EuroPython Society

Organisers of the EuroPython conference series. Working for the Python community.
EuroPython Society

EPS Board Candidates for 2016/2017

At this year’s General Assembly we will vote in a new board of the EuroPython Society.

List of Board Candidates

The EPS bylaws require one chair and 2 - 6 board members. The following candidates have stated their willingness to work on the EPS board. We are presenting them here (in alphabetical order).

Borja Ayerdi

PhD Student / Co-Founder and CEO of Neurita / Treasurer

Borja is a PhD student in the University of the Basque Country. He has a degree in Information Engineering of the same university. His PhD thesis is focused in several areas of machine learning applications to image processing, including aortic and brain imaging as well as hyperspectral satellite imaging. He uses Python for his research projects.

He is a co-founder and the treasurer of the non-profit Python San Sebastian society (ACPySS).  With the local community he is co-organizer of Python San Sebastian Conference Series. He is member of the EuroPython 2015 and 2016 core organization team. He loves the social interaction and the community.

Christian Calogero Barra

Curious / Traveler / Pythonista / Student of Statistics @UNIPD

From 2015 he is a member of the EuroPython Organisers, chair of the Web
workgroup and a member of the Program and Support workgroup.
He is a Free Software enthusiasm and he would like to teach Python to
european kids.

Until 2014 he had a company in the renewable energy sector, company founded in 2009.

He is also a member of PyCon Italia Organisers and Python Italia
Association and plans to join other Python Communities in Europe.
Currently is studying Statistics at the University of Padua, with a focus
on big data and technology applications.

When he is not having fun with his computer he likes to enjoy Travels, the
Nature, sports and books.

Oier Echaniz Beneitez

PhD Student /  Consultant / Chair of ACPySS

Oier currently is a PhD Student in the University of the Basque Country. He has a degree in Information Engineering from the same university. His PhD is focused in medical imaging, cancer diagnosis and machine learning. He uses Python in his daily programming projects. He is also co-founder and chair of the Python San Sebastian society (ACPySS), a non-profit organization involved in the use of Python, Free Software and Technology in business and education. With the local community he co-organized a Software Carpentry and is co-organizer in the Python San Sebastian conference series. He is member of the EuroPython 2015 and 2016 core organization team.

In his leisure time he helps as an IT expert in a non-profit organization called ASPANOGI. This organization takes care of children with cancer, teaching them computer science and providing them tools and machines where they can play during hospitalization.

Joaquin Berenguer

PhD / Consultant / Software Engineering Manager

Joaquin is Director at Berentec, a Professional Services Company.

He has a MS in Telecommunication at University of Madrid, and MS in
Robotics at University of Alicante, Services Manager at Sybase during 19
years.

Python is my favorite Language, and EPS gives the opportunity to be engaged
in the future of this Language.

Dr. Darya Chyzhyk

PhD / Python programming enthusiastic for research and science

Currently, Darya is a Post-Doc at the University of Florida, USA. 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 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) and on-site team of EuroPython 2015 and 2016.

Alexander Hendorf

Pythonista / CTO / Speaker / Data-Nerd

As Chief Information Officer of German management consultancy Königsweg, Alexander is guiding enterprises and institutions through change processes of digitalization and automation.

Alexander always loved data almost as much as music and so no wonder he’s organizer of local meet ups and one of the 25 mongoDB Community Masters.

He loves to share this expertise and engages in the global community as program chair of the EuroPython conference, speaker and trainer at multiple international conferences.

Since 2015 he is member of the EuroPython core organization team.

Marc-André Lemburg

Pythonista / CEO / Coach / Consultant

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 DĂĽsseldorf. 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.

In 2012, he was elected as board member of the EuroPython Society (EPS). He 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 2016 edition, Marc-Andre chaired the EuroPython Admin WG and Communications WG and contributed to several other WGs. He worked on the EuroPython website, signed up new sponsors, setup the conference app, wrote tools for the registration desk, the schedule and the speaker lists. He also setup the pre-launch website back in Nov 2015, helped running the budget and kept an eye on the EPS operations.

Going forward, he would like to broaden the scope of the EPS, aiding Python adoption in Europe, enable it to provide full financial backing of the conference and prepare it for a bright future.

Anthon van der Neut

Consultant / Software Engineering Manager

He has been working with Python on a professional basis since 1998, after having been introduced to the language a few years earlier while working in Amsterdam. Since 2007 he maintains the C implementation of OrderedDict he developed, used by those pythonistas for whom a Pure Python implementation is not fast enough. He has spoken at and visited PyCon and visited several EuroPythons after moving back to Europe.

He has managed software development in companies across 3 continents, primarily oriented at 3D resp. 2D computer graphics and media management software. This included managing the Commotion development team, then used at ILM for rotoscoping Star Wars episodes I-III.

He was quaestor on the board of the student society Augustinus while studying Mathematics, Japanese and Linguistics in Leiden. He was founding chairman of the Dutch 68000 user group (back in 1984 when that processor was state-of-the-art) and published about his work on how to hook up a floating point coprocessor in his Atari ST, as well as on how to adapt the libraries of Modula-2 to use it.

More recently he has managed the website and member administration of his local karate-club.

When not working on Python, but still at the computer, he can be found answering questions on the Unix & Linux resp. Ebooks StackExchange sites, or refreshing his math skills at Khan Academy where he is one of the few to hold the coveted Tesla badge.

When detached from his keyboard, he can be found cooking for his teenage daughter or practising karate.

He joined the EPS as he likes to work with like minded people in a multicultural environment promoting his favourite programming language.

Dr. Alexandre Manhaes Savio

Pythonista / PhD / Co-Founder and CTO / Trainer / Spokesperson

Alex has a PhD on machine learning applied to different modalities of brain MRI for the detection of neurodegeneration and psychiatric disorders. After that he tried to start a company, but instead co-founded a local Python society called ACPySS. He was one of the core organizers of EP2015 and now EP2016.

He currently works as a researcher in the Nuclear Medicine Department of the university clinic of the Technical University of Munich in Germany. There he contributes to and create neuroimaging modules with Python as well as code to improve the efficiency of the EuroPython organization tasks. He doesn’t know very well what to do with his life so he is trying to enjoy it for now.

What does the EPS Board do ?

The EPS board runs the day-to-day business of the EuroPython Society. 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, board meetings are usually run as conference calls.

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

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

Invitation to the EuroPython Society General Assembly 2016

We would like to officially invite all 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 Conference 2016 in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain.

Place of the General Assembly meeting:

We will meet on Thursday, July 21 2016, at 14:30 CEST in room A2 of the EuroPython 2016 conference venue Euskalduna Conference Center (ECC) in Bilbao, Spain.

There will be a talk to invite volunteers to participate in organizing EuroPython 2017 in preparation for next year’s event at 14:00 CEST 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 two 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
  • Propositions from the board (relating to the board election)
  • Determination of the size of the board for the period until the next annual meeting of the General Assembly
  • 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 (all others)
  • Motions from the members, if any
  • Closing of the meeting

Election of the members of the board

The EPS bylaws limit the number of board members to one chair and 2 - 6 directors, at most 7 directors in total (also see the proposition below to increase this number to 9). 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 15 2016, 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 16.

The following people have shown interest in running for board in the next term (in alphabetical order):

  • Borja Ayerdi
  • Christian Barra
  • Joaquin Berenguer
  • Darya Chyzhyk
  • Oier Etxaniz
  • Alexander Hendorf
  • Marc-AndrĂ© Lemburg
  • Alexandre Savio
  • Anthon van der Neut

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

Propositions from the board

The board is currently preparing a number of changes to EPS bylaws to broaden the scope of the EPS and prepare it for taking on more responsibility in the coming years:

  • Broaden membership to all Python users in Europe and broaden the focus to not only run conferences, but also further the use of Python in Europe.
  • Initiate the rebasing of the EPS from Gothenburg, Sweden, to Brussels, Belgium. This will be a two step process and we’d like to prepare the first step at this year’s GA by creating a new EPS non-profit in Brussels, possibly as subsidiary of the existing society in Sweden.
  • Increase the possible number of directors to 2-8 in addition to one chair (9 directors in total), in order to attract more highly active board members and better distribute the work load.

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

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 15 2016.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

EuroPython 2016: Schedule online

europython:

We are happy to announce the schedule for EuroPython 2016 in Bilbao. The program WG has been working hard trying to fit all the sessions in the last few weeks.

With over 180 sessions, over 150 speakers, one day for workshops, 5 days of talks, training, keynotes, lightning talks and open spaces, followed by 2 days of sprints, EuroPython will be one of the most exciting and vibrant Python events this year:

image

EuroPython 2016 Schedule

The schedule is available in table and list format. Please note that we are still applying changes to the slots and will also add some more interesting special sessions to it in the coming days.

Early in June we will have a short second Call for Proposals, limited to hot topics and most recent developments in software and technology. We will announce details soon.

Many thanks to everyone who submitted proposals. EuroPython wouldn’t be possible without our speakers.

If you want to join the fun, be sure to get your tickets as soon as possible, since ticket sales usually start picking up quite a bit after we announce the schedule.

With gravitational regards,
–
EuroPython 2016 Team

EuroPython 2016: Early bird ticket sales

After the Call for Proposals for EuroPython 2016 last week, we are now calling out to everyone interested in signing up as EuroPython attendee early. You will be able to benefit from reduced ticket prices for a short period of time.

Our early bird ticket sales are limited to 300 tickets. Regular sales start shortly after we’ve ended the early bird sales.

image

More Information and Ticket Shop

We will be opening the flood gates on Tuesday, 23.02.2016, 09:00 CET, so set your alarms to make sure you can secure your ticket. Experience shows that early bird tickets sell out quickly.

PS: Remember to submit your proposals for the conference. There are less than two weeks left.

With gravitational regards,
–
EuroPython 2016 Team

EuroPython 2016: Sending out the first gravitational waves

We are pleased to announce the launch of our all new EuroPython 2016 website. Over the last few weeks, we have been busy talking to sponsors and getting the website prepared for the launch.

You may have heard about the recent direct observation of gravitational waves by the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory). What you may not know is that Python helped in analyzing the data (archive.org), so we now have two things to celebrate:

  1. Python’s use in this phenomenal direct proof of Einstein’s prediction and
  2. the launch of our 2016 edition of the EuroPython conference.

So here it is:

image

https://ep2016.europython.eu/

Many thanks go to our launch sponsors who have signed up early to give us that extra boost in motivation to get the conference and it’s website set up.

Meet our Launch Sponsors

PS: We’d like to thank the EuroPython Web WG  for the web site improvements and our friends at Python Italia for making their code available.

With gravitational regards,
–
EuroPython 2016 Team

EuroPython 2016: Kick-off

The EuroPython 2016 Team is ready for starting the organization of next year’s event.

image

If you would like to actively help with the organization, we’d love to have you as volunteer in one of our workgroups. Please see the EuroPython Workgroups page for how to sign up.

On-site Team WG

One of the workgroups, the on-site team workgroup, is especially important, since they provide the services and management on-site in Bilbao, as well as in the case of EuroPython 2016, also take on a major role in the financial and legal infrastructure of the conference organization.

This team is your contact in case you have questions related to on-site setups.

  • Oier Echaniz Beneitez (Chair)
  • Borja Ayerdi Vilches
  • Darya Chyzhyk
  • Ion MarquĂ©s
  • JosĂ© David Nuñez
  • Alexandre Savio
  • Luis Javier Salvatierra

Conference Administration WG

Manages and organizes the administration side of the conference, in particular: contracts, venue contact, ticket support, satellite conferences, legal support, insurance, licensing.

  • Marc-Andre Lemburg (Chair)
  • Borja Ayerdi Vilches
  • Vicky Twomey-Lee
  • StĂ©phane Wirtel

Finance WG

Manages and organizes the finances and budget of the conference, in particular: budget, controlling, accounting, billing, invoicing, taxes, payment system administration.

  • Borja Ayerdi Vilches (Chair)
  • Darya Chyzhyk
  • Marc-Andre Lemburg
  • Anthon van der Neut (EPS Treasurer)
  • StĂ©phane Wirtel

Sponsors WG

Manages and organizes the sponsor activities of the conference, in particular: sponsor contacts, sponsor logistics, room/booth assignment, recruiting session, jobs fair, exhibit hall, startup row.

  • Fabio Pilger (Chair)
  • Borja Ayerdi Vilches
  • Darya Chyzhyk
  • RaĂşl Cumplido
  • Marc-Andre Lemburg
  • Alexandre Savio
  • Vicky Twomey-Lee

Communications WG

Manages and organizes the public communication and community relations of the conference, in particular: press, community relations, diversity/outreach/CoC, CoC contact, announcements, social media, attendee tools,  volunteer coordination, mailing lists, Trello and Loomio groups.

  • Marc-Andre Lemburg (Chair)
  • Darya Chyzhyk
  • RaĂşl Cumplido
  • Kerstin Kollmann
  • Leire Ozaeta
  • Vicky Twomey-Lee
  • Chris Ward
  • StĂ©phane Wirtel

Support WG

Manages and organizes the attendee/speaker support of the conference, in particular: helpdesk, attendee support contact, visa help, travel management.

  • Christian Barra
  • Aisha Bello
  • Darya Chyzhyk
  • Anthon van der Neut
  • Alexandre Savio
  • StĂ©phane Wirtel

Financial Aid WG

Manages and organizes the financial aid program of the conference, in particular: setup, grant selection, aid organisation.

  • Darya Chyzhyk
  • Vicky Twomey-Lee
  • StĂ©phane Wirtel

Marketing/Design WG

Create and manage marketing and design aspects of the conference, in particular: brochures, advertisements, banners, flyers, travel guide, t-shirts, lanyards, badges, panels, logo.

  • Darya Chyzhyk
  • Marc-Andre Lemburg
  • Alexandre Savio
  • StĂ©phane Wirtel

Program WG

Manages and organizes the conference program of the conference, in particular: talk selection/voting, scheduling, session chairs, sprint/openspace/keynote/lightning talks/poster session organization.

  • Alexandre Savio (Chair)
  • Alexander Hendorf  (Co-chair)
  • Christian Barra
  • RaĂşl Cumplido
  • Moshe Goldstein
  • Vicky Twomey-Lee
  • Chris Ward

Web WG

Manages and organizes the web site, in particular: web site support, helpdesk ticket system, administration, backups, payment system integration, hosting.

  • Christian Barra (Chair)
  • Oier Beneitez
  • RaĂşl Cumplido
  • Cesar Desales
  • Patrick Guido
  • Marc-Andre Lemburg
  • Fabio Pliger
  • Alexandre Savio
  • StĂ©phane Wirtel

Media WG

Manage and organize the talk and session recordings of the conference, in particular: video recording, live streaming, uploads to YouTube and archive.org.

  • Anthon van der Neut (Chair)
  • Luis Javier Salvatierra

Code of Conduct WG

Manage and organize the code of conduct (CoC) workflows, create CoC documents, provide CoC contacts and handle CoC requests.

  • Darya Chyzhyk
  • Marc-Andre Lemburg
  • Anthon van der Neut
  • Leire Ozaeta

On-Site Volunteers

In addition to several of the EuroPython Workgroup members, we will need quite a few attendees helping us as session manager, room manager, at the registration desk, bag stuffing and during set up and tear down of the conference.

We will run a separate announcement for on-site volunteers closer to the event.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

General Assembly 2015: Records available

At our General Assembly during EuroPython 2015, we voted in a new board:

  • Fabio Pliger, Chair Person
  • Borja Ayerdi
  • Oier Echaniz Beneitez
  • Dr. Darya Chyzhyk
  • Marc-AndrĂ© Lemburg
  • Anthon van der Neut
  • Dr. Alexandre Manhaes Savio

Apart from the usual assembly business, we also voted to amend the bylaws to use “chair person” instead of “chair man”.

The minutes of the meeting are available on our records page:

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

EPS Board Candidates for 2015/2016

At this year’s General Assembly we will vote in a new board of the EuroPython Society.

List of Board Candidates

The EPS bylaws require one chair and 2 - 6 board members. The following candidates have stated their willingness to work on the EPS board. We are presenting them here (in alphabetical order).

Borja Ayerdi

PhD Student / Co-Founder and CEO of Neurita / Treasurer

Borja is a PhD student in the University of the Basque Country. He has a degree in Information Engineering of the same university. His PhD thesis is focused in several areas of machine learning applications to image processing, including aortic and brain imaging as well as hyperspectral satellite imaging. He uses Python for his research projects.

He is a co-founder and the treasurer of the non-profit Python San Sebastian society (ACPySS).  With the local community he is co-organizer of Python San Sebastian Conference Series. He is member of the EuroPython 2015 core organization team. He loves the social interaction and the community.

Oier Echaniz Beneitez

PhD Student /  Consultant / Chair of ACPySS

Oier currently is a PhD Student in the University of the Basque Country. He has a degree in Information Engineering from the same university. His PhD is focused in medical imaging, cancer diagnosis and machine learning. He uses Python in his daily programming projects. He is also co-founder and chair of the Python San Sebastian society (ACPySS), a non-profit organization involved in the use of Python, Free Software and Technology in business and education. With the local community he co-organized a Software Carpentry and is co-organizer in the Python San Sebastian conference series.  He is member of the EuroPython 2015 core organization team. He is also promotor of a local project Asmatu Intelligent Solutions, where he works as data analyst consultant.

In his leisure time he helps as an IT expert in a non-profit organization called ASPANOGI. This organization takes care of children with cancer, teaching them computer science and providing them tools and machines where they can play during hospitalization.

Dr. Darya Chyzhyk

PhD/ Python programming enthusiastic for research and science

Currently, Darya is a Post-Doc at the University of Florida, USA. 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 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) and on-site team of EuroPython 2015.

Marc-André Lemburg

Pythonista / CEO / Coach / Consultant

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 Winter 1993/1994. He became Python Core Developer in 1997. In 1999, he 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. He is the author of the well-known Python “mx” Extensions, e.g. mxTextTools, mxDateTime and mxODBC, which are now distributed and maintained through eGenix.com.

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.

In 2012, he was elected as board member of the EuroPython Society (EPS). He enjoyed the last few years working with the EPS board members on steering the EuroPython conference to the new EuroPython Workgroup structures and believes that the new model will make it possible to sustain the continued growth while maintaining the EuroPython spirit and fun aspect of the conference.

For the 2015 edition, Marc-Andre chaired the EuroPython Admin WG and Communications WG. He set up the internal EuroPython organization wiki, most of the EuroPython and EPS accounts and mailing lists, managed the WG member accounts, EPS member accounts, helped setting up and running the EuroPython 2015 website and the pre-launch site before that, the EuroPython Guidebook, running the conference budget, and a gazillion smaller things needed for the conference.

Going forward, he would like to continue the transition process of the EPS and prepare it for a bright future.

Anthon van der Neut

Consultant / Software Engineering Manager

He has been working with Python on a professional basis since 1998, after having been introduced to the language a few years earlier while working in Amsterdam. Since 2007 he maintains the C implementation of OrderedDict he developed, used by those pythonistas for whom a Pure Python implementation is not fast enough. He has spoken at and visited PyCon and visited several EuroPythons after moving back to Europe.

He has managed software development in companies across 3 continents, primarily oriented at 3D resp. 2D computer graphics and media management software. This included managing the Commotion development team, then used at ILM for rotoscoping Star Wars episodes I-III.

He was quaestor on the board of the student society Augustinus while studying Mathematics, Japanese and Linguistics in Leiden. He was founding chairman of the Dutch 68000 user group (back in 1984 when that processor was state-of-the-art) and published about his work on how to hook up a floating point coprocessor in his Atari ST, as well as on how to adapt the libraries of Modula-2 to use it.

More recently he has managed the website and member administration of his local karate-club.

When not working on Python, but still at the computer, he can be found answering questions on the Unix & Linux resp. Ebooks StackExchange sites, or refreshing his math skills at Khan Academy where he is one of the few to hold the coveted Tesla badge.

When detached from his keyboard, he can be found cooking for his teenage daughter or practising karate.

He joined the EPS as he likes to work with like minded people in a multicultural environment promoting his favourite programming language.

Fabio Pliger

Software Engineer / Trainer / Consultant

Fabio currently works as a software engineer, trainer and consultant. He has a degree in Computer Science from the University of Verona, Italy. Has started working with Python on a professional basis since 2003 building different kind of tools and projects mainly for pharmaceutical companies. In 2007, he co-founded his own software and consulting company focused at the pharmaceutical industry market, that he left in 2013.

He has been the chairman of the board of the EuroPython Society since 2012 trying to help the Society maintain the series of successful conference, improve it’s interaction with the community, scale as numbers grow and keep the Conference spirit of fun, openness and respect that is a deep trait of the EuroPython conference. He has been a co-organizer of the EuroPython Conference series for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 editions in Florence.

In 2007, he co-founded the Python Italia Association, a non-profit organization devoted to advance open source technology related to the Python programming language in Italy. As result of this he has been a co-organizer of the PyCon Italia conference in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014.

He joined the EPS because he loves the social interaction, community and to help promote his favorite programming language.

Outside the Python community Fabio loves to spend time with his family, friends, cooking and traveling.

Dr. Alexandre Manhaes Savio

Pythonista / PhD / Co-Founder and CTO / Trainer / Spokesperson

Alex has a PostDoc position in the University of Wroclaw, he is an expert working with Neuroimaging. He has a PhD and degree in Information Engineering in the University of the Basque Country. In the university he is a member of the Computational Intelligence Group, where he participated in the organization of 4 scientific conferences. He is core developer of medical image tools which are popular in the computer Science Faculty of the University of the Basque Country in San Sebastian. His interests are oriented to medical imaging and computer vision applications, computer clusters administration and high-performance computing.

He is the most veteran Python user in the Python San Sebastian society (ACPySS), he is also a co-founder and the spokesperson in this non-profit organization. With the local community he organized trainings for beginners and intermediate Python users, Software Carpentries and is co-organizer of Python San Sebastian Conference Series. He is member of the EuroPython 2015 core organization team.

Vicky Twomey-Lee

Software Engineer / Tech event Organiser

She currently organises Python Ireland monthly events as well as being on its committee. She was the chair of PyCon Ireland from 2010 to 2013.

She is now involved in diversity initiatives in Python and PyCon Ireland, founded PyLadies Dublin which launched in October 2013 during PyCon Ireland, and is currently organiser of its monthly meetups. Vicky has been a member of PSF since 2012.

She joined EPS as board member to learn about and help local organisers to run EuroPython.

Outside of Python community, she organises female-friendly adult workshops to encourage diversity in the tech area via Coding Grace which she co-founded with other developers based in Dublin, Ireland. She also co-founded and co-organise community game jams called Global GameCraft bringing game enthusiasts, hobbyists, developers as well as those in the games industry (big and small) to make games in one day, play each others games at the end of it and make new connections.

Want to run as candidate ?

More candidates from the EPS membership are welcome. Please write to board@europython-society.org to get your name added to the list of candidates. We will keep this posting updated with all new candidates.

What does the EPS Board do ?

The EPS board runs the day-to-day business of the EuroPython Society. 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, board meetings are usually run as conference calls.

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

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

Invitation to the EuroPython Society General Assembly 2015

We are pleased to welcome all new EuroPython Society (EPS) members and would like to officially invite you to attend this year’s EPS General Assembly (GA), which we will run as in-person meeting at the upcoming EuroPython Conference 2015 in Bilbao, Spain.

Place of the General Assembly meeting:

We will meet on Wednesday, July 22 2015, at 15:15 CEST in room Barria1 of the EuroPython 2015 conference venue Euskalduna Conference Center (ECC) in Bilbao, Spain.

There will be a talk to presenting the EuroPython Workgroup concept in preparation for EuroPython 2016 at 14:30 CEST in the same room, right before the General Assembly. You may want to attend that talk as well.

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
  • Determination of the size of the board for the period until the next annual meeting of the General Assembly
  • 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
  • Motions from the members
  • General discussion
  • Closing of the meeting

Election of the members of the board

The EPS bylaws limit the number of board members to one chair and 2 - 6 directors.

All members of the EPS are free to nominate or self nominate board members. Please write to board@europython-society.org no later than Saturday, July 18 2015, 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.

The following directors from the current board are running again for board for the next term (in alphabetical order):

  • Marc-AndrĂ© Lemburg
  • Anthon van der Neut
  • Fabio Pliger

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

Propositions from the board

The board would like to amend the EPS bylaws with the following changes:

  • Replace all uses of “chairman” with “chair” to make the bylaws more modern.
  • Remove the General Assembly agenda requirement in section 8 to “Determination of the size of the board for the period until the next annual meeting of the General Assembly”, since such a change can be implemented using a bylaws change, if necessary, and there currently is no actual need, since the bylaws already say “one chair + 2-6 board members”, which already gives us enough flexibility.

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

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 Saturday, July 18 2015.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython Society

EuroPython 2015: More than 200 sessions waiting for you

We are pleased to announce the list of accepted sessions for EuroPython 2015 in Bilbao:


image

EuroPython 2015 Session List

The sessions were selected on the basis of your talk voting and the work of the EuroPython program work group.

From the over 340 proposals, 205 sessions were chosen for EuroPython 2015:

  • 169 talks
  • 11 posters
  • 20 trainings
  • 5 help desks

Many thanks to everyone who submitted proposals. EuroPython wouldn’t be possible without our speakers.

The program work group will now work on the schedule. Given the number of sessions, this may take a while, but we’ll try to get it done as quickly as possible.

Enjoy,
–
EuroPython 2015 Team