Stories of a speaker (12 part series) Speaking online at EuroPython 2020 The Django speaking tour 2022 The PyCon Italia 2022 multiplicity My DjangoCon Europe 2025 My PyCon Italia 2025 My EuroPython 2025 My DjangoCon US 2025 My DjangoCon Europe 2026 My PyCon US 2026 My PyCon Italia 2026 My EuroPython 2026 My DjangoCon US 2026 DjangoCon US 2026 brought me back to Chicago for several busy days with the Django community, this time again both as a speaker and a Django Software Foundation board member.
During the conference, I shared many moments live on Mastodon: talks and keynotes I attended, conversations in the hallway track and around the DSF booth, the DSF Members Open Space, the speaker dinner, time with friends and other community members, and a short visit to the sprints before leaving Chicago. I also documented my own talk, “The Django UUID Story”, from the final preparations to the moments after leaving the stage.
This timeline collects those posts in chronological order, together with a few posts from other attendees that captured moments I missed or moments involving me, and the photos and videos shared along the way. It is not a complete recap of DjangoCon US 2026, but a snapshot of my experience as it happened, from the journey to Chicago to the trip back home.Days 22 August 2026 05:33 I’m about to fly from Rome to Chicago for DjangoCon US 2026! 🇺🇸
Crossing the Atlantic again to meet the Django community in the US , and returning as a speaker and DSF board member. 🦄
🏖️ Pescara → 🚌 FCO → ✈️ ORD → 🚈 Chicago → 🏨 voco Chicago Downtown
See you soon! 👋
12:52 And so DjangoCon US begins for me…
🏠 LFK → 🚙 MCI → ✈️ MDW → 🚕 Chicago → 🏨 voco Chicago Downtown
I will see some of you tonight/this week in Chicago.
19:42 Paolo Melchiorre travel safe, see you soon!
22:50 Back in Chicago! 🇺🇸
After landing at ORD , border controls and an hour on the Blue Line, it felt great to walk through downtown Chicago again.
Just after checking into the hotel, I ran into Jeff Triplett , Will Vincent and Peter Grandstaff in the lobby. We had dinner at the hotel bar, with Velda Kiara , Kojo Idrissa and Jon Gould aggiungereigradually joining us. 😊
After almost 24 hours awake, I think I’ve earned some sleep. 😴
23 August 2026 08:00 DjangoCon US starts tommorow! 🎉
Chicago is calling. We can’t wait to welcome the Django community for a week of talks, tutorials, sprints, and connection.
📅 https://2026.djangocon.us/ Django Python
08:19 See you soon, DjangoCon US !
08:26 We are waiting for you Jon Banafato 😀
08:40 On my way to Chicago for DjangoCon US, travel safe see you all soon! 👋
08:44 Rachell Calhoun have a safe drive. See you here in Chicago 😊
19:06 A slow Sunday in Chicago before DjangoCon US starts tomorrow. 🇺🇸
Jet lag woke me up early, so I took the morning easy: breakfast with a downtown view, a long walk along the river, then back to the hotel to work on my slides.
I met plenty of familiar faces arriving, had a quick outdoor lunch with Santos Gallegos and Aman Singh, and helped put up a couple of conference banners, including the big one behind the stage. 😊
23:03 The evening before DjangoCon US 2026 begins in Chicago 🇺🇸
Tonight’s welcome reception was the first chance to see everyone together, catch up with familiar faces, meet new people, share a drink, and start collecting a few selfies. 🤳
A relaxed way to spend the evening before the conference officially starts tomorrow, and now time to rest with an amazing Chicago view. 🌃
24 August 2026 08:42 “ I’m going to talk very briefly about lightning talks”
So it that a lightning meta-talk or a meta-lightning talk?
Kojo Idrissa DjangoCon US
08:48 Coffee ✅
09:01 Good morning from a sunny Chicago! ☀️🇺🇸
After an early breakfast and a short walk through the city as it was waking up, I’m finally here, rested and ready for DjangoCon US 2026.
Keanya Phelps is about to open the conference, and then three days of talks begin. 😊
Let’s go!
09:06 Dawn Wages starting off DjangoCon for us all.
09:09 I’m jetlagged but on time for my lovely friend’s keynote 💜💜🚀
Dawn Wages 😘 DjangoCon US
09:19 A little last-minute laptop setup with Peter Grandstaff , and Dawn Wages is now on stage for the opening keynote, “Boldly Go, Building Worlds”. 🚀
It started almost like a conversation with the front rows: a Star Trek reference, a question from Drew Winstel , and Dawn chatting with the audience before naturally moving into the keynote itself.
Very casual, and very effective.
10:49 Dan Ryan is on DjangoCon US stage talking about the huge work behind Django ‘s modernized Code of Conduct.
I’ve followed this closely over the past months and reviewed the changes, so it’s great to see Dan presenting what the working group and community have achieved.
One slide says it especially well: this was Dan’s first contribution to Django: a reminder that contributing to Django doesn’t have to mean writing code. 💚
13:57 DjangoCon 2026
Search-as-you-type for 54 Million Names: PostgreSQL + Django for Fuzzy Name Matching at Scale
14:57 It’s 3:45 am, so of course I’m on my way to the airport for PyConAU.
Reading toots about everyone having a great time at DjangoCon US.
Really miss my US Django crew, but looking forward to seeing my AU people.
16:32 Sad I can’t be at DjangoCon US this week but I chose pyconau this year after a few years of missing it.
It will be the very first Djangocon US I have not attended, remarkably, but my role in the framework is also very minimal these days, so mostly a loss for me not being able to see everyone!
16:52 A shout-out to Carlton Gibson here at DjangoCon US !
17:05 After spending much of the afternoon on the hallway track, I’m back for Josh Thomas talk on how AI coding agents changed the way he writes Django.
I was curious to compare his experience with mine, and a lot of his suggestions and reflections resonated with me.
I especially enjoyed Carlton Gibson quote: “Go with the grain of Django.” 🌾
20:53 Day 1 of DjangoCon US 2026 is done. 🇺🇸
The talks were great, but a big part of the day for me happened in the hallway track and around the DSF booth: answering questions, chatting with attendees and sponsors, and catching up with people I only get to see in person once or twice a year.
Those conversations are a huge part of why I come to conferences like this. 💚
20:54 And I couldn’t resist sharing a few more faces from today. 🤳😊
So many conversations, quick hellos, unexpected encounters, and chances to catch up throughout the day: here are four more moments I was happy to collect.
25 August 2026 09:22 Day 2 of DjangoCon US ! ☀️🇺🇸
After an early breakfast and another sunny walk along the Chicago River, I’m back in the room for Peter Hoffmann opening remarks.
He encouraged everyone to get early tickets for 2027, helped by a slide accidentally suggesting a two-week DjangoCon. 😄 A few people in the audience seemed ready to sign up already!
A fun way to start the day.
09:51 Sarah Boyce is giving today’s keynote, “Emails from my Grandad”.
“Brave step” to tackle something as delicate as code review. 😄
Joking aside, she’s doing a great job talking about how difficult it can be to give and receive feedback, especially in Open Source, where reviews involve not just code but people, trust, and relationships.
Really enjoying this one.
10:33 After the morning break, I’m enjoying Frank Wiles and Calvin Hendryx-Parker comparing Django and FastAPI .
It’s fun to watch two very experienced consultants and long-time members of the Django community challenge each other in such a friendly way.
I especially like that this feels constructive rather than competitive: not “which one wins?”, but understanding where each approach fits best.
10:38 If Zellit goes wild, does it get a show on HGTV ?
DjangoCon US
10:49 “Faster is not the same as better.” Great point from the Batteries vs. Speed: The Django/FastAPI Debate talk at djangoconus2026 by Frank Wiles and Calvin Hendrix-Parker
12:17 We love that Chrissy Wainwright from Six Feet Up is sharing her dynamic landing page work with DjangoConUS2026! If you’re not here with us in person, she did a blog for us with all the details: https://wagtail.org/blog/build-dynamic-campaign-landing-pages-in-wagtail/
13:38 We are so proud to to support DjangoCon US 2026 and the Django community! Stop by and grab a limited edition post card illustrated by the incredible Sarah Becan.
14:51 DjangoCon 2026
16:12 After lunch, I’m watching Sarah Abderemane tell the story of her first contribution to djangoproject.com: adding dark mode. 🌙
I remember that PR well, and smiled when one of my old review comments appeared in her slides. Since then, I’ve watched Sarah contribute more and more, especially on accessibility, and become Co-Chair of the Website Working Group.
It’s wonderful to see that journey told from the stage. 💚
16:57 Elizabeth Christensen is on stage with what’s new in PostgreSQL 18 & 19. 🐘
Meeting Elizabeth at DjangoCon US and talking about the latest PostgreSQL features, and which ones we’d love to bring into Django, has become a tradition for me.
Yesterday we even exchanged slide feedback: she showed me hers, I showed her some from tomorrow’s UUID talk. Maybe that’s why I’ve been mentioned a few times today. 😄
Always a pleasure.
22:35 DjangoCon US speaker dinner tonight in Chicago. 🇺🇸
After a full day of talks, it was great to slow down and share dinner with speakers and organizers right here at the conference venue: good food, conversations, familiar and new faces, and a beautiful Chicago sunset. 🌇
A lovely moment to relax and connect before another busy day.
Tomorrow it’s my turn on stage. 🦄
26 August 2026 09:21 Third morning in Chicago, starting with an early coffee outdoors with Will Vincent and Andrew Mshar and a beautiful view of downtown at sunrise. ☕🌅
Good coffee, a quiet city, and a nice conversation, a pretty perfect way to get ready for the final day of DjangoCon US 2026.
09:31 DjangoCon US Day 3 starts with the Karen Tracey keynote on Django 6.x 💚
Karen has been part of the Django community since 2006, and I’ve had the pleasure of knowing her for a few years.
After twenty years of Django releases, it’s wonderful to see how genuinely excited she still is about this one, and to see Django still evolving enough to make people feel that way.
11:06 Always a pleasure to caption DjangoCon US ❤️ White Coat Captioning
11:30 [News] DSF Membership Open Space at DjangoCon US
Bring your questions about the Foundation to DSF board directors on Wednesday, August 26, 1:00 to 1:45 PM in the Wolf Point Ballroom. djangonews
https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2026/aug/20/dsf-membership-open-space-at-djangocon-us/
11:31 I’m listening to Jacob Walls talk about auto-prefetching and model field fetch modes in Django 6.1.
I met Jacob last year, then again at Django on the Med, and saw an earlier version of this talk at DjangoCon Europe in Athens in April.
It’s really interesting to see how both the feature and the talk have evolved in just a few months, and always a pleasure to hear Jacob explain Django’s ORM . 😊
13:16 We loved Mariana Bedran’s lightning talk on how Lincoln Loop handles tests and docs for all the Wagtail blocks used on Firefox.com. The best part is it’s all OpenSource. You can go learn from their best practices at https://github.com/mozmeao/springfield
13:57 DjangoCon 2026 HTMX without betraying your Django views
14:40 I hope the entirety of this next talk from Will Vincent is “never deploy”
DjangoCon US
14:42 Will Vincent starts his talk with a shout-out to Jeff Triplett & Carlton Gibson , his partners on various Django enterprises. DjangoCon US
14:44 We’ve just wrapped up the Django Software Foundation members Open Space at DjangoCon US
It was great to meet everyone and share updates on the work of the DSF board and Steering Council working groups. Lots of interest in fundraising, the Executive Director search, and Django events around the world.
And we get a final selfie with Jeff, Afi & everyone. 📸
14:54 I’ve been looking forward to Will Vincent “Modern Django Deployments in 2026” at DjangoCon US
We’ve chatted about it over the last few days, and I saw how much work he put into refining the slides and presentation.
Really happy to see it on stage—and to watch people around me nod along as Will goes through the familiar pain points of deploying Django. Clearly, a lot of this resonates. 🙂
15:01 In just over half an hour I’ll be on stage for “The Django UUID Story”. 🦄
If you’re here in Chicago, I’d be very happy to see you at 3:40 PM in the Sauganash Ballroom at voco Chicago Downtown. If you’re following online, I hope you’ll tune in too!
Curious what it’s about? The talk page has the details: https://2026.djangocon.us/talks/the-django-uuid-story/
15:15 🔑 UUIDv4 or UUIDv7? UUID Story” and explore how UUID support has evolved in Django and what it means for modern database design. PM DjangoCon US Django Python
15:43 DjangoCon 2026 UUID Story
16:24 I just presented “The Django UUID Story” at DjangoCon US 2026 in Chicago! 🇺🇸
I talked about Django’s UUID support, my small part in that story, and how my first Django contribution started with UUIDs during the 2017 sprints.
It felt especially fitting to end by inviting everyone to join the sprints and make their own contribution. 💚
Thanks to everyone who came! 🤗
16:42 Last session of DjangoCon 2026
22:37 DjangoCon US 2026 wrapped up this afternoon with closing remarks from Conference Chair Keanya Phelps. 💚
After thanking attendees, sponsors and speakers, all the volunteers came on stage for a very well-deserved round of applause. 👏
It was a real pleasure to be part of this conference, contribute my talk to the program, and spend these days with the community.
Hope to see many of you again soon! 👋
22:46 With the conference over, we had time for one last relaxed evening together in Chicago. 🌃
A walk downtown and across the river, dinner with a group of DjangoCon friends, ice cream afterwards, then another stroll among the illuminated buildings before ending the night with a few final conversations in the hotel lobby.
Thanks everyone for the company: especially Jacob Walls and Rachell Calhoun 💚
27 August 2026 08:47 I posted the slides and talking notes from my talk on “Modern Django Deployments in 2026” at DjangoCon US . It’s a high-level view of ANY Django deployment regardless of how big or small it is.
This slide is the last in the 10-step process where I explain how things all work together.
https://wsvincent.com/modern-django-deployments-in-2026/
14:18 After checking out, I stopped by the DjangoCon US sprints for a little while. 💻
It was brief, but very worthwhile: I caught up with Jeff Triplett and Eric Holscher about yesterday’s DSF Open Space, talked with Sarah Abderemane about the website group, and said goodbye to Radek after another interview.
I also had time to jot down a few ideas before heading out.
Really glad these conversations are becoming part of DjangoCon US , I hope they continue.
15:29 Hi Eric Matthes during DjangoCon US 2026 I floated an idea with a few people: maybe it’s time for Django to have a core “deploy” command.
Like Django Tasks, Django could provide only the deployment API /interface, leaving actual providers and deployment targets to external packages.
Before adding the proposal in django/new-features, I’d really like your take, since django-simple-deploy has already explored exactly this model.
28 August 2026 03:11 Still on my way home from Chicago, and the long journey gave me time to go through the photos and put together a short highlights video from DjangoCon US 2026: talks, my UUID story, DSF conversations, old friends, new faces, and a little Chicago too. 🎥💚
A small memory for everyone I had the chance to meet these days. See you again soon!
https://youtu.be/LgwoS4S4WiE?is=rLtp1bNF2SXhUm7C
DjangoCon US 2026 Highlights | Chicago @DjangoConUS