2015 will mark the 9th year of DjangoCon US. The conference has been run by a couple different organizers over the years, but typically it operated as a commercial event organized by a for-profit entity. We're excited to announce that, starting this year, the event will be run by a non-profit organization (501(c)(3) pending), Django Events Foundation North America (DEFNA).

About DEFNA

DEFNA received approval from the Django Software Foundation (DSF) to, at a minimum, handle the 2015 and 2016 conferences. The DEFNA board is composed of three volunteers: Jeff Triplett (President), Craig Bruce (Treasurer), and Stacey Haysler (Secretary and DSF Treasurer). Additional volunteers from the Django community are teaming up to line up speakers, sponsors, the venue, events, etc.

What to Expect

The new organization will bring some significant changes to the conference and how it is organized.

• Transparency
  DEFNA will operate in the open whenever possible, soliciting feedback from the community and providing timely information about the planning process.
• Lower Prices
  As a non-profit, volunteer organization, DEFNA can direct all sponsorship and ticket proceeds towards the event. We expect to be able to make the tickets more affordable as a result.
• More Community Involvement
  DEFNA is made up of volunteers and will depend on the community’s help to pull everything together.
• An Awesome Conference
  Once the hard costs (venue, refreshments, signage, etc.) are paid, all additional proceeds can be directed towards making the conference awesome.

How Can I Help Out?

Glad you asked! Planning for this year is well underway, but we can always use more help. A few ideas:

• Sponsorship
  If you work for a company that benefits from Django, encourage them to support our community by sponsoring the event. Sponsorship proceeds help us keep costs low for attendees and allow us to make the event more inclusive.
• Volunteer
  We’ll need help reviewing talks and tutorial submissions as well as on-site volunteers during the conference. If you have other ideas of how you can help, get in touch!
• Give us Your Feedback
  DEFNA is listening. Come talk to us on the djangocon-organizers group, #djangocon-organizers on the Freenode IRC network, or @DjangoCon on Twitter.