At the last General Assembly of the EuroPython Society (EPS) at EuroPython 2018 in Edinburgh, we voted on a new grant program we want to put in place for future EuroPython conferences.

We all love Python and this is one of the main reasons we are putting on EuroPython year after year, serving the “cast of thousands” which support Python. But we also believe it is important to give something back to the main team of developers who have contributed lots of their time and energy to make Python happen: the Python Core Developers.

This group is small, works countless hours, often in their free time and often close to burnout due to not enough new core developers joining the team.

Free Tickets for Python Core Developers

To help with growing the team, putting it more into the spotlight and give them a place to meet, demonstrate their work and a stage to invite new developers, we decided to give Python Core Developers free entry to future EuroPython conferences, starting with EuroPython 2019 in Basel, Switzerland

In recognition of Guido’s almost 30 years of leading this team, and with his permission, we have named the grant “Guido van Rossum Core Developer Grant”.

Details of the grant program are available on our core grant page:

https://www.europython-society.org/core-grant

PS: If you are a core developer and want to organize a workshop, language summit or similar event at EuroPython 2019, please get in touch with our program workgroup soon, so that we can arrange rooms, slots, etc.

PPS: If you want to become a core developer, please have a look at the Python Dev Guide.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society Board
https://www.europython-society.org/

Today, we’re happy to announce our pre-launch website under the official EuroPython 2019 URL:

https://ep2019.europython.eu/

Dates and Venues

EuroPython will be held from July 8-14 2019 in Basel, Switzerland, at the Congress Center Basel (BCC) for the main conference days (Wed-Fri) and the FHNW Muttenz for the workshops/trainings/sprints days (Mon-Tue, Sat-Sun).

We will continue to list information on the FAQ & Info page as it becomes available.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society Board
https://www.europython-society.org/

After a very work intense RFP with more than 40 venues competing, 17 entries, and two rounds of refinements, we are now happy to announce the winner:

EuroPython 2019 will be held in 
Basel, Switzerland, from July 8 - 14 2019

We will now start work on the contracts and get the organization going, so that we can all enjoy another edition of EuroPython next year.

Many thanks,
–
EuroPython Society Board
https://www.europython-society.org/

We are happy to announce that we have received 17 RFP submissions for EP2019 from various venues all across Europe.

Review will take longer

This large number was a somewhat unexpected and the work to review all these proposals is taking longer as a result.

Since we want to give all RFP submissions a fair chance, we will therefore postpone the selection announcement until Wednesday next week, 2018-11-07, and adjust the timeline for the second round accordingly.

Updated timeline for the RFP

First round:

• Start of RFP process: 2018-09-28
  
• Deadline for RFP vendor questions: 2018-10-05
  
• Vendor questions answered by: 2018-10-12
  
• First round submission deadline: 2018-10-19
  
• Second round candidates will be informed until: 2018-11-07
  

Second round:

• Second round RFP questions posted: 2018-11-16
• Deadline for RFP vendor questions: 2018-11-21
• Vendor questions answered by: 2018-11-23
• Final submission deadline: 2018-11-28
• Final candidate will be informed until: 2018-12-07

Many thanks,
– 
EuroPython Society Board
https://www.europython-society.org/

We are happy to announce that we have started the RFP for venues to host the EuroPython 2019 conference.

We have sent out the details to almost 40 venues.

Unlike last year, we also want to give the chance to other venues who were not on our list to participate in the RFP. For this purpose, we are making the details available in this blog post as well.

RFP Introduction

The EuroPython Society is the organization behind the EuroPython conference, is the largest Python programming language conference in Europe, with more than 1100 professionals from IT, science and educational fields attending to learn about new developments, network and learn from experience of others in the field.

Python is a very popular open source programming language, with a large following in the web development and data science fields (see http://python.org/ for details).

EuroPython was initiated in 2002, with the first conference in Charleroi, Belgium, and has since toured Europe for a total of 17 editions so far. For EuroPython 2019 we are looking for a new location and venue and are reaching out to potential venues we have identified to participate in an RFP selection process.

If you’d like to participate in this process, please have a look at the RFP spreadsheet in form of an Excel spreadsheet with a list of questions and our EuroPython 2017 sponsor brochure with more details about the conference, the demographics and our offerings for sponsors, to give you an idea of what we are looking for.

Please see the first tab in the spreadsheet for a description of the the submission process. If you have questions, please write to board@europython.eu. Please also check our answers to the first round RFP vendor questions.

You can also check these other resources:

• EuroPython 2018 website: https://ep2018.europython.eu/en/
  
• EuroPython videos: http://europython.tv/
  
• EuroPython pictures: https://www.flickr.com/groups/europython2018/
  
• EuroPython blog: http://blog.europython.eu/
  
• EuroPython Twitter channel: https://twitter.com/europython
  
• EuroPython Society: http://www.europython-society.org/
  

Timeline

This is the timeline for the RFP:

First round:

• Start of RFP process: 2018-09-28
  
• Deadline for RFP vendor questions: 2018-10-05
  
• Vendor questions answered by: 2018-10-12
  
• First round submission deadline: 2018-10-19
  
• Second round candidates will be informed until: 2018-10-31
  

Second round:

• Second round RFP questions posted: 2018-11-09
• Deadline for RFP vendor questions: 2018-11-14
• Vendor questions answered by: 2018-11-16
• Final submission deadline: 2018-11-21
• Final candidate will be informed until: 2018-11-30
  

RFP Resources

• EuroPython 2017 sponsor brochure
  
• First round RFP spreadsheet
  
• Answers to first round RFP venue questions
  

Many thanks,
– 
EuroPython Society Board
https://www.europython-society.org/

Dear EuroPython’istas,

We are in preparations of our venue RFP for the EuroPython 2019 edition and are asking for your help in finding the right locations for us to choose from.

If you know of a larger venue - hotel or conference center - that can accommodate at least 1400 attendees, please send the venue details to board@europython.eu. We will then make sure to include them in our RFP once we send it out.

The more venues we gather to reach out to, the better of a selection process we can guarantee, which in return, will ultimately result in a better conference experience for everybody involved.

When sending us venue suggestions, please make sure to provide us with the following: name and URL of the venue, country and city, as well as the contact details of the sales person in charge of inquiries (full name, email and phone).

We were planning to start the RFP process in the coming days, so please make sure you send us your recommendations as soon as possible.

Thank you,
–
EuroPython Society Board
https://www.europython-society.org/

At this year’s General Assembly we will vote in a new board of the EuroPython Society for the term 2018/2019.

List of Board Candidates

The EPS bylaws require one chair and 2 - 8 board members. The following candidates have stated their willingness to work on the EPS board. We are presenting them here (in alphabetical order by surname).

Prof. Martin Christen

Teaching Python / using Python for research projects

Martin Christen is a professor of Geoinformatics and Computer Graphics at the Institute of Geomatics at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW). His main research interests are geospatial Virtual- and Augmented Reality, 3D geoinformation, and interactive 3D maps.
Martin is very active in the Python community. He teaches various Python-related courses and uses Python in most research projects. He organizes the PyBasel meetup - the local Python User Group Northwestern Switzerland. He also organizes the yearly GeoPython conference. He is a board member of the Python Software Verband e.V.

I would be glad to help with EuroPython, to be part of a great team that makes the next edition of EuroPython even better, wherever it will hosted.

Dr. Darya Chyzhyk

PhD / Python programming enthusiastic for research and science

Currently, Darya is a Post-Doc at INRIA Saclay research center, France.

She has a degree in applied mathematics and defended her thesis in computer science. Last 7 years Darya has been working on computer aided diagnostic computer systems for brain diseases at the University of the Basque Country, Spain the University of Florida, USA and she is a member of of the Computational Intelligence Group since 2009. Her aim is to develop computational methods for brain MRI processing and analysis, including open sours tools, that help to the medical people in their specific pathologies research studies.

She has experience in International Conference organization and take part in the events for the teenagers and kids such as Week of science. Participant in more than 10 international science conference, trainings and summer courses.

Board member of Python San Sebastian Society (ACPySS), on-site team of EuroPython 2015 and 2016, EPS board member since 2015.

Artur Czepiel

Pythonista / Web Programmer

Artur started writing in Python around 2008. Since then he used it for fun, profit, and automation. Mostly writing web backends and sysadmin scripts. In last few years slowly expanding that list of use cases with help of data analysis tools like pandas.

At EuroPython 2017 he saw a talk about the EuroPython’s codebase and started contributing patches, later joining Web and Support Workgroups. His plan for next year is to write more patches, focusing on how website (and other related software, like helpdesk) can be modified to improve workflows of other WGs.

Anders Hammarquist

Pythonista / Consultant / Software architect

Anders brought Python to Open End (née Strakt), a Python software company
focusing on data organization, when we founded it in 2001. He has used
Python in various capacities since 1995.

He helped organize EuroPython 2004 and 2005, and has attended and given
talks at several EuroPythons since then. He has handled the Swedish financials of the EuroPython Society since 2016 and has served as board member since 2017.

Marc-André Lemburg

Pythonista / CEO / Consultant / Coach

Marc-Andre is the CEO and founder of eGenix.com, a Python-focused project and consulting company based in Germany. He has a degree in mathematics from the University of Düsseldorf. His work with and for Python started in 1994. He became Python Core Developer in 1997, designed and implemented the Unicode support in Python and continued to maintain the Python Unicode implementation for more than a decade. Marc-Andre is a founding member of the Python Software Foundation (PSF) and has served on the PSF Board several times.

In 2002, Marc-Andre was on the executive committee to run the first EuroPython conference in Charleroi, Belgium. He also co-organized the second EuroPython 2003 conference. Since then, he has attended every single EuroPython conference and continued being involved in the workings of the conference organization.

He was elected as board member of the EuroPython Society (EPS) in 2012 and enjoyed the last few years working with the EPS board members on steering the EuroPython conference to the new successful EuroPython Workgroup structures to sustain the continued growth, while maintaining the EuroPython spirit and fun aspect of the conference.

For the EuroPython 2017 and 2018 edition, Marc-Andre was chair of the EuroPython Society and ran lots of activities around the conference organization, e.g. managing the contracts and budget, helping with sponsors,  the website, setting up the conference app, writing blog posts and many other things that were needed to make EuroPython happen.

Going forward, he would like to intensify work on turning the EPS into an organization which aids the Python adoption in Europe not only by running the EuroPython conference, but also by help build organizer networks and provide financial help to other Python conferences in Europe.

Dr. Valeria Pettorino

PhD in physics / Astrophysics / Data Science / Space Missions / Python user

Valeria has more than 12 years experience in research, communication and project management, in Italy/US/Switzerland/Germany/France. Since December 2016 she is permanent research enginner at CEA (Commissariat de l’énergie atomique) in Paris-Saclay. She is part of the international collaborations for the ESA/NASA Planck and Euclid space missions; among other projects, she is leading the forecast Taskforce that predicts Euclid performance. 

She has been using python both in astrophysics (for plotting and data interpretation) and for applications to healthcare IOT. She is alumni of the Science to Data Science (S2DS) program and is passionate about transfer of knowledge between industry and academia. 

She took part to EuroPython 2016 as a speaker and since then helped co-organizing EuroPython 2017 and 2018 in different WGs. She is invited mentor for women in physics for the Supernova Foundation http://supernovafoundation.org/ remote worldwide program.

Mario Thiel

Pythonista

Mario has been helping a lot with EuroPython in recent years, mostly working on supporting attendees through the helpdesk, on-site to make sure setup and tear-down run smoothly and more recently also on the sponsors WG.

Mario will unfortunately not be able to attend EuroPython this year, but would still feel honored to be voted in to the board.

Silvia Uberti

Sysadmin / IT Consultant

She is a Sysadmin with a degree in Network Security, really passionate about technology, traveling and her piano.  

She’s an advocate for women in STEM disciplines and supports inclusiveness of underrepresented people in tech communities.

She fell in love with Python and its warm community during PyCon Italia in 2014 and became a member of EuroPython Sponsor Workgroup in 2017.  
She enjoys a lot working in it and wants to help more!

What does the EPS Board do ?

The EPS board runs the day-to-day business of the EuroPython Society, including running the EuroPython conference events. It is allowed to enter contracts for the society and handle any issues that have not been otherwise regulated in the bylaws or by the General Assembly. Most business is handled by email on the board mailing list or the board’s Telegram group, board meetings are usually run as conference calls.

It is important to note that the EPS board is an active board, i.e. the board members are expected to put in a significant amount of time and effort towards the goals of the EPS and for running the EuroPython conference. This usually means at least 100-200h work over a period of one year, with most of this being needed in the last six months before the conference. Many board members put in even more work to make sure that the EuroPython conferences become a success.

Board members are generally expected to take on leadership roles within the EuroPython Workgroups.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

We would like to invite all EuroPython attendees and EuroPython Society (EPS) members to attend this year’s EPS General Assembly (GA), which we will run as in-person meeting at the upcoming EuroPython 2018, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK from July 23 - 29.

We had already sent a invite to the members mailing on 2018-06-17, but would like to announce this more broadly as well and with complete agenda.

Place of the General Assembly meeting:

We will meet on Friday, July 27, at 14:15 BST in room Kilsyth of the EICC, The Exchange, Edinburgh EH3 8EE.

There will be a short talk to invite volunteers to participate in organizing EuroPython 2019 in preparation for next year’s event at 14:00 BST in the same room, right before the General Assembly. You may want to attend that talk as well. In this talk, we will present the EuroPython Workgroup Concept, we have been using successfully for the past years now.

General Assembly Agenda

The agenda contents for the assembly is defined by the EPS bylaws. We are planning to use the following structure:

• Opening of the meeting
• Selection of meeting chair, secretary and 2 checkers of the minutes
• Motion establishing the timeliness of the call to the meeting
• Presentation of the annual report and annual accounts by the board
• Presentation of the report of the auditor
• Discharge from liability for the board
• Presentation of a budget by the outgoing board.
• Acceptance of budget and decision on membership fees for the upcoming year
• Election of members of the board
• Election of chair of the board
• Election of one auditor and one replacement. The auditor does not have to be certified in any way and is normally selected among the members of the society.
• The optional election of a nomination committee for the next annual meeting of the General Assembly
• Propositions from the board, if any
  
• Motions from the members, if any
  
• Closing of the meeting

In an effort to reduce the time it takes to go through this long list, which is mandated by the bylaws, we will try to send as much information to the members mailing list before the GA, so that we can limit presentations to a minimum.

Election of the members of the board

The EPS bylaws limit the number of board members to one chair and 2 - 8 directors, at most 9 directors in total. Experience has shown that the board members are the most active organizers of the EuroPython conference, so we try to get as many board members as possible to spread the work load.

All members of the EPS are free to nominate or self nominate board members. Please write to board@europython-society.org no later than Friday, July 20 2017, if you want to run for board. We will then include you in the list we’ll have in the final nomination announcement before the GA, which is scheduled for July 21.

The following people from the current board have already shown interest in running for board in the next term as well (in alphabetical order):

• Anders Hammarquist
• Darya Chyzhyk
• Marc-André Lemburg
  

We will post more detailed information about the candidates and any new nominations we receive in a separate blog post.

Propositions from the board

• We would like to propose to grant CPython Core Developers a lifetime free entry to EuroPython conferences in recognition for their efforts to build the foundation on what our community is built. The details are to be defined by the EPS board.
  

The bylaws allow for additional propositions to be announced up until 5 days before the GA, so the above list is not necessarily the final list.

Motions from the members

• None at the moment. 
  

EPS members are entitled to suggest motions to be voted on at the GA. The bylaws require any such motions to be announced at least 5 days before the GA. If you would like to propose a motion, please send it to board@europython-society.org no later than Friday, July 20 2017, so we can announce the final list to everyone.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

Over the last few weeks, our program WG has been working hard on getting the schedule all lined up. Today, we’re releasing it to the Python world.

Schedule for EuroPython 2018

With 140 speakers and more than 150 sessions, we have a full packed program waiting for you. Please note that the schedule may still change in details, but the overall layout is fixed now.

Book your EuroPython 2018 Ticket

Please make sure you book your ticket in the coming days. We will switch to late bird rates closer to the event.

If you want to attend the training sessions, please buy a training pass. We only have very few left and will close sales for these later this week.

Travel & accommodation tips

Since we’re close the conference and The Fringe is starting a week later, Edinburgh is in high demand. If you’re having problems finding a hotel, please also consider searching for apartments on the well known booking sites.

For traveling to Edinburgh, we suggest also considering a combination of plane and train or bus. London, Birmingham and Manchester all provide train and bus lines going to Edinburgh and by booking a combination, you can often save a lot, compared to a direct flight to Edinburgh.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython 2018 Team
https://ep2018.europython.eu/  
https://www.europython-society.org/

The EuroPython Society (EPS) extended its mission last year to not only run the EuroPython conference, but also provide help for the Python community in Europe in general.

Let’s all meet at EuroPython

In addition to the Python Organizers Lunch (see previous post), which focuses on conference organizers, we are also establishing a program to support attendees of Python user groups and conferences in Europe.

We’d like to invite all of you to EuroPython 2018 this year. Of course, we cannot give out free tickets to everyone, but we can at least recognize your participation in the Python community by giving out discounts for the conference.

Discounts for EuroPython Tickets

If you are running a Python event (conference or user group) in Europe, please reach out to board@europython.eu to request a coupon code for your group, which you can then pass on to your group members or attendees.

If you are not running a user group or conference, but a regular attendee of one, please contact your organizers to have them submit a request. We can only distribute codes at the user group and conference organizer level.

The coupon codes are valid for conference tickets bought starting today and will give you a 10% discount on the ticket price (both regular and late bird prices). The codes are setup for user group sizes of between 30-50 members, but we are also extending this to organizers and attendees of larger conferences. If you need a code valid for larger groups, please mention this in your email.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society
https://ep2018.europython.eu/  
https://www.europython-society.org/