PyTexas offers a limited number of opportunity grants for community members that would be otherwise unable to attend: see here for more details.
We do not currently have the funds to provide discounted or free attendance to volunteers or speakers. Even our organizing team purchases tickets, because all funds are eventually used to better the Texas Python community. For the same reasons, we do not generally pay speakers.
The short answer is: as much as is needed. Our goal each year is to put on the best conference we can muster. In the event that we gather more funds from 2020/sponsorship or ticket sales than we need for the conference, we simply roll the remainder over to the next year. This helps us build a sustainable offering that Texas Python developers can rely on year after year.
We aspire eventually to use excess funds to support outreach programs, day care for conference attendees who are parents, scholarships for underprivileged attendees, and other worthy expenses that further the goals of the PyTexas Foundation. We welcome your input on how we can best assist the Texas Python community!
There are several reasons to consider sponsoring the PyTexas conference even if your organization doesn't currently use Python. First, you should consider using Python! It's a remarkably flexible language that has established libraries for and applications in web development, data science, science at large, and more.
Second, the trend in modern software development is toward polyglot programming. That is, the best developers are competent in multiple languages and prefer to "pick the right tool for the job." Polyglot programmers can bring to the table idioms and architectures that aren't apparent to developers steeped in only one technology. Even if your organization primarily uses Go or Ruby, you can increase your recruiting reach and encourage internal innovation by hiring smart developers -- regardless of what language they work in today. You can even make this part of your presence at the conference! Feel free to submit a "X for Pythonistas" talk; we promise it will get due consideration.
The PyTexas Foundation was organized as a Texas non-profit corporation in 2014 and received its 501(c)(3) recognition in early 2015. Although we cannot guarantee that your contribution to PyTexas will be tax-deductible (we aren’t tax attorneys and just don’t know), you can rest assured that any contributions to the organization will always be used to further the common goals of the Texas Python community, and never for personal benefit.
In the event of cancellation, registration fees will be fully refunded. For any pre-order items (e.g. t-shirts), orders will be refunded if cancellation happens before the order is made, otherwise items will be shipped.