This post is Part 2 of a 4-part series on pyOpenSci at PyCon US 2026. Part 1 covers community, connection, and what comes next.
I first attended the PyCon US Maintainer Summit five years ago as a speaker. I’m still here — now as a co-organizer. This year felt like a milestone for many different reasons.
Building the summit: a year-round labor of love
What most people don’t realize is that organizing the PyCon US Maintainer Summit is a year-round effort. We start thinking about the next one almost as soon as the last one wraps — collecting participant feedback, reflecting on what worked, and thinking about what to change.
This year we focused on something we’ve been working toward for a while: making the Maintainer Summit a more formal part of the PyCon US schedule. The Maintainer Summit has been running since 2019; this year we took a big step forward. Attendees could officially register, we could communicate directly with them through the PyCon US registration website, and we were formally listed on the PyCon US schedule. These might seem like small steps, but it takes a lot to make these types of changes in a large event like PyCon US that is organized by both PyCon US staff but also depends on a large team of volunteers.
This year’s successes wouldn’t have happened without the incredible support of PyCon US co-chairs Elaine Wong and Jon Bonafato, and PSF infrastructure lead Jacob Coffee.
New structure and event features for the day
We also rethought the structure of the Maintainer Summit this year. We added a Tools Track, inspired by the Tools Track at SciPy. We also added a GenAI Birds of a Feather session, and roundtables focused on lively discussions around packaging, security, and AI tools in open source.
We also helped launch an unofficial Discord with an automated bot — built with help from some wonderful folks in the Python community — that provided real-time session updates and gave attendees a way to connect with each other throughout the day. A first for the summit. This was a great way to help attendees connect with each other and follow the conference schedule without having to keep checking the schedule website.
None of this happens without an incredible team. Inessa Pawson and Mariatta Wijaya bring deep experience organizing events like this, and I’ve learned so much working alongside them. From the call for proposals, to reading submissions, to managing last-minute schedule changes — there’s an enormous amount of work that goes into making a day like this feel seamless.
A day full of energy
This year our registrations peaked at 150+ people for a full day of conversation around packaging, security, and AI. The event ran from 10am to 6pm, and while attendance dipped after lunch (this always happens at these types of events), energy in the room kept building. People sticking around until 6pm when they closed down the room was a great sign that the community is growing and that people are interested in the topics we were discussing.
It was especially meaningful to have pyOpenSci community members represented. Felipe Moreno spoke about the translations infrastructure he built for our Python packaging guide — work that started at our 2024 sprint and has grown into a multilingual contribution community. Part 3 of this series tells the full 2026 sprint story, including Portuguese translation work that built on Felipe’s infrastructure. Avik Basu shared work on a package he’s been developing. Having pyOpenSci members on stage alongside maintainers of core Python tools like uv (Zanie Blue) and Hatch (Cary Hawkins), and community leaders like Carol Willing and Mike Fiedler from the PSF covering security and AI, made for a powerful and well-rounded day.
Roundtables: where the magic happens
The roundtables are always the best part of this event. I will never forget my first roundtable discussion at this event four years ago. I sat with Travis Oliphant (creator of NumPy, SciPy, Numba) and Chase Million (Million Concepts CEO) and we talked about business development in open source. Chase, to this day, is not only a long-standing colleague but also a good friend. These types of events allow attendees to build connections that they never forget.
This year, roundtable topics included packaging led by Zanie Blue from uv and Cary Hawkins from Hatch, security led by Mike Fiedler from the Python Software Foundation, and AI tools in open source led by the incredible Carol Willing.
What makes roundtables so powerful is that they’re real conversations with experts and peers. At the end of a long day, when energy could easily be fading, the roundtables sparked connection and lifted the room.
The most electric moment
Our Generative AI Birds of a Feather session, co-hosted with Jackie Kazil, was an energizing addition to this year’s summit. Jackie reached out to us about hosting this part of the day. Maintainers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed and drained by the pace of AI change. Now more than ever, protecting our mental health and making space to connect, problem-solve together, and support each other matters.
But there’s also genuine hope. The majority of people in the room are already using GenAI tools thoughtfully, and that energy of working through hard things together was everywhere — echoed beautifully in Amanda Casari’s keynote on hope in the age of AI.
I have a lot more to say about AI tools and generative AI in open source in Part 4 of this series.
Wrap up
This year’s Maintainer Summit felt like a turning point — 150+ maintainers in one room, a more formal home within PyCon US, and new formats that gave people space to connect, learn, and work through hard problems together. That’s exactly what this community needs.
pyOpenSci is proud to be an organizing partner for the PyCon US Maintainer Summit. Maintainer work can be isolating; days like this remind us we’re not doing it alone. If you couldn’t join us in Long Beach, we hope to see you next year.
See you in there.
This is Part 2 of a 4-part series on pyOpenSci at PyCon US 2026. Part 1: community and connection · Part 3: pyOpenSci sprints · Part 4: generative AI and open source (coming soon).
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