---
blogpost: true
date: Mar 3, 2021
title: Dask User Summit 2021
author: Matthew Rocklin
---

Dask is organizing a [user summit](https://summit.dask.org) in mid-May.
This will be a remote event focused on bringing together developers and users of Dask and the distributed PyData stack in different domains.

User Summits like this are particularly important for a project like Dask
which serves such a diverse set of use cases.
Dask's user communities include industries like finance, government, health,
geoscience, imaging, machine learning, and more. These communities often have
very similar problems, but don't often communicate with each other.

User summits provide a venue for disparate domains to connect over shared
technology challenges. Often a solution designed for one domain is useful for
others. As technologists, this sharing is critical in order to promote
consistent and high quality software solutions across domains, rather than
silo'ed solutions.

### History

We organized a summit a year ago, focusing mainly on developers.
This was a fantastic time and resulted in a surprising amount of consensus building and forward movement both in technological and domain-specific directions.

For more on our summit last year, see [this post](../../../2020/04/28/dask-summit.html).

<img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERykEc9XUAEFq-L?format=jpg&name=large"
     width="40%">
<img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERzXhHnWAAE_zDA?format=jpg&name=large"
    width="40%">

### Organization

We've asked [NumFOCUS](https://numfocus.org) to organize this event for us.
NumFOCUS runs the highly successful and community oriented PyData conference
series, and had great success with their remote-first PyData Global conference
late last year.

Tickets are intended to be reasonably priced on a sliding scale, with assistance given to any in need.

### Open CFP

I would like to encourage people submit proposals to talk at [summit.dask.org](https://summit.dask.org).

I would like to especially extend an invitation to those who are new to
the Dask community, or new to speaking in general. This year we're especially
trying to highlight use cases of Dask, rather than developers pushing the
technology forward (although these talks are of course welcome as well).

If you have an idea for a talk then please submit something and we'll work
together on making it fit. Alternatively, if you have a colleague that you
think would enjoy or grow from speaking then I encourage you to encourage them
as well.

### Workshops

Finally, I'm excited about an experiment that we're running this year with
_workshops_. These are intended to be two-hour blocks of time dedicated to
a particular topic, organized by a specific community member (perhaps you?).
If you have a consistent theme for a set of 3-5 talks then this option gives
you the ability to curate and control a dedicated block of the conference. You
can invite your colleagues and collaborators. We'll handle the conference
infrastructure while you handle the content.

We stole this structure from workshops at larger academic conferences. We
think that it fits Dask well specifically because of the federated nature of
our community. We hope that it gives space for sub-communities to assemble and
better establish cohesive working groups.

Themes in the past have included topics like Pangeo, RAPIDS, workflow
management, imaging, and performance.

### Apply to speak

Again, I encourage you and your colleagues to submit applications to speak this
year in May. The proposal page is at
[https://summit.dask.org/present/#guidelines](https://summit.dask.org/present/#guidelines)