1---
 2template:
 3title: PyCon India 2019 wrap-up
 4subtitle: Pretty fun weekend, I'd say
 5date: 2019-10-15
 6slug: pycon-wrap-up
 7---
 8
 9I'm writing this article as I sit in class, back on the grind. Last
10weekend -- Oct 12th and 13th -- was PyCon India 2019, in Chennai, India.
11It was my first PyCon, _and_ my first ever talk at a major conference!
12This is an account of the all the cool stuff I saw, people I met and the
13talks I enjoyed.
14Forgive the lack of pictures -- I prefer living the moment through my 
15eyes. 
16
17## Talks
18
19So much ML! Not that it's a bad thing, but definitely interesting to
20note. From what I counted, there were about 17 talks tagged under "Data
21Science, Machine Learning and AI". I'd have liked to see more talks
22discussing security and privacy, but hey, the organizers can only pick
23from what's submitted. ;)
24
25With that point out of the way, here are some of the talks I really liked:
26
27- **Python Packaging - where we are and where we're headed** by [Pradyun](https://twitter.com/pradyunsg)
28- **Micropython: Building a Physical Inventory Search Engine** by [Vinay](https://twitter.com/stonecharioteer)
29- **Ragabot - Music Encoded** by [Vikrant](https://twitter.com/vikipedia)
30- **Let's Hunt a Memory Leak** by [Sanket](https://twitter.com/sankeyplus)
31- oh and of course, [David Beazley](https://twitter.com/dabeaz)'s closing
32keynote
33
34## My talk (!!!)
35
36My good buddy [Raghav](https://twitter.com/_vologue) and I spoke about
37our smart lock security research. Agreed, it might have been less
38"hardware" and more of a bug on the server-side, but that's the thing
39about IoT right? It's so multi-faceted, and is an amalgamation of so
40many different hardware and software stacks. But, anyway...
41
42I was reassured by folks after the talk that the silence during Q/A was 
43the "good" kind of silence. Was it really? I'll never know.
44
45## Some nice people I met
46
47
48- [Abhirath](https://twitter.com/abhirathb) -- A 200 IQ lad. Talked to
49me about everything from computational biology to the physical
50implementation of quantum computers.
51- [Abin](https://twitter.com/meain_) -- He recognized me from my
52[r/unixporn](https://reddit.com/r/unixporn) posts, which was pretty
53awesome.
54- [Abhishek](https://twitter.com/h6165)
55- Pradyun and Vikrant (linked earlier)
56
57And a lot of other people doing really great stuff, whose names I'm
58forgetting.
59
60## Pictures!
61
62It's not much, and
63I can't be bothered to format them like a collage or whatever, so I'll
64just dump them here -- as is.
65
66![nice badge](/static/img/silly_badge.jpg)
67![awkward smile!](/static/img/abhishek_anmol.jpg)
68![me talking](/static/img/me_talking.jpg)
69![s443 @ pycon](/static/img/s443_pycon.jpg)
70
71## C'est tout
72
73Overall, a great time and a weekend well spent. It was very different
74from your typical security conference -- a lot more _chill_, if you
75will. The organizers did a fantastic job and the entire event was put
76together really well.
77I don't have much else to say, but I know for sure that I'll be
78there next time.
79
80That was PyCon India, 2019.