Early on when DjangoCon Europe 2015 was announced, it instantly differentiated itself from other conferences.
Organized this year in Cardiff, UK, DjangoCon set its goals high by planning 3 days of talks, 2 days of sprints and providing inclusive environment for everybody. It encouraged first time speakers to come and share their thoughts and adventures in Djangoland (© @bmispelon) by launching a speaker mentor program, included a live text transcription throughout the whole conference, offered a free crèche (and we had some lovely young djangonaughts), organized a free open day, which students of Cardiff University benefited from.
In addition to all of this DjangoCon is characterized by an extremely friendly community. Mark said it better:
I can honestly say that the #djangocon community is the nicest, most decent collection of people I have ever met. Breath-takingly lovely ❤️
— Mark Henwood (@mcbhenwood) June 3, 2015During those few days spent in Cardiff, you realize that Django is not just a framework that we all use and like, it’s the people who make it awesome. It’s also sort of snowball effect. Once you see how Django community treats all the newcomers, you want to share this right attitude with the rest of the world.
DjangoCon did everything right. And it’s pretty hard to get everything right when you have 300+ attendees, volunteer-driven team (actually the most pony-awesome team: Vincent, Baptiste, David, Daniele, Ola, Jason, Geraint) and One Direction invasion.