Quickstart

This guide takes you from zero to a running conference in about five minutes. By the end you will have ticket types, sponsor levels, and a management dashboard you can log into.

1. Install django-program

uv add django-program

Or pip install django-program if you prefer pip.

2. Configure your Django project

Add the apps and settings as described in Installation. The short version:

# settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # Django defaults ...
    "django_program.conference",
    "django_program.registration",
    "django_program.pretalx",
    "django_program.sponsors",
    "django_program.programs",
    "django_program.manage",
]

DJANGO_PROGRAM = {
    "stripe": {
        "secret_key": "sk_test_...",
        "publishable_key": "pk_test_...",
        "webhook_secret": "whsec_...",
    },
    "pretalx": {
        "base_url": "https://pretalx.com",
        "token": "your-pretalx-api-token",
    },
    "currency": "USD",
    "currency_symbol": "$",
}

3. Add URL patterns

# urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import include, path

urlpatterns = [
    path("admin/", admin.site.urls),
    path("manage/", include("django_program.manage.urls")),
    path("<slug:conference_slug>/register/", include("django_program.registration.urls")),
    path("<slug:conference_slug>/program/", include("django_program.pretalx.urls")),
    path("<slug:conference_slug>/sponsors/", include("django_program.sponsors.urls")),
    path("<slug:conference_slug>/programs/", include("django_program.programs.urls")),
]

4. Run migrations

python manage.py migrate

5. Bootstrap from a TOML config

django-program ships a management command that creates a full conference – sections, ticket types, add-ons, and sponsor levels – from a single TOML file. The repo includes an example config modeled on PyCon US.

Create a file called conference.toml (or copy conference.example.toml from the repo):

[conference]
name = "PyCon US 2027"
start = 2027-05-14
end = 2027-05-22
timezone = "America/New_York"
venue = "David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh PA"
pretalx_event_slug = "pycon-us-2027"
website_url = "https://us.pycon.org/2027/"

[[conference.sections]]
name = "Tutorials"
start = 2027-05-14
end = 2027-05-15

[[conference.sections]]
name = "Talks"
start = 2027-05-16
end = 2027-05-18

[[conference.sections]]
name = "Sprints"
start = 2027-05-19
end = 2027-05-22

[[conference.tickets]]
name = "Individual"
price = 100.00
quantity = 2500
per_user = 1
available = { opens = 2025-01-15, closes = 2027-05-13 }

[[conference.tickets]]
name = "Corporate"
price = 350.00
quantity = 1000
per_user = 1
available = { opens = 2025-01-15, closes = 2027-05-13 }

[[conference.tickets]]
name = "Student"
price = 25.00
quantity = 500
per_user = 1
voucher_required = true
available = { opens = 2025-01-15, closes = 2027-05-13 }

[[conference.sponsor_levels]]
name = "Visionary"
cost = 150_000.00
comp_tickets = 25

[[conference.sponsor_levels]]
name = "Sustainability"
cost = 90_000.00
comp_tickets = 15

[[conference.sponsor_levels]]
name = "Contributing"
cost = 30_000.00
comp_tickets = 5

Now run the bootstrap command:

python manage.py bootstrap_conference --config conference.toml

This creates the Conference object, its Section entries, all TicketType and AddOn records, and the SponsorLevel hierarchy. If you run it again with --update, it will update existing records rather than duplicating them.

To also create demo data (sample orders, a test user, etc.):

python manage.py bootstrap_conference --config conference.toml --update --seed-demo

6. Set up permission groups

The management dashboard uses Django’s built-in permission system. Run this command to create the organizer groups:

python manage.py setup_groups

7. Create an admin user

python manage.py createsuperuser

8. Start the dev server

python manage.py runserver

Open http://localhost:8000/manage/ in your browser and log in with your superuser credentials. You should see the conference dashboard with your bootstrapped data.

The Django admin is at http://localhost:8000/admin/ if you want to inspect or edit records directly.

Using the example dev server

If you cloned the django-program repo, there is a batteries-included dev server in the examples/ directory. It handles all the setup above automatically:

make dev

This wipes the SQLite database, runs migrations, bootstraps from conference.example.toml, creates permission groups, creates an admin/admin superuser, and starts the dev server on port 8000. Log in at http://localhost:8000/admin/ with admin / admin.

What’s next

• Configuration – Full reference for the DJANGO_PROGRAM settings dict and the TOML bootstrap schema

• Registration Flow – How the cart, checkout, and Stripe payment pipeline works

• Pretalx Integration – Syncing speakers and schedules from Pretalx