1---
 2template:
 3title: PyCon India 2019 wrap-up
 4subtitle: Pretty fun weekend, I'd say
 5date: 2019-10-15
 6---
 7
 8I'm writing this article as I sit in class, back on the grind. Last
 9weekend---Oct 12th and 13th---was PyCon India 2019, in Chennai, India.
10It was my first PyCon, _and_ my first ever talk at a major conference!
11This is an account of the all the cool stuff I saw, people I met and the
12talks I enjoyed.
13Forgive the lack of pictures---I prefer living the moment through my 
14eyes. 
15
16## Talks
17
18So much ML! Not that it's a bad thing, but definitely interesting to
19note. From what I counted, there were about 17 talks tagged under "Data
20Science, Machine Learning and AI". I'd have liked to see more talks
21discussing security and privacy, but hey, the organizers can only pick
22from what's submitted. ;)
23
24With that point out of the way, here are some of the talks I really liked:
25
26- **Python Packaging - where we are and where we're headed** by [Pradyun](https://twitter.com/pradyunsg)
27- **Micropython: Building a Physical Inventory Search Engine** by [Vinay](https://twitter.com/stonecharioteer)
28- **Ragabot - Music Encoded** by [Vikrant](https://twitter.com/vikipedia)
29- **Let's Hunt a Memory Leak** by [Sanket](https://twitter.com/sankeyplus)
30- oh and of course, [David Beazley](https://twitter.com/dabeaz)'s closing
31keynote
32
33## My talk (!!!)
34
35My good buddy [Raghav](https://twitter.com/_vologue) and I spoke about
36our smart lock security research. Agreed, it might have been less
37"hardware" and more of a bug on the server-side, but that's the thing
38about IoT right? It's so multi-faceted, and is an amalgamation of so
39many different hardware and software stacks. But, anyway...
40
41I was reassured by folks after the talk that the silence during Q/A was 
42the "good" kind of silence. Was it really? I'll never know.
43
44## Some nice people I met
45
46
47- [Abhirath](https://twitter.com/abhirathb)---A 200 IQ lad. Talked to
48me about everything from computational biology to the physical
49implementation of quantum computers.
50- [Abin](https://twitter.com/meain_)---He recognized me from my
51[r/unixporn](https://reddit.com/r/unixporn) posts, which was pretty
52awesome.
53- [Abhishek](https://twitter.com/h6165)
54- Pradyun and Vikrant (linked earlier)
55
56And a lot of other people doing really great stuff, whose names I'm
57forgetting.
58
59## Pictures!
60
61It's not much, and
62I can't be bothered to format them like a collage or whatever, so I'll
63just dump them here---as is.
64
65![nice badge](/static/img/silly_badge.jpg)
66![awkward smile!](/static/img/abhishek_anmol.jpg)
67![me talking](/static/img/me_talking.jpg)
68![s443 @ pycon](/static/img/s443_pycon.jpg)
69
70## C'est tout
71
72Overall, a great time and a weekend well spent. It was very different
73from your typical security conference---a lot more _chill_, if you
74will. The organizers did a fantastic job and the entire event was put
75together really well.
76I don't have much else to say, but I know for sure that I'll be
77there next time.
78
79That was PyCon India, 2019.