A bunch of the Labs team (and the rest of Sunlight) will be in New York next week for PDF 2012. It’s one of the can’t-miss events of our calendar year — and not just because Sunlight counts Micah Sifry and Andrew Rasiej as close friends. PDF is a consistently great opportunity for like-minded folks to get together and share their visions for how technology can change society for the better. We’ve found more than a few team members at past PDFs; I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

This year the folks behind the event are trying something new: a two-day hackathon in the leadup to the conference. They’re calling it PDF: Applied, and if you have talent for coding and a chance to make it to New York a little early, you should really consider attending. It’s always exciting to see this kind of attempt to translate big thoughts into concrete action.