===== No More Spreadsheets! Building PyLadiesCon Infrastructure with Python and Django =====
  * **Speaker**: Mariatta Wijaya  
  * **Room**: CC 235  
  * **Time**: Sun 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm  

  * **Format**: Lecture (30 Min + Q&A)  
  * **Difficulty**: Introductory  
  * **Track**: Development & Dev Tools  
  * **Additional Tags**: DevOps, Sustainability & Funding, Self-Hosting  
  * **Presenter Location**: In-person  
  * **Experience**: umpteenth time speaking  
  * **At**: anywhere  

==== Description: ====  
PyLadiesCon is a global, 24‑hour online conference run entirely by volunteers — and for years, nearly every part of it was managed through spreadsheets. Volunteer sign‑ups, scheduling, sponsorships, logistics… if you needed information, there was a spreadsheet for it. While spreadsheets are great for capturing data, they quickly became a source of confusion, version drift, and collaboration headaches across a distributed volunteer team.

In 2025, the PyLadiesCon organizers decided it was time for a change. This talk shares how the team began building an **open‑source conference infrastructure** using **Python and Django**, replacing a maze of spreadsheets with a unified, maintainable web application.

Mariatta will discuss:

  * The unique challenges of running a multilingual, 24‑hour global conference  
  * Why spreadsheets became a bottleneck for collaboration  
  * How the team designed and built a Django‑based system to manage volunteers, scheduling, sponsorships, and more  
  * Lessons learned from building infrastructure as a volunteer‑run open‑source project  
  * How you can contribute and support the PyLadies community  

Attendees will gain insight into the realities of running a global online conference and how open‑source tools can transform volunteer workflows.

**Target Audience:**  
  * Community organizers  
  * Python and Django developers  
  * Open‑source contributors  
  * Anyone interested in building infrastructure for large volunteer‑run events