PyCon Belarus & our community

PyCon Belarus (often branded PyConBY) was the largest yearly Python gathering in Belarus: talks and workshops in Russian and English, international speakers, and a home for people who already met each other at local meetups. The live site at by.pycon.org is gone; this page is a community summary drawn from archives and public coverage.

• Editions: 2015–2021 (final)
• Organizer: SPACE / EventSpace
• Venue: Minsk (later online)
• Archive: Wayback Machine

What it was

Belarus joined the international PyCon family in 2015. The conference was produced by SPACE (EventSpace) in cooperation with Python enthusiasts from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine — and, by 2019, Portugal as well. Talks spanned core Python, web, data science, and open source; many editions ran at SPACE on Kastryčnickaja / Oktyabrskaya in Minsk.

LinkedIn still describes PyCon Belarus as a nonprofit-style annual convention in Minsk with an audience of over 1,500 people across on-site and online formats. Social updates historically lived on facebook.com/pyconby and Twitter @pyconby; the organisational footprint also appears on LinkedIn.

How the local community took part

Minsk Python Meetup (founded around 2014) and PyCon Belarus grew up in the same city ecosystem: company- and venue-backed meetups through the year, and a flagship conference organized by Event Space. Community organizers and regulars showed up as attendees, speakers, partners, and programme committee members.

A clear public example is 2021: the online edition was announced on the Python mailing list with a free remote event and an open CFP. The archived 2021 site listed a programme committee that included people familiar from the local Python scene (among them Stas Rudakou, Nikita Grishko, Andrii Soldatenko, and others). That is the typical pattern — SPACE stages the conference; local enthusiasts help decide what gets on stage.

Editions, 2015–2021

1. 2015 31 January · EventSpace, Minsk · first edition

   The first PyCon in Belarus: about 150 people, 14 talks across two tracks, Russian and English, plus lightning talks. PSF Director David Mertz and Austin Bingham were invited keynotes; Wargaming sponsored. Covered by the Python Software Foundation blog. Snapshot: PyCon Belarus'15.

2. 2016 6 February · SPACE, Oktyabrskaya 16A · 10:00–19:30

   Second year at SPACE. Archived homepage: PyCon Belarus'16. Dates also tracked on pythondeadlin.es.

3. 2017 4 February · SPACE · 10:00–18:30

   Third edition; bilingual site (Ru/En). Recordings indexed on PyVideo (including speakers such as Armin Ronacher). Snapshot: PyCon Belarus'17.

4. 2018 24 February · EventSpace · 10:00–18:00 · 4th conference

   Python and Data Science tracks with international speakers (e.g. Tarek Ziadé, Hynek Schlawack, Andrey Svetlov, Gaël Varoquaux) — see DOU calendar. Snapshot: PyCon Belarus'18.

5. 2019 15–16 February · SPACE, Kastryčnickaja 16/4 · 5th edition

   First two-day format: Junior Day (workshops for newcomers and data science) on 15 Feb, Advanced Day on 16 Feb. Listed on python.org events and DOU; talks on PyVideo 2019. Snapshot: PyCon Belarus 2019.

6. 2020 21–22 February · Minsk · 6th edition

   Workshops day (21 Feb) and conference day (22 Feb). Speakers on the archived site included Andrew Godwin and Michael Foord, among others. Snapshot: PyConBY 2020.

7. 2021 13 March · online · free

   Pandemic-era edition: fully remote and free. Line-up on the archived site included Sebastián Ramírez (tiangolo), Mariatta Wijaya, Łukasz Langa, Anthony Shaw, Ian Ozsvald, and many others; programme committee listed publicly. CFP announcement · PyConBY 2021 snapshot.

Watch & dig deeper

• PyVideo — 2017, 2019
• All archived by.pycon.org pages
• Conference series dates
• Facebook · pyconby · SPACE

Sources

← Back to Minsk Python Meetup