Welcome to SciPy 2020, the 19th annual meeting of the Scientific Computing Conference with Python. Some of you may have noticed that the format is a little different this year. We shall certainly be missing the food and music of Austin and, most significantly, the pleasure of seeing you all in person.

 

One upside of this new format is that we are welcoming 50% more attendees than in a normal year, including 70% of registrants coming to their first SciPy.

 

Our incredible cohort of volunteers really stepped up this year. They developed a rich program, reviewed submissions, recruited tutorials, and managed sprints. They figured out how to retain much of the atmosphere that we appreciate about SciPy meetings, while accommodating the constraints and possibilities of a virtual conference.

 

While we look forward to seeing you all back in Austin next year, our hope is that we find things to like about this unplanned change of format that will positively influence the years to come.

 

Corran Webster and Jon Guyer

Conference Co-Chairs