This year we had a fantastic response to the call for proposals for talks for the Plone Conference, with over 70 submissions received. The quality of the proposed talks was very high, but that gave us the (nice) problem of trying to fit as many of them as we could into a limited amount of time. Alas, we could not fit them all in, and we had to make difficult decisions as to which to choose.

There really is something for everyone on the programme, whether you are new to Plone, a seasoned developer, or just interested in finding out what others are doing with it.

If you are new to Plone you can find out about how Plone is developed; creating complex CSS layouts in Plone; or extending Plone with python to access Twitter or Google Docs; or you might want to find out about introducing Plone into large scale business operations.

Maybe you are a seasoned developer and want to find out about building content types with Dexterity; producing complex forms with z3c.form; or how to troubleshoot Plone.

Or perhaps you are a Plone integrator and interested in integrating Plone with e-Commerce and CRM systems; find out about hosting Plone on Amazon EC2; or how to approach scalability issues. Or Plone's new theming technology, Deliverance?

Interested in Plone in action? Want to see who's using it and why they chose Plone? Find out how Oxfam use Plone for equipment procurement; how Brazillian bank Caixa Econômica Federal use Plone for a 100,000 user intranet; or how the Viennese Tourist Board use Plone for their site.

Want to find out what's coming up in Plone 4? Or why Open Source works? Or look even further ahead to some of the new concepts for Plone 5, such as Deco?

These are just a handful of the great talks happening, the full schedule is available here or there is a complete list of talks here. The full descriptions of each the talks will be published shortly.

There will also be an Open Space on the 3rd day of the conference, in which attendees will self organise talks based upon whatever topics have sparked their interest over the previous days.

And if that isn't enough, there is pre-conference training, where you can get great value training from some of the best trainers in the Plone community, and if you want to get really stuck in and work alongside other Plone developers, there is a development sprint after the conference.

So... have you booked your place yet?

-Matt

When Budapest was chosen to be the next Plone Conference venue, we started to think what could be our logo. First we thought of the Statue of Liberty which is a prominent feature of the city. The 14 meter tall bronze statue is situated on the top of the Gellért Hill. It stands on a 26 meter tall pedestal and holds a palm leaf. The statue most closely resembles a beer bottle opener. It can be seen from anywhere and helps visitors find their way when lost in the city. Of course we also wanted to combine it with our beloved Plone logo: I hope I need not say more. :)

We asked Gabriella Kelényi, our friend and a local graphic designer, to start to create a logo with the statue, but she came up with something completely different. An embroidery pattern of Sárköz. The pattern is called “the puppy” ("kiskutyás motívum") but it looks like a bird, or a lizard. It is a characteristic motive of women's headbands made in this region, its exact form differing from village to village and age.

We were hesitant to use it at first because of its strange look, but later on we started to love it.

Actually, it is a bit like Plone when you meet it the very first time. :) Plone has some funny aspects, but after a while you easily start to love it. Besides it is very versatile, just like a lovely bird with two ears, or a trusty dog with two legs. ;)

We also needed to make the little creature fit into the visuals of the conference website. But something was still missing. Luckily, during the design work, we had arrived to draft versions like this:

... which gave us the perfect idea for crowning the mascot with what represents the essence of both our conference and our community: Plone.

Hope you like it as we do!

Ah... we were missing an important point! She (or he?) is looking for a name. 
What would you suggest? :)

Last week, I spent a holiday week with my wife Marie-Pascale and her two older children in Budapest and Hungary - some of you know that two children is only a small part of our family ;-).

It was an opportunity to meet Balazs Ree - very busy with preparing the event that some of us Plonistas wait the whole year long, our yearly conference.

In Budapest, my family and I had great time visiting the city. I want to tell what where the main highlights of those three days...

We spent the first day walking in Pest. I really enjoyed to discover so many streets with late 19th century buildings from begin to end. I had never realized how rich Budapest had been at that period. I was in particular sensible to the various places where bullet holes are still visible on the facades. I interpreted those holes as signs of the violence of history during WW II and 1956 revolution, combined with the violence of the communist era that did not even take care of fixing them.

Second day brought us to the hill of aristocratic Buda, on the other side of the Danube, where most older historical buildings are to be found. I must say that I was most sensible to the majesty of the Danube. The river is so wide that it could not be crossed by a bridge before 1849. I was really impressed by the river width. When crossing it over the bridges, I enjoyed the scenery on both sides of the city.

Third day best three hours were spent in Szechenyi bath and spa. Using the saunas and the inside pools with thermal water was already a great pleasure. However, the stun came when going outside : the outside pools are surrounded by a gorgeous yellow building from begin of 20th century. The pools are filled with thermal water up to 38°C. There, you can swim, enjoy the scenery or even look to the games of some people that stand playing chess.

I hope that I have convinced you to reserve one day or more aside the conference to enjoy the wonderful city where we will meet end of next month.

The Plone Foundation has awarded over USD$40,000 in Plone Conference Participation Grants to 57 recipients.  Supported by a generous grant from Open Society Institute,  Plone Conference Participation grants will help Plone community members travel to Budapest, Hungary in October the biggest and most diverse Plone Conference ever.  

Plone Conference Participation Grant recipients include students, self-employed consultants, NGO and educational institution staff members from around the world, with an emphasis on increasing participation from Hungary, Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet republics.

The Plone Conference Participation Grants team included:

• Balazs Ree, Plone Conference 2009 lead organizer
• Jon Stahl, Plone Foundation board president
• Denys Mishunov, Plone Foundation member
• Thomas Moroz, Open Society Institute, New York
  
• Eva Foldvari, Open Society Institute, Budapest

Everybody has seen books with titles like "Learn PHP in 24 Hours" or "Learn Java in 21 Days." Of course, devotees of such books in short order become a danger to themselves and a minor annoyance to those around them. You wouldn't learn to play guitar in that amount of time. It takes practice. Lots of practice. And so it is with programming languages.

However, Plone is a content management system which can benefit from even very small snippets of Python called "expressions." And Python itself may be the simplest of useful programming languages to learn. The Python 101 pre-Plone Conference training emphasizes the parts of the Python programming language you need to be productive with Plone as a themer or integrator. Plus, the training gets you jump-started on your journey to mastering all that is Python.

The Python 101 pre-Plone Conference training is a highly condensed version of the week-long "PyCamp" introductory Python Boot Camp training. It's called a "boot camp" for a reason. Just like military boot camps, Python Boot Camps quickly turn Python civilians into soldiers through non-stop rigorous workouts. The basic unit of exercise in Python 101 is the "Python push-up," along with the "Python sit-up" and the "Python chin curl." By engaging in relentless Python muscle-building, you will become a lean, mean Python machine in the shortest possible time.

On the first day of Python 101, you will cover Python expressions. Python expressions are the basic building blocks used throughout Plone's templating system, as well as in tools to create new Plone content types. By the end of the day, you will be marching in full Python expression dress formation.

On the second day of Python 101, you will cover Python statements in depth. Python statements allow you to write more sophisticated scripts and programs than what you can do with expressions alone, perfect for integrating Plone. By the end of the day, you will gladly volunteer for 20 kilometer hikes while wearing a backpack fully loaded with Python statements.

On both days, you will learn Python from a unique object oriented perspective which leaves no mystery even for the absolute beginner. If you have no previous programming experience, you should not fear signing up for Python 101 duty. You will not need to read books before the training. Python 101 takes care of everything including:

• How to interact with Python
• All about objects
• Python's built-in types
• How to control your Python program
• Functions, modules, packages, and the standard library
  
• Exception handling
• Classes
• Decorators, generators, descriptors, and properties
• Input and output handling

Your drill sergeant for Python 101 is Chris Calloway, the creator and instructor of PyCamp. Chris has coached hundreds of recruits to complete their Python obstacle course in record time. If you have any questions about whether Python 101 is right for you, contact Chris at pycamp@trizpug.org.

Python 101 is one of four exciting training courses offered in conjunction with Plone Conference 2009 including Getting Started with Plone taught by Steve McMahon, Plone 3 Theming Best Practices taught by Joel Burton, and Best Practices for Deploying and Optimizing Plone Sites taught by Nate Aune.

The post-conference sprint has become an important Plone tradition.  The 2009 Plone Conference in Budapest will be proudly carrying on this tradition with a sprint on October 31 and November 1.

Sprints provide a fantastic opportunity to become more involved in the vibrant Plone community.  Sprints are also where much of the important work to improve Plone happens.  This will be your best chance to give something back to your favorite Open Source CMS.

We've set up a Wiki for organizing the sprint.  Anyone logged into the conference website may add and edit the Wiki content.  Feel free to add a sprint topic or sign up to participate in any of the listed topics.

(Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrtopf/ / CC BY-NC 2.0)

One of the greatest strengths of Plone is its community, and this is at its most evident at the annual Plone Conference, and the talks given by members of the community.

Each year the talks range from highly technical talks from the Plone developers talking about what is coming up in future versions of Plone, to very non-technical case studies on how Plone is being used in various organisations.  As well as that, there are often talks on various processes and best practises in the realms of managing teams, agile development and consulting.

So what are you waiting for? Not only will you give back to the Plone community, you will gain the love, respect and beer of your peers... oh and 50% off your conference registration fee ;)

The deadline for talk submission is fast approaching, with talk submission closing on the 6th September.

To register your proposed talk, go to the Talk Proposals page here to read about the process, and then submit your talk using the Talks Submission form.

Photo credit: MrTopf