The future was front and center for the IndyPy 15th anniversary meetup on May 10. The event, organized by Six Feet Up, was held in a hybrid format, with in-person attendees at The District Tap Northside along with virtual guests tuning in via Zoom. Six Feet Up CTO and AWS Community Hero, Calvin Hendryx-Parker, and Michael Kennedy, host of the popular Talk Python to Me podcast, discussed the future of Python meetups in a global, hybrid world.
During the celebration, Calvin announced that the hybrid format was here to stay — IndyPy will be held in a hybrid format once per quarter going forward.
“We’ve gained a whole new group of people through virtual meetups, and I want to make sure we include them,” Calvin said. “It’s not just the Midwest anymore; IndyPy is global. I feel like we have a duty to make IndyPy accessible to both audiences.”
The May 10 event marked the first time IndyPy had been held in-person since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also marks the start of a year-long celebration (May 2022 - April 2023) of 15 years of the Python community gathering each month at IndyPy.
“We’ve been through a lot, including a couple years of not meeting in-person, and I want to change that,” Calvin told attendees.
IndyPy was founded in 2007 as a Meetup group for the Indianapolis-area Python community to network and discuss the language. The group has grown to over 2,500 members, and it serves the Python community at large by live-streaming the Meetups for members around the globe.
You can read about IndyPy’s history and some of Calvin’s fondest IndyPy memories over the last 15 years here. Attendees have also shared some of their favorite memories of the last 15 years on Twitter at #IndyPyMemories.
The 15th anniversary event used Slido to bridge the gap between in-person and remote attendees. Along with door prizes, the event had running polls for attendees, as well as a Slido board where attendees could post questions for Calvin and Michael.
An early poll showed that roughly 60% of attendees have joined IndyPy in the last five years, and just over 10% were attending an IndyPy event for the first time. Calvin hopes to harness this increased growth and accessibility by holding a hybrid IndyPy meetup once per quarter.
“I want both the hybrid and in-person audience. I’m going to work hard to make both happen,” Calvin said. “The community is worth it.”
Ari Waller, a Meetup Event Manager for JFrog, one of IndyPy’s sponsors, had kind words for Calvin and IndyPy.
“What was really able to transcend into a virtual environment was your community’s authentic personality. It really shined through,” Ari said. “It felt like home. I’ve sat in hundreds of meetups. IndyPy is special.”
Calvin and Michael fielded questions from the audience and discussed a number of topics relating to future meetups, including:
Organized by Six Feet Up, IndyPy wouldn’t be possible without our awesome sponsors including JetBrains, JFrog and Reify Health. If you are interested in sponsoring IndyPy, please send an email to events@sixfeetup.com.
Join the IndyPy tribe and RSVP for our upcoming meetups (which occur on the second Tuesday of every month) via meetingplace.io/indypy.
Six Feet Up, Inc.
11208 Windermere Blvd.
Fishers, IN 46037 - USA
Phone: +1 (317) 861-5948
Email: info@sixfeetup.com
