Panels at PyLadiesCon 2026 Are Going Pre-Recorded

In our special edition announcement, we shared that PyLadiesCon 2026 is a little different, and panels are part of that. We’ll still have panels just like before, community members and leaders coming together to talk about the topics that matter to our global community. What’s changing is how they reach your screen.

Why panels and keynotes have always been live

We held onto live panels (and keynotes) for a long time, and on purpose. It felt more engaging that way, and it’s one of the main draws of PyLadiesCon. Over the years, we’ve heard attendees tell us how much they appreciate that these sessions are live rather than a recording.

That’s exactly why we were hesitant to change it. We worried that pre-recording would make things feel less engaging, that people would say “I’ll watch it later” and, honestly, never get around to it. We didn’t want to lose that energy.

Why we’re changing it this year

Running live sessions comes with real challenges, though. Live captioning technology isn’t good enough yet, and live translation tools aren’t there either. On top of that, our 2026 budget is smaller, and we likely won’t be able to pay for live translation or captioning services this year. That means, even if we kept panels live, sessions would only be available in one language until well after the fact, once we’d had time to translate and transcribe them.

We believe that by pre-recording and translating ahead of time, we can be more inclusive to our global, multilingual community from the moment each panel airs, instead of days or weeks later. Pre-recording also lets us edit and trim panels so they fit neatly into their scheduled slot, without running long or cutting a conversation off mid-sentence.

There’s also a connectivity concern. Not all of our community members live in areas with reliable, high-speed internet. If a panelist joined a live session and got cut off by spotty internet, they’d simply lose their air time. With a pre-recorded format, we can wait for them to reconnect and pick the recording back up, so a bad connection doesn’t cost anyone their moment on the panel.

We’re still figuring this out with you

We’re still concerned about keeping that live energy and engagement, so we’re leaning on you to help us keep it alive. We invite everyone to join us when each panel airs and engage with our panelists in real time. If you have questions for the panelists, ask them in Discord, our panelists will be there to respond as the panel plays out.

How the recording works

Panelists don’t need to do anything complicated to make this happen. Our team schedules a joint recording session for each panel using Riverside, and runs the studio setup on the back end. Panelists simply join the session at the scheduled time.

If you’re a panelist and want the full details on how this works and how to prepare, check out our Panels Guide.

About PyLadiesCon

PyLadies Conference (PyLadiesCon) 2026 is the fourth PyLadiesCon. As always, it is a fully online and FREE conference dedicated to empowerment, learning, community and diversity within the Python ecosystem. The conference is free, but you’ll still need to register for a ticket to participate.

We can’t wait for you to catch our panels this December.

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