Translations available: español

Proposal Guidelines

We are very excited to invite everyone back to Pittsburgh, PA for PyCon US 2025! PyCon US is seeking speakers of all experience levels and backgrounds to contribute to our conference program! If you use Python professionally, as a hobbyist, or are just excited about Python or programming and open source communities, we’d love to hear from you.

All speakers will be presenting their topics in person this year at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Travel grants will be available to speakers, so please don’t let that be a deterrent. We want you and your ideas at PyCon US!

Be sure to read and understand the Health & Safety Guidelines for PyCon US 2025.

We are also excited to be using Pretalx again this year for our proposal submission, reviewing, and schedule building.

We are providing useful and important information below that will help you submit an informed and successful proposal, so please take the time to read everything thoroughly. If you have questions regarding the CfP, please email pycon-cfp@python.org.

Timeline:

  • November 1, 2024 - Call For Proposals Opens
  • November 22, 2024 - Deadline to participate in Proposal Mentorship Program
  • December 19, 2024, 11:59 PM EST — Call For Proposals Closes
  • February 5-6, 2025 — Notifications are sent to speakers
  • February 18, 2025 - Travel Grant applications close and final day for speakers to confirm attendance
  • February 28, 2025 — The schedule is posted here on the PyCon US website
  • May 14-22, 2025 — PyCon US 2025 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Part of PyCon US’s purpose is to generate materials to help with Python education and advocacy all over the world, so we intend to record all PyCon US Keynotes, Charlas, Talks, and Lightning Talks and release the recordings on our YouTube channel. For the details, see our PyCon Recording Release.

Please note: all presentations at PyCon US 2025 will be in person only with no live stream taking place this year.

Guidelines for Proposal Submission

Everyone is encouraged to submit a proposal, regardless of experience level. PyCon US thrives on having talks ranging from introductory to advanced. If you are reading this, and you are interested in speaking at PyCon US, we want you to submit a proposal.

Before writing up a proposal, read the following descriptions of the four kinds of presentations at PyCon US — Talks, Charlas, Tutorials, and Posters — and follow the individual page links for the proposal kind that best suits your topic.

Important Note: Proposal submissions that are solely or to a large extent written or include AI-generated text by a large-scale language model (LLM) such as ChatGPT will not be accepted and disregarded without a second chance to submit.

PLEASE READ: PyCon US 2025 Proposal Submission Policies

Proposal Limit

Although PyCon US 2025 wants to see and hear everyone’s ideas, we also want to ensure high-quality proposals and streamline the review process for our review teams. To do so, we are introducing a new proposal limit of three proposal submissions per person. This limit includes all submission types (Talks, Tutorials, Posters, and Charlas). If you are listed as a co-speaker on a proposal, it will count toward your total.

  • Submission Limit: Each individual may submit a maximum of three proposals, of any type.
  • Co-Speaking Count: Proposals where you are a co-speaker will count as one of your three submissions.
  • Non-Compliance: If an individual submits more than three proposals, none of their submissions will be reviewed by the committee.

Two-Speaker Limit

PyCon US would love to invite as many speakers as possible to our conference, however, it’s important to maintain a diverse range of topics and speakers. This year, each proposal for Talks, Tutorials, Posters and Charlas may include a maximum of two speakers. Exceptions may be considered for podcasts and panels submitting for the Talk track, reasonings for multiple speakers can be provided in the "Notes" section of your proposal.

For questions or clarification regarding this year’s policies, please contact the conference organizing team.

Code of Conduct

All speakers are expected to have read and adhere to the conference Code of Conduct. In particular for speakers: slide contents and spoken material should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate, and neither is language or imagery that denigrates or demeans people based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, physical appearance, disability, body size, or any other dimension of diversity.

Travel Grants

PyCon US does not want expenses to discourage you from submitting a proposal and speaker travel grants ensure that if assistance is needed and your proposal is accepted you can speak at PyCon US. When you create a speaker profile, check the box to indicate that you require a speaker grant. This is not seen by the proposal reviewers and does not affect the review of your proposal.

Please note that this year’s speaker Travel Grant policy allows for a maximum of two speaker travel grants per accepted proposal. This applies to all session types. More information about Travel Grants will be available on the PyCon US in the coming months.

After proposals are selected, we’ll reach out to you regarding your needs. We understand situations can change and we are here for you. If you have any questions, let us know at pycon-aid@python.org.

Talks

These are the traditional talk sessions given during the main conference days, Friday through Sunday, May 16-18, 2025.

PyCon US is dedicated to featuring a diverse and inclusive mix of speakers in the lineup.

We will make every effort to provide accommodations for speakers and attendees of all abilities — all we ask is that you let us know so we can prepare accordingly.

Most talks are 30 minutes long, but we do offer a limited number of 45-minute slots for important topics that promise to benefit from a more extensive treatment. We organize the schedule into five “tracks”, grouping talks by topic and having them in the same room for consecutive sessions.

Learn more: Proposing a Talk

Charlas

PyCon US Charlas (“charla” is the Spanish word for conference “talk”) will be a 2 full-day track of Python talks en Español at PyCon US and open to the entire Python community.

If you can speak Spanish, why not submit a proposal for a charla? If you speak Spanish as a second, third, or twelfth language, please do not hesitate to participate! The call for proposals opens with the rest of the CFP.

Learn more: PyCon US Charlas

Tutorials

As with the talks, we are looking for tutorials that can grow this community at any level. We aim for tutorials that will advance Python, advance this community, and shape the future. Each tutorial session runs for 3 full hours plus a break for coffee or tea. There is both a morning tutorial session and an afternoon tutorial session on the two days preceding the main conference — this year, the tutorial days are Wednesday and Thursday, May 14-15, 2025 in the same venue that hosts the main conference days that follow.

Attention full-time trainers: Please bring your coursework to PyCon US. Every year we get several educators who bring their show on the road, so show us what you have on the syllabus for 2025.

As tutorials are longer than talks and are in an interactive classroom-like setting, they require much more preparation. Due to the amount of work involved, tutorial instructors are compensated. There is a limit of at most two tutorials given by one presenter.

Learn more: Proposing a Tutorial

Posters

Posters will be displayed during the open Expo Hall hours of the conference and through the Posters Session which takes place alongside the Job Fair on Sunday, May 18, 2025.

A poster is a presentation of a topic on an 8′×4′ poster board. As attendees mingle through the rows, they find interesting topics, read through them, and then strike up a discussion. As with the other proposal types, we are looking to you to talk about what’s going on in this community and tell everyone where it is going. If you are doing something awesome, share it!

Learn more: Proposing a Poster

Where to Submit Your Proposal

Please review our submission instructions for more details and guidelines on submitting your proposal on Pretalx.

Due to the competitive selection process, we encourage prospective speakers to submit their proposals as early as possible as it allows for participation in the Proposal Mentorship Program to receive proposal feedback prior to the CfP deadline.

PyCon US is using Pretalx again in 2025. It is a highly recommended platform that provides a very seamless process for submitting, reviewing, and scheduling for PyCon US.

Please follow the below steps to submit your proposal.

Important note: when creating a speaker profile on Pretalx, it is important to use the same email address used to create your account on us.pycon.org/2025.

  • To submit your proposal, first head to Pretalx.
  • You will arrive at the PyCon US 2025 Pretalx landing page. Here, you will see two buttons: “Edit or View Your Proposals” and “Go to CFP”.
  • To submit a new proposal, click “Go to CFP” then “Submit a Proposal”.
  • Follow the steps provided. Please be sure to read the help text for each section while filling out your proposal.
  • Important: Make sure the “Session Type” and “Track” selections are the same; ie if you select ‘Tutorial’ for the session type, please be sure to select ‘Tutorial’ for the track as well.
  • You will be prompted to set up your Pretalx account in Step 3 of the submission process, this will be your speaker profile.
  • Once your proposal is filled out and your account and speaker profile information have been entered, you will see the button to submit your proposal.
  • After your proposal is submitted, you will be able to edit and review your proposal up until the date of the CFP deadline. This can be done via the landing page by clicking the button “Edit or View Your Proposals”.
  • An email confirmation will be sent to you once your proposal has been submitted.

About PyCon US 2025

PyCon US is the largest annual gathering for the community using and developing the open-source Python programming language. It is produced and underwritten by the Python Software Foundation, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing and promoting Python. Through PyCon US, the PSF advances its mission of growing the international community of Python programmers.

PyCon US is really four events in a row. Learn more about what PyCon US has to offer.