EuroPython Society

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/

The EuroPython Society (EPS), who is organizing the EuroPython conference, last year extended it’s mission to also provide help for the Python community in Europe in general.

As part of this, we would like to get to know, and help create closer ties between organizers of other European Python events.

Organizers’ Lunch

We would like to invite representatives of all European Python conference to EuroPython 2018 to join us for an organizers’ lunch. We’re planing the lunch for Friday, July 27, in the organizer’s room (Soutra Suite).

Our aim is to get to know each other, exchange experience in organizing events and to find out how we, as EPS, can most effectively help other conferences going forward.

Free Tickets

To support and facilitate this, we are giving out one free conference ticket per conference team, so that each team can send a representative to the organizers’ lunch.

If your team wants to send someone to join, please write to board@europython.eu, mentioning the conference you’re organizing and some background on your team.

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

We have great news ! After many months of sorting the UK VAT registration issue, we have finally been registered for VAT in the UK. This is the number, we’ve all been waiting for:

GB 297620469

We’ve now generated all the missing invoices for existing purchases and hope that this will make it easier for companies to now register their employees as well.

EuroPython 2018: Get your tickets before we sell out

Downloading Invoices

If you have already purchased tickets, you can find the invoices in your account. Simply log in, go to the profile page, select “Orders, invoices & coupons” on the right and you should find the invoice links for your orders.

The invoices are generated as PDFs, so you can print or archive them easily.

Sorry for keeping you waiting so long.

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

We’re looking for proposals on every aspect of Python: programming from novice to advanced levels, applications and frameworks, or how you have been involved in introducing Python into your organization. EuroPython is a community conference and we are eager to hear about your experience.

Please also forward this Call for Proposals to anyone that you feel may be interested.

Important Notice: New Conference Layout

Please note that the conference layout has changed compared to previous years, the main conference (talks) is now only three days:

• Monday and Tuesday:
  trainings, workshops and Beginners’ Day only
• Wednesday, Thursday, Friday:
  talks, panels, posters, helpdesks, open sessions,… (no trainings!).

Submit your proposal !

Submissions will be open until Sunday, May 20.

Given the compact timing this year, one should not bet on an extension, please submit your proposals as early as possible - also to reduce work load of the reviewers. Thank you.

Presenting at EuroPython

We will accept a broad range of presentations, from reports on academic and commercial projects to tutorials and case studies. As long as the presentation is interesting and potentially useful to the Python community, it will be considered for inclusion in the program.

Can you show something new and useful? Can you show the attendees how to: use a module? Explore a Python language feature? Package an application? If so, please consider submitting a talk.

There are four different kinds of contributions that you can present at EuroPython:

Regular Talk / approx. 110 slots

These are standard “talks with slides”, allocated in slots of

• 30 minutes
• 45 minutes
• 60 minutes

The Q&A session, if present, is included in the time slot. 3-5 Minutes for Q&A is a good practice. Please chose a time slot you see fit best to make your presentation in a compact way (So the audience may follow along but is not bored).
We will only have a very limited number of 60 minute slots available, so please only choose these slots for more in-depth sessions or topics which require more background information.

Trainings / 12 slots.

Deep-dive into a subject with all details. These sessions are apporx. 3 hours long. The training attendees will be encouraged to bring a laptop. They should be prepared with less slides and more source code. Room capacity for the trainings rooms is 100 seats.

Panels

A panel is group of three to six experts plus a moderator discussing a matter in depth, an intensive exchange of (maybe opposite) opinions. A panel may be 30-60 minutes long. We have introduced this interactive format for EuroPython 2017 due to the many requests we have received to make the conference more interactive and have more challenging / mind-bending content in place. If you have any questions or if you want to discuss an idea for a panel upfront, please feel free to contact the Program WG to discuss. Please note if you suggest a panel you will have to organise the panelists and coordinate with the

Interactive

This is a completely open 60-minute format. Feel free to make your suggestions. There are only two rules: it must be interactive, real-time human-to-human-interaction and of course compliant with the EuroPython Code of Conduct. If you want to discuss an idea upfront, please feel free to contact the Program WG to discuss.

Posters / 15 slots

Posters are a graphical way to describe a project or a technology, printed in large formats; posters are exhibited at the conference, can be read at any time by participants, and can be discussed face to face with their authors during the poster session.

Helpdesk / 6 slots

Helpdesks are a great way to share your experience on a technology, by offering to help people answering their questions and solving their practical problems. You can run a helpdesk by yourself or with colleagues and friends. Each helpdesk will be open for 3 hours in total, 1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the afternoon. People looking for help will sign up for a 30 minute slot and talk to you. There is no specific preparation needed; you just need to be proficient in the technology you run the helpdesk for.

Tracks

You may suggest your submission for a track. Tracks are groups of talks, covering the same domain (e.g. Django), all in the same room in a row. You may choose one of these specialized domains / tracks:

• Business Track (running a business, being a freelancer)
• DevOps
• Django Track
• Educational Track
• General Python
• Hardware/IoT Track
• PyData Track
• Science Track
• Web Track

PyData EuroPython 2018

As usual, there will be a PyData track at this year’s conference. Please submit your papers for the PyData track through the EuroPython form and make sure to select “PyData” as sub community in the form.

The PyData track is run in cooperation with NumFocus and the PyData Edinburgh meetup.

Discounts for Content Contributors

Since EuroPython is a not-for-profit community conference, it is not possible to pay out rewards for talks or trainings. For talks, posters, help desk and organising a panels or interactive sessions we will give out a 25% discount coupon valid for one conference ticket. Trainers will receive a 100% discount coupon for both a conference ticket and a training pass to compensate for the longer preparation time.

More about this here 

Topics and Goals

Suggested topics for EuroPython presentations include, but are not limited to:

• Core Python
• Python libraries and extensions
• Python 2 to 3 migration
• Data Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Databases
• Documentation
• Frameworks
• Game Programming
• Hardware (Sensors, RaspberryPi, Gadgets,…)
• Network Programming
• Open Source Python projects
• Packaging
• Programming Tools
• Project Best Practices
• Embedding and Extending
• Education, Science and Math
• Community
• Ethics (related to Programming)
• Web-based Systems
• Use Cases
• API
• GUI Programming
• Failures and Mistakes
• Alternative Python implementations: e.g. Jython, IronPython, PyPy, and Stackless

Language for Talks & Trainings

Talks and trainings should be held in English.

Inappropriate Language and Imagery

Please consider that EuroPython is a conference with an audience from a broad geographical area which spans countries and regions with vastly different cultures. What might be considered a “funny, inoffensive joke” in a region might be really offensive (if not even unlawful) in another. If you want to add humor, references and images to your talk, avoid any choice that might be offensive to a group which is different from yours, and pay attention to our EuroPython Code of Conduct.

Community Based Talk Voting

Attendees who have bought a ticket in time for the Talk Voting period gain the right to vote for talks submitted during the Call For Proposals.

The Program WG will also set aside a number of slots which they will then select based on other criteria to e.g. increase diversity or give a chance to less mainstream topics.

Release agreement for submissions

All submissions will be made public during the community talk voting, to allow all registrants to discuss the proposals. After finalizing the schedule, talks that are not accepted will be removed from the public website. Accepted submissions will stay online for the foreseeable future.

We also ask all speakers/trainers to:

• accept the video recording of their presentation
  
• upload their talk materials to the EuroPython website
  
• accept the EuroPython Speaker Release Agreement which allows the EPS to make the talk recordings and uploaded materials available under a CC BY-NC-SA license
  

To simplify the organization, we ask all speakers and trainers to accept the video recording and publishing of their session. All talks will be recorded. Trainings will be not recorded.

Talk slides will be made available on the EuroPython web site. Talk video recordings will be uploaded to the EuroPython YouTube channel and archived on archive.org.

For more privacy related information, please consult our privacy policy.

Contact

For further questions, feel free to contact our Program WG Helpdesk

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

We are excited to announce the launch of the EuroPython 2018 website.

https://ep2018.europython.eu/

The EuroPython conference will take place in Edinburgh, UK, this year, from July 23 - 29.

EuroPython 2018 - The European Python Conference

Here’s an overview of what you can expect in Edinburgh:

We will start with the Workshops and the Trainings on Monday and Tuesday, July 23-24.

The main 3 conference day follow, packed with keynotes, talks, helpdesks, panels and open space sessions.

A complete PyData EuroPython 2018 will be included as well.

The two weekend days after the conference, July 28 and 29, are reserved for sprints.

Overall, we will again have 7 days worth of great Python content, arranged in over 120 sessions, waiting for you.

In short:

• Monday, Tuesday, July 23-24: Workshops and Trainings and Beginners’ Day
• Wednesday - Friday, July 25-27: Main Conference with talks, keynotes, exhibit, panels, posters, helpdesks and open sessions.
• Saturday, Sunday, July 28-29: Sprints.

Meet our launch sponsors

All this would not be possible without the generous help of our launch sponsors:

• Smarkets
• Datadog
• Intel
• Jetbrains
• numberly / 1000mercis

In the coming days, we will provide you with more information and announce the start of the Call for Proposals and Early Bird Ticket sales. Please watch our EuroPython blog for updates.

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

We are excited to announce the launch of the EuroPython 2018 website:

https://ep2018.europython.eu/

The EuroPython conference will take place in sunny Edinburgh, Scotland, this year, from July 23-29 2018.

It’s a great time of year to visit Edinburgh with 16 hours of daylight, and the festival season in full flow, so come and join us. This is just one week before the famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Turing Festival, so you can extend your stay a little longer in Edinburgh, or head for the Highlands to enjoy the amazing mountains and lochs.

EuroPython 2018 - The European Python Conference

Here’s an overview of what you can expect in Edinburgh:

• We will start with Workshops and Training Sessions on Monday and Tuesday.

• The main 3 conference days follow, packed with keynotes, talks, exhibition, help desks, interactive sessions, panels and poster sessions.

• The two weekend days after the conference, July 28 and 29, are reserved for sprints (hackathons).

Overall, we will again have 7 days worth of great Python content, arranged in over 120 sessions, waiting for you.

The venue is the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, in central Edinburgh, just on the edge of the historic Old Town.

In short:

• Monday, Tuesday, July 23-24: Workshops and Training
  
• Wednesday - Friday, July 25-27: Conference talks, keynotes, training
  
• Saturday, Sunday, July 28-29: Sprints
  

Our Sponsors

All this would not be possible without the generous help of our launch sponsors. If your company would be interested in sponsoring the 17th EuroPython please contact sponsoring@europython.eu.

Sponsoring EuroPython guarantees you highly targeted visibility and the opportunity to present yourself and your company in a professional and innovative environment. You’ll have an unique opportunity to meet many Python-enthusiastic developers, users and professionals. As a sponsor of EuroPython 2018, you will directly help to promote the work of a great open-source community and help further its development.

EuroPython 2018 is the 17th EuroPython conference. The conference tours throughout Europe. It so far has had stops in Belgium, Sweden, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Basque Country/Spain, growing from initially 240 attendees to well over 1200.

In the coming days, we will announce the start of the Call for Proposals and Early Bird Ticket sales. Please watch our EuroPython blog for updates.

https://ep2018.europython.eu/

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