If you’re not familiar with the concept of a contiki, it’s a phrase used to describe a road trip, or a bus trip, or a general trip of various destinations with a group of people, completely stealing the name from the tour company. If you don’t recognise the term then the pun may be lost on you.

I was forunately enough to participate in Djangocontiki 2017, travelling to two DjangoCons in a month. Given there are only three DjangoCon conferences each year (which is why Django Under The Hood isn’t a ‘djangocon’) – one in Australia, Europe, and North America – there is chance that some of them may be at around the same time. This year, the AU and US versions were in August, so, road-trip!

All these wonderful people went to both conferences, and it was amazing to spend time with each and every one of them. Especially Lilly and her Bananas.

Some highlights of the combination DjangoCon (and, you know, a PyCon AU in the middle of it):

  • Running a DjangoCon0
  • Auctioning off a bright pink hoodie
  • Keynoting PyCon AU (there’s a video!)
  • Running not one, but two BeeWare sprints
  • Chilling at the hotel pool, with a waterslide :D
  • Spending many wonderful winter (and summer) evenings with nice people from the Python/Django world
  • Seeing Book of Mormon, then flying through Salt Lake City but a few days later
  • Finally meeting a bunch of amazing US based djangonauts
  • Giving my emoji talk at DjangoCon US, meaning I’ve presented it at all three DjangoCons
  • Going to Olive Garden (… what?)
  • FINALLY getting to see Tracy Osborn speak live
  • FINALLY getting to see Josh Simmons speak live1
  • Oh, and I’m running a conference. Oops.

Want to help out with PyCon AU 2018? Ping me

0: Okay, in the scheme of things, DjangoCon AU is nothing more than a miniconf, but still

1: Even through all three of us are serial conference goers, I’ve never mananged to see either of their talks until this last trip