Can I Participate Online? The Power of "Being There" - PyCon JP 2025 Chair's Report
Hello, this is Nishimotz, the Chair of PyCon JP 2025.
PyCon JP 2025 will be held on September 26-27 in Hiroshima, with development sprints on September 28. We’re currently recruiting sponsors, and participant registration will begin in July.
Today, let me address a question I receive frequently: “Can you participate online?”
This post is based on my note article “Can You Participate Online?” from July 5, part of my #100-day challenge.
Can We Overcome the Gravity of Reality?
Online live streaming hasn’t been decided yet, but given our limited resources, it’s a low priority. We do plan to publish recordings (archives).
The Gravity of Home
Since COVID-19, online events have become thoroughly integrated into our daily lives. Living here in Hiroshima, I’m truly grateful that I can now access valuable talks from home that were once only available in Tokyo. I don’t think this trend should be stopped at all.
However, when I face online conferences as a participant, I always honestly feel one thing: the “gravity of reality at home.”
Even when watching a stream at my home office, I get distracted by family members nearby, or end up playing with my dog trying to climb onto my lap. When the doorbell rings, I respond to visitors, and when Slack notifications from work pop up, I can’t help thinking “this might be urgent” and opening them.
I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences.
Additionally, online participation inevitably causes unnecessary stress over non-essential matters: network issues like “the video froze at a crucial moment,” or situations requiring skills unrelated to the conference content, like “I don’t really understand how to use this tool…”
It’s truly unfortunate when the pure desire to learn gets diminished by such technical hurdles.
Physically “going” somewhere liberates us from these “inability to focus fully” problems and “unnecessary stress.”
Regional Hosting for Tokyo Residents
Interestingly, this might not be limited to online participation. For example, imagine living in Tokyo when PyCon JP is held in Tokyo. When the venue is nearby, you might be tempted to think “I’ll just listen to the morning keynote and return to work in the afternoon” or “An urgent meeting came up, so I’ll step out temporarily.”
Even though you’re physically present, your mind gets pulled back to your daily workplace.
But this year’s Hiroshima hosting is different. For people from Tokyo and across Japan, “making the effort to go” to Hiroshima means complete isolation from daily work.
Interestingly, traveling to participate in a real conference creates the ultimate “remote (isolation from daily work)” environment. Precisely because you’ve spent time and money coming to Hiroshima, you can commit 100% to the conference in front of you. You can immerse yourself in learning and networking without worrying about other work or tasks.
This is the ultimate “sanctuary” that regional hosting provides.
The True Value Beyond Talks
In this sanctuary, what you should focus on isn’t just the talks. Rather, the real value lies in casual conversations in hallways between talks, conversations with strangers that begin with “That talk was interesting, wasn’t it?” over coffee, and finding yourself deep in technical discussions over lunch with someone who happened to sit next to you…
The value is in bathing your entire being in the atmosphere of that “place” itself.
The Value of “Being There”
The ones who believe most strongly in this “value of being there itself” are we, the PyCon JP 2025 organizing members. We include people with extensive experience organizing PyCon JP in Tokyo, people in Hiroshima who are inexperienced but passionate about making PyCon JP 2025 exciting, and people who work remotely but want to support operations at the venue on the day.
That’s precisely why, without relying on the convenience of remote work, we cherish real activities that seem inefficient and gritty at first glance.
In April and May, we set up days to gather and work in the same space at two locations: Tokyo and Hiroshima. In June, organizing members from across the country assembled in Hiroshima for a two-day, one-night retreat.
Our Ground-Level Activities in Hiroshima
In Hiroshima now, organizing members are taking turns walking around distributing flyers to schools and coworking spaces. Also, new operating members have emerged from our monthly regional community “Sugoi Hiroshima with Python.” This is also a delightful chemical reaction that never would have been born from online alone.
Toward September 2025
Because we know the benefits of online, its limitations, and the pitfalls of “familiar real-life” situations, we believe we can create the ultimate “real place.”
At the end of September 2025, we’ll prepare the ultimate “sanctuary” in Hiroshima where you can be liberated from daily life. It will be a place where you can deeply concentrate on talks. At the same time, it will be a place for the ultimate “casual conversations” full of new encounters and discoveries.
Please come to Hiroshima and directly receive all of these feelings that can’t be fully conveyed through a screen.
Please come to Hiroshima and directly receive all of these feelings that can’t be fully conveyed through a screen.
PyCon JP 2025 - “pieces of python, coming together” - September 26-28, Hiroshima