We’re thrilled to share our experience at PyCon 2024—this year’s conference, held in Pittsburgh, PA, provided us with a fantastic opportunity to showcase our platform and technology alongside some of the biggest names in the industry. Exaloop had a booth in PyCon’s Startup Row this year, where we made new friends, demoed our product and got valuable feedback from the community. Thank you to everyone who stopped by! In this blog, we’d like to take the opportunity to talk more about our experience and key takeaways.
PyCon 2024 Expo Hall
The conference
Attending PyCon US 2024 in Pittsburgh was an incredible experience that showcased the best of the Python community. Held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center from May 15-23, the conference kicked off with two days of tutorials that offered hands-on learning and deep dives into various Python topics. The main conference spanned from May 17-19, featuring an impressive lineup of keynote speakers including industry leaders and prominent community members who shared their insights and expertise.
PyCon 2024 stage and auditorium
The atmosphere was electric with numerous talks and presentations that covered a wide array of subjects from beginner to advanced levels. Attendees could choose from a diverse range of sessions, whether they were interested in web development, data science, machine learning, or more niche areas of Python programming.
The PyLadies Charity Auction was another highlight, combining fun and philanthropy to support a great cause. The sense of community was palpable as attendees bid on unique items and experiences, all while supporting initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion within the Python ecosystem.
PyLadies auction at PyCon 2024
The final days of the conference were dedicated to development sprints from May 20-23. These sprints allowed participants to collaborate on open-source projects, making tangible contributions to the Python community. It was inspiring to see developers of all skill levels come together, share ideas, and work towards common goals.
For us, PyCon 2024 was more than just a chance to demonstrate our technology—it was an opportunity to engage with the vibrant Python community, network with fellow tech enthusiasts, and highlight our unique contributions to the field of data science and engineering. Nestled among established giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Oracle, our booth attracted a lot of attention, and as we talked to those who stopped by, we realized that it was largely due to our message and vision resonating with practitioners: Python is great (we’re at PyCon after all!) but it comes with so many limitations that prevent you from scaling and tackling large datasets, and that’s where Exaloop comes in.
Exaloop in PyCon’s Startup Row
Exaloop’s booth at PyCon 2024.From left to right: Phil Kaelbling (Founding Engineer), Ibrahim Numanagić (Co-founder and Head of Research), Ariya Shajii (Co-founder and CTO).
One of the highlights of our presence at PyCon was our interactive booth, which became a popular point of interest among the thousands of attendees that were visiting the expo hall. We gave out Exaloop swag like t-shirts and pens, engaged in (sometimes surprisingly deep) discussions with fellow PyCon attendees, and had the opportunity to showcase and demo the new Exaloop Platform. It was a phenomenal experience for a young, growing company like ours.
What we learned
During our time at PyCon, we were keen to gather feedback, understand user pain points, and explore how our solution could be further tailored to meet the community’s needs. Over time, it became clear to us that, while the buzz around artificial intelligence continues to dominate headlines, the real pain points for data scientists and engineers lie in the inherent scalability limitations of the tools they use. AI is great when it works, but training and running inference on larger and more complex models currently forces practitioners to fundamentally rethink their approach, and that often translates to moving away from Python to a language like C++, Rust or Go.
It was awesome to see the “aha moment” in real time for so many of the data scientists and developers that we talked to as they realized that, with Exaloop, there was no longer a need to re-engineer their code, go through the pain and headache of switching to another language, or depend on others with specialized knowledge of parallel programming, distributed systems or GPUs to do the heavy lifting when datasets get large. It was eye opening for us to see that Exaloop can play a critical role in reconciling the dichotomy that exists between the promise of hot topics like AI, and the reality of day-to-day life for data scientists.
Looking ahead
The future looks bright for Exaloop. Our debut at PyCon 2024 is just the beginning of what promises to be a journey filled with growth and innovation. The feedback and connections gained from the conference are set to play a crucial role in shaping our roadmap as we continue to develop solutions that push the boundaries of what’s possible with Python.
As we reflect on our experience at PyCon 2024, we remain committed to our mission of empowering data teams with a comprehensive platform that enhances productivity and performance. Stay tuned for more updates from us as we continue our journey in revolutionizing the way we approach data science. If you missed us at PyCon, be sure to check out our website, join our mailing list and follow our progress. The best is yet to come!
