.

Taipei — Taipei.py

After COSCUP 2012, Keith, Tim and some enthusiasts launched Taipei.py. The number of members rapidly grew up to 50 after the first few meetups. The events are hosted monthly at CLBC. The topics are mainly related to web programming and web application. Recently there are more sharing of big data topics. Since most of the organizers are in web-related industry, Andy also hosts other activities, such as Python Web Meetup and Django study group, besides the monthly meetups.

Tainan — Tainan.py

In 2013, Joe founded Tainan.py when he moved from Taipei to Tainan due to the change of company location. Since jserv also became the faculty in Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, NCKU, Joe decided to launch "Tainan.py × MOSUT" events with MOSUT, another community located in Tainan. In order to promote local Tainan food, local dishes, like fried chicken and almond soup, are provided during the break in Tainan.py. Monthly meetup takes place in the weekend afternoon, so attendees are welcome to try more Tainan food after the meetup if the local dishes during the break is just not enough :)

PyLadies Taiwan

2014 was a year that the number of Python local communities grew rapidly. One of these communities was PyLadies Taiwan, which was founded during the night market event in PyCon Taiwan 2013. The first PyLadies meetup was hosted in Taipei. It is a girls only community. Currently there are casual meetups, which provides a place to exchange experience in Python, chat, and meet new friends. Every girl who likes Python or wants to learn Python are welcomed to become a member of PyLadies Taiwan.

See report: PyLadies 社群注入台灣女性技術社群新動能

Kaohsiung — Kaohsiung.py

Before Kaohsiung.py was founded, Python enthusiasts, like TooMore and CD, sometimes shared Python-related topics in the KSDG meetups. Founder of Kaohsiung.py is Victor Gau. He joined Tainan.py regularly until one day he had an accident with a speeding motorcycle on the way from Tainan to Kaohsiung. The accident induced him to launch a Python community in Kaohsiung. Therefore, Kaohsiung Python User Group was founded in 2014. In addition to casual meetups, which invites specialist from other cities, there is a regular gathering in Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages on one Monday night every month. They welcome anyone who passes by Kaohsiung to join the events.

Taichung — Taichung.py

Taichung.py was started in 2014 by Prof. Yuan-Liang Tang and several enthusiasts. The events were held at restaurants or coffee shops until later Microprogram Co. supported the event venue. Now the events are held monthly in Saturday afternoon, which is best suited for a walk to have some snacks in Fengjia Night Market after the event.

Hualien — Hualien.py

The history of Hualien.py can be dated back to 2013, Prof. Tzer-Jen Wei felt the lack of open source and technology communities in the east part of Taiwan. He started to invite Python speakers from other cities. Having speakers like c3h3, clkao and Mosky, Hualien.py began the first event in 2014. Events have been located in Hualien Railway Cultural Park, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien Cultural Creative Industries Park and so on. By the supports from all over the Taiwan, the community in Hualien thrives. Now there are more and more local speakers in the meetups. In addition to speeches, there are casual gathering and special focus workshop. Next time when having a trip in Taiwan east coast, drop by Hualien.py.

Django Girls Taiwan

Django Girls Taiwan was founded by Michelle Leu in 2014. Currently there are casual tutorials and workshops to help girls build their own Django website. Also there are events held with the Python Web Meetup for novice. Highly recommend to girls with basic understanding of Django to learn more.

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