Good day PyOhio community! We've got a lot of exciting stuff to talk about in our April newsletter, so let's jump right in!

PyOhiothon 2026 Launches Today 🚀

We're officially launching our first annual PyOhiothon in support of PyOhio today! The PyOhiothon is a community fundraising campaign to try to keep PyOhio running as a free-to-attend in-person annual regional conference!

💪 PyOhio needs your support! 💪

As many of you are aware, there have been a number of financial hardships in the technology community over the last couple of years. In the Python community specifically, the Python Software Foundation has paused its Grants program that supports regional conferences and meetups. Corporate sponsorship has been on the decline for the past several years. Yet despite the difficulties, the PyOhio Organizer team remains dedicated to our commitment to keeping PyOhio free to attend. Always has been, always will be.

The organizers and volunteer team work hard every year to make PyOhio the best event it can be for all attendees. But in order to make that happen, we need your help with the unavoidable costs of running a conference.

Today, we launched our first annual fundraising campaign to help cover the costs of hosting the event.

So what can you do to help?

🪙 Donations are, of course, always welcome! Every little bit helps, so feel free to donate what you can. You can donate to PyOhio via the PSF donation page: https://psfmember.org/civicrm/contribute/transact/?reset=1&id=45

🤜🤛 If you're able to donate a little more, consider becoming an individual matching sponsor! We'd love to have some individuals who are willing to match up to a certain dollar amount of donations to help make those donations go even further! If you're interested in being a matching individual sponsor, please reach out to us at sponsorship@pyohio.org so we can discuss the details with you!

🏢 Talk to your employer. While corporate donations have slowed in recent years, many employers still have programs to provide donations in the employee's name, or even match charitable donations the employee makes themselves. If your employer provides sponsorship opportunities, direct them to the PyOhio Sponsor Prospectus to see if you can get the process started! All donations and sponsorships go through the Python Software Foundation, which is a recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

💬 Spread the word! Tell everyone you know in the community about the PyOhio 2026 fundraiser. The more eyes on our campaign the more likely it is we'll meet our goals! Don't forget to boost / repost our social media posts if you follow us there as well!

✏️ Tell your PyOhio story! Let people know what PyOhio means to you and why they should support us to keep it going! Don't forget to tag us with #PyOhio on LinkedIn or Mastodon!

Call For Proposals Close on April 19

Submit your Talks! 🎤

Your final day for talk proposals for PyOhio 2026 is coming up fast! There's only a few days left to send us your proposals. Our submission form is open through April 19th, Anywhere on Earth: https://pretalx.com/pyohio-2026/cfp

Join the Discord 🧑‍💻

Remember, if you need any support for your CFP or you have questions, you can join our Discord server and hop into the 2026 #cfp channel to ask our Program Team! Get your invite here: https://pyohio.org/discord

Volunteer Reviewers Needed 🙋

As our CFP closes, we're trying to make sure we can get all our talk proposals reviewed and let the speakers know as soon as possible. We're aiming to have all submissions reviewed within one week after the close of our CFPs, so we need YOUR help! You can volunteer even if you've submitted a talk proposal yourself, so email us at program@pyohio.org to join the review team today!

Upcoming Python Events (April-May 2026)

Upcoming CFP Deadlines (April-May 2026)

Today's Python Tip 💡

If you're loading a potentially long list of data (say, from a file or network) but you usually don't expect to process ALL of it, consider using a Python generator instead of a regular list - you can save a lot of memory by not loading every line of the file when you might only be searching for one record!

Generators are a really powerful Python tool - learn more about them here: https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/classes.html#generators

Thank you to our Community

🙏🙏🙏 Thank you one and all for your continued support! We know we've got an amazing community, and together we can make PyOhio 2026 better than ever!

-- The PyOhio 2026 Organizer Team