DjangoCon US 2024 Topics Inspiration List

Published March 3, 2024

New Features and Future Outlook

• New Django features

• New Python features of interest to Django devs

• Django Roadmap and Workshop conversation (see Tim Schilling’s Roadmap Ideas, Paolo’s Roadmap Ideas, and Thibaud’s call for an Informal Roadmap and Retrospective Workshop)

• Web development framework retrospective/landscape

Django Core

• Learning more about our new fellow :)

• Contributing to Django

• Update on Accessibility Team work

Django Software Foundation

• Update on new workgroups structure and progress

• Update on definition of DSF membership

Diversity

• Where we stand in bringing more diversity to: our steering council, core dev, contributor base, community

• Update on Djangonaut Space

• New initiatives: Hidden Figures of Python Podcast (women make up “only 17% of invited guests among the popular podcast series”)

Python Packaging and Open Source

• New developments in Python/Django packaging landscape, including uv package manager

How to Raise Your Game

• Lesser known, but highly useful Django features

• Practical Django profiling, optimization

• Security (OWASP 10 and Django, how Django does security)

• Testing (pytest, Playwright, Selenium, etc).

• Type hinting

• Patterns and architectures

• Practical async (going beyond the docs and a few tutorials to using day to day)

New-ish or Experimental Technologies

• React/HTMX debate (see Chris May’s great talk last year about using HTMX, Alpine.js, and Streaming HTML and the work to be done)

• Using JavaScript and Django together: Alpine, Svelte, etc.

• Tailwind

• WASM

• PyScript

• Co-Pilot, ChatGPT, etc. for Django devs

• What tools I haven’t heard about, but would want to know about

Alternative Django Use Cases

• Orchestration/workflows

• Multi-tenancy

Database

• Database/Django performance tuning at scale

• Database tradeoffs: Postgres, CockroachDB, SQL, etc.

• Datasette

Opinionated Django

• Django deployment options and tradeoffs in 2024

• Different ways of doing things in Django and when to use which option

• The best tools/packages to have in your Django toolbox in 2024

• Favorite workflows, Git, CI/CD, GitHub Actions, local/prod, developer experience tools, etc.

API

• Django Ninja compared to Django Rest Framework

• Fast API

How to Use/Better Popular CMS

• Wagtail

• Butter CMS

Learning

• Flexing your problem solving chops

• Recursion (looking at you, Al Sweigart)

• Great learning resources and the people who created them

• Strategies for effective learning

Novel Uses for Django

• Experimental apps

• Prototyping with Django for fun and profit

• Historically relevant apps

• Your interesting Django story/adventure

• Lessons from managing/scaling Django in a unique or difficult way in your company

• Using Django for social good

Team, Leadership, Building

• Product management (features, prioritization, OKRs, teamwork, etc.)

• Lessons from software engineering management

• Interesting mental models, productivity methods, learning approaches, the counter-intuitive

Python/Django and Open Source

• Adventures in open source Django development

• How to get started with open source, Django open source, packaging