ConfScoutBot

QA & IT Conference Discovery Telegram Bot 🤖

A Telegram bot that helps you discover QA and IT conferences across Europe and notifies you about new events with early bird ticket availability.

Features ✨

• 🔍 Search Conferences: Find upcoming QA and IT conferences across Europe
• 🔔 Smart Notifications: Get notified when new conferences are added
• 🎟️ Early Bird Alerts: Never miss early bird ticket opportunities
• 📍 Custom Filters: Filter by country, topic, and date
• 💾 Conference Database: Stores conference information locally

Setup Instructions 🚀

1. Create Your Telegram Bot

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
2. Send /newbot command
3. Choose a name for your bot (e.g., "Conference Finder")
4. Choose a username (must end in 'bot', e.g., "qa_conference_finder_bot")
5. BotFather will give you an API token - save this!

2. Install Python Dependencies

# Create a virtual environment (recommended)
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure the Bot

Set your Telegram bot token as an environment variable:

# Linux/Mac
export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN='your-token-from-botfather'

# Windows (Command Prompt)
set TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=your-token-from-botfather

# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN='your-token-from-botfather'

Or create a .env file:

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=your-token-from-botfather

4. Run the Bot

python conference_bot.py

The bot will start and you should see "Starting bot..." in the console.

Usage 📱

Available Commands

• /start - Start the bot and see welcome message
• /search - Search for QA/IT conferences
• /subscribe - Enable notifications for new conferences
• /unsubscribe - Disable notifications
• /upcoming - View upcoming conferences (next 3 months)
• /filters - Set your notification preferences
• /help - Show help message

Example Workflow

1. Start a chat with your bot on Telegram
2. Send /start to initialize
3. Send /subscribe to enable notifications
4. Send /search to find conferences
5. Use /filters to customize what you see
6. Receive automatic notifications about new conferences!

How It Works 🔧

Architecture

conference_bot.py          # Main bot logic
├── ConferenceBot         # Core bot class
├── Command Handlers      # /start, /search, /subscribe, etc.
├── Callback Handlers     # Button interactions
└── Background Jobs       # Periodic conference checks

conferences.json          # Conference database
users.json               # User subscriptions and preferences

Data Storage

The bot uses JSON files to store:

• conferences.json: All discovered conferences with details
• users.json: User subscriptions and filter preferences

Notification System

The bot runs a background job every 12 hours to:

1. Search for new conferences online
2. Compare with existing database
3. Notify subscribed users about new findings
4. Alert about upcoming early bird deadlines

Enhancing the Bot 🛠️

Adding Web Search Capability

To enable real-time conference discovery, integrate web scraping:

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

def scrape_conferences():
    """Scrape conferences from popular sites"""
    sources = [
        'https://confs.tech',
        'https://conferenceindex.org',
        # Add more sources
    ]
    # Implement scraping logic

Adding More Data Sources

Popular conference aggregators:

• Confs.tech (has an API!)
• Conferenceindex.org
• 10times.com
• Eventbrite API
• Meetup API

Database Upgrade

For production use, consider replacing JSON files with:

• SQLite (built-in Python)
• PostgreSQL (scalable)
• MongoDB (flexible schema)

Deployment Options 🌐

Option 1: Run on Your Computer

Simple for testing, but bot stops when computer is off.

Option 2: Deploy to a Server

Free Options:

• Heroku (with worker dyno)
• Railway.app
• Render.com
• PythonAnywhere

Paid Options:

• AWS EC2
• Google Cloud
• DigitalOcean

Option 3: Serverless

• AWS Lambda with scheduled triggers
• Google Cloud Functions

Example Deployment (Heroku)

# Install Heroku CLI
# https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-cli

# Login to Heroku
heroku login

# Create app
heroku create your-conference-bot

# Set environment variable
heroku config:set TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN='your-token'

# Create Procfile
echo "worker: python conference_bot.py" > Procfile

# Deploy
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git push heroku main

# Start the worker
heroku ps:scale worker=1

Troubleshooting 🔍

Bot doesn't respond

• Check if the bot is running (python conference_bot.py)
• Verify your token is correct
• Check console for error messages

No notifications

• Ensure you've subscribed with /subscribe
• Check that the background job is running
• Verify conferences exist in the database

Dependencies issues

• Make sure Python 3.8+ is installed
• Try reinstalling: pip install -r requirements.txt --upgrade

Future Enhancements 🚀

• Integration with conference APIs (Confs.tech, Eventbrite)
• Calendar export (iCal format)
• Price tracking for tickets
• Conference reviews and ratings
• Multi-language support
• Speaking opportunity alerts
• Hotel and travel recommendations
• Early bird ticket countdown timer

Contributing 🤝

Feel free to enhance the bot with:

• More data sources
• Better search algorithms
• UI improvements
• Additional notification options

License 📄

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

Support 💬

If you encounter issues:

1. Check the console output for errors
2. Verify your bot token
3. Ensure all dependencies are installed
4. Check Telegram API status

Acknowledgments 🙏

Built with:

• python-telegram-bot
• Conference data from community sources

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Happy conference hunting! 🎉