Last year in October, I attended DjangoCon US for the first time and it was a great experience. From the pre-event Django Social to the keynotes, lightning talks and interaction at the booths, I learned a lot and met awesome people.

Prep / Before the conference

I submitted a Call For Proposal(CFP) on the Pretalx website.

A CFP (Call For Proposals) is to publicize an announcement for receiving conference proposals for speakers to submit what they want to talk about or discuss.

To do this:

• I selected a topic and saw how it related to Django (it was based on my experience, ie. in this case Handling Strategies and Rollbacks in DB Migrations).

• I wrote a description of what the talk was about and highlighted key things which I will talk about on

• I indicated the target audience of the talk

• Finally, I submitted the CFP

Sometimes with talk proposals, you may go through feedback loop iterations with peers, mentors or friends to make sure your submission is of a high standard or quality which increases the likelyhood of your talk being chosen.

• After months, I got an email notifying me that the proposed talk was accepted and I was excited because it was a new experience and nervous because that was my second International Open Source talk but my first in-person experience.

• I started working on my slides and also started my US visa renewal process because “If You Know You Know” (IYKYK); the hustle with visa appointments and immigration can be a bit daunting. I wasn’t one hundred per cent certain I’d be able to make it until the end of September because life can happen so I just kept that possibility open.

During the Conference

The possibility eventually turned into certainty and I got to North Carolina and attended the first meetup: the Django Social Event which was a great way to network. I was a bit shy but I interacted with new people I met and I also saw familiar faces such as Velda, Noah, Richard, and Abigail and I made new friends as well.

During the conference, I listened to great talks from lots of Django Devs from all over and I was inspired. I heard and learned lots of technical terms, concepts and keywords. I also got to network with more people at the DjangoCon Booths representing lots of organizations such as Sentry, Aptible, Foxley Talent, PostgreSQL, Wagtail, platform.sh, CodeRed, Caktus Group, RevSys, just to mention a few.

I kept in mind my talk slot and crosschecked my slides before my delivery. During my talk, setup took about a minute and I kicked it off having about 25 minutes to talk and questions after either there or in the lobby.

For Mac, if you will speak at an event, kindly take your dongle along to connect to the projector and possibly add a remote control. These were provided though.

My talk ended, was a bit nervous because it was so quiet and I had so much running through my mind :) I got a few questions in the lobby and even got to learn something new about migrations and rollbacks that I didn’t even know.

Here are some tweets I put out showcasing the organizations being represented at the booths:

• https://x.com/afi_maame/status/1713989268626948279?s=46&t=Y5-VPFBHKaWMI8wkgyAHm

• https://x.com/afi_maame/status/1714306401508471281?s=46&t=Y5-VPFBHKaWMI8wkgyAHmw

After the Conference

I reflected on what I learned and spent more time on the docs. I applied to certain opportunities involving contributing to Django Core/Tech but I didn’t get in so I’d get better and will go harder this year.

Applying for conferences or applying for opportunities, generally can be hectic and sometimes or most times the odds won’t be in our favour but I’ve realized trying over and over whilst improving strategy and getting feedback helps.

There’s this saying in Twi(Ghanaian language) that I’m keeping at the back of my mind this year; especially when the “we regret to inform you” and the “Unfortunately” roll in, and it is:

“Wosuro a, wonni” which means if you are afraid(to try), you never win.

If you need a second opinion on your CFP’s, you can send me a DM :)

I wish you all the best in your applications or in anything you set out to do.

Till the next time.