Thanks to the support of our sponsors, we have budget set aside for providing financial assistance to PyCon AU speakers and attendees who might otherwise find it difficult to attend.
Financial assistance grants are always either a free conference ticket (at the enthusiast level) or a conference ticket plus additional reimbursed expenses. These expenses can include:
- Flights or other transport to Sydney
- Accommodation costs
- Other costs associated with attending such as a support worker, child care or a substitute teacher.
Please ask only for what you need in order to be able to attend the conference and highlight any opportunities you would use to save costs, such as finding cheaper accommodation further from the city (public transport provides easy access to the venue).
Application
To apply for financial aid please fill out the application form. The first round of applications close at the end of the call for proposals on Sunday, May 5 2019. Applications will be approved progressively so please apply early and your application may be approved early. If the budget has not been exhausted the application process will be reopened.
Selection criteria
In addition to allocating financial aid on the basis of need, we also take into account how we can get the most benefit for all PyCon AU attendees and the wider community.
In your application please mention if you:
- Are a conference speaker, volunteer or helping in another way to make the conference more awesome.
- Are a member or organiser of a Python or related group and would share your PyCon AU experience with the wider community
- Are a teacher or other educator and attending PyCon AU would benefit your students as well
- Are a maintainer or contributor to an open source project and are planning to help participants in the sprints
- Would be helping PyCon AU achieve our goal of bringing together of a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives.
Note that these are considered as factors, but they are not a check-list. You do not need to have any of the above to be eligible for financial aid.
Reimbursement process
If granted assistance, you will still be expected to organise and purchase travel and accommodation yourself and await reimbursement. You will be given a maximum amount of reimbursement based on the assistance you requested. Once assistance is granted, you can start making bookings and sending us your receipts.
If you have any questions about financial assistance please contact us at assistance@2019.pycon-au.org.