First day at PyCon 2005. It’s, as usual, interesting. Random bits:

• Crowded! It’s bigger than ever, clocking in over 400. It’s caused some headaches of the good kind (catering more expensive than planned, not enough t-shirts, rooms are packed).
• Not too surprisingly given the buzz around Python, there are big names (although we’ve had big names at Python conferences for years). This year it’s Jim Hugunin from Microsoft, Greg Stein from Google, and we’ll see who else).
• More interesting to me, a lot of old friends, including many who used to come at conferences, then stopped, and are now back. I don’t know if it has anything to do with Python itself, the economy in general, or it’s just random — but it’s nice to touch base again.
• It’s only been three hours, so it’s a bit hard to know for sure yet, but it seems as though there’s more money around — more startups, some VC influences, and a greater proportion of people who do Python for their jobs, not just for love

Washington DC is still a great city, the Rouge Hotel still has attitude and free broadband, and I’m looking forward to good dinners with old friends.