Sunday, June 14, 2026

PyCon US 2026: The Afterfeels

I returned to PyCon for the first time since the pandemic started and it was quite emotional.

Last month was PyCon US 2026, and it was my first time back since the three I attended before the pandemic began—2017, 2018, and 2019. 2020 and 2021 didn’t happen in person, in 2022 and 2023 I still felt unsafe traveling and spending significant time indoors among large crowds, and in 2024 and 2025 travel was prohibitive for a number of reasons. With it arriving to my relative back yard, I was determined to take full advantage of that, and I did, being present from Wednesday to Tuesday. It was fantastic.

Note: This post doesn’t really cover the talks very much, since I attended so very few. I heavily focused on spending time with the humans I don’t otherwise get to see much but greatly appreciate, so I’ll write a follow-up post when the videos are posted and I go through the ones I’m looking forward to seeing. Also, I’m awful at remembering to take photos, but there are a few at the very bottom of the post.

People

Why do I go to conferences (and meetups)? It’s the humans, silly.

The content is often worthwhile in various ways—interesting, educational, entertaining—but really, it’s for the people. Especially at recorded events like this, the talks are available online at some point after the conclusion, and if it were just a matter of ingesting the material, that would indeed be a far superior approach.

In person I get to say “hi” to so, so many people I interact with regularly via social networks and chat platforms. I get to hug and shake hands with some, build a little extra rapport, and form friendships. In my North Bay Python 2026 post I wrote:

In the lead-up to the conference my wife at one point said that she was glad I was going to see my friends—that’s how I talk about them.

Well, it turns out the same goes for PyCon US, as—perhaps unsurprisingly—a good number of the people from NBPy were also here.

Particularly great are the first-time face-to-face meetings. Thinking back I can count no fewer than ten people whom I’ve e-met over the past few years and with whom I fairly regularly converse via Mastodon, Discord, or otherwise, who either made a point of finding me and introducing themselves in person or for whom I did the same.

After all, the whole point of all this to me is people. I can solve software puzzles on my own without community projects, and I can build a ton of stuff as a quiet consumer of others’ great work, but ultimately it’s all about the community.

When that community is truly spread across the globe, and travel is challenging for a variety of reasons, events like this are ever more precious opportunities to build these connections. We’re social animals, even the introverts among us.

Vibes

Based on the above section, you may be expecting this one to be full of positivity, and you wouldn’t be wrong. The vibes were pretty great and optimistic.

By and large I interacted with smiling, pleasant people, who were talking about the things that bring them joy and are worth getting and being excited about in this Python/tech world of ours. Many had (frequently nascent) projects they wanted to share with others, events they were organizing, and hobbies to nerd out on. They were curious about what others were into, looking for overlap and resulting connection.

They were also there for the people.

Unemployment

One notable downer was the sheer volume of very capable folks looking for work. The job market is undeniably incredibly tough at the moment—a first in my career—and it shows. I found my impostor syndrome flaring up like nobody’s business while talking to people I look up to and hearing about their job hunt struggles. It blows.

And for what it’s worth, my employer is currently hiring and I’m happy to chat with anyone reading this if they want to explore whether that could be a good fit.

AI

The other notable downer I encountered was the AI chasm between companies and people. Almost all Expo Hall banners brandished some form of “AI for _”, and the vast majority of people I talked to wanted nothing to do with it. The dissonance is astounding and depressing, and probably fodder for another post, though I’ve struggled to find the words so far.

Logistics

As a long-time event organizer myself, I couldn’t help but observe how the event was run. There were some navigational hiccups involved with getting around the venue—namely security staff not having the best information on how to do so—but other than that things seemed pretty alright. I didn’t catch wind of any catastrophic A/V issues, there seemed to be no scandals besides the opening “keynote”, and I was able to find restrooms whenever I needed them.

The one thing I found myself wishing for was shaded outdoor seating. There are tables in front of the venue, but they’re in direct SoCal sun the whole afternoon, which is a great recipe for roasting. That said, I don’t think there’s much the organizers can do about this, so off to cafés we’ll all go next year as well.

Commuting

I don’t live particularly far from Long Beach, so I decided to commute every day. This did save me roughly a zillion dollars on hotels, but it came at what ended up being a pretty steep price by the end of it all.

The roughly 30-mile drive isn’t too bad outside of rush hour times, so I averaged probably some 40 minutes each way. Normally this isn’t an issue, but I neglected three things:

I haven’t had a daily commute of any sort since March 2020 and have completely lost the tolerance for that kind of repetitive driving. This did not get better by the end.
Conference days are exhausting and long, involving far more hours of activity and peopling than I’m used to, making the drive home after 14 hours out a bit rough. On several nights I realistically probably shouldn’t have driven given how tired I was.
I already don’t drink much and thus have next to no tolerance, so knowing I still had to drive home made alcohol consumption a real no-go. This wasn’t a huge issue, but did make me skip a few cocktails I otherwise wouldn’t have.

The temptation to have a slow morning and roll in late grew throughout the event, and I’m pretty sure I arrived around mid-day for the sprint days. It wasn’t the end of the world, but I do feel like I missed out on a bit of the fun, even if only theoretically.

For next year I plan on getting a hotel, most likely the one attached to the venue for maximum convenience.

Locale

Long Beach is cool. I haven’t spent much time there in the past, and it was a pleasant experience. The area around the convention center is pretty chill and walkable, and has decent food options. It was reminiscent of NBPy in its early Downtown Petaluma days, with everyone spilling out into the neighborhood for food and drinks.

I look forward to hanging out there again next year. As a local who may end up moving nearby in the next few years, this earned it some points.