EuroPython Blog

Announcing Emily Bache as keynote speaker

We are pleased to announce Emily Bache as another EuroPython 2014 keynote speaker. Emily will talk about ”Will I still be able to get a job in 2024 if I don’t do TDD?”

Geoffrey Moores’s book “Crossing the chasm” outlines the difficulties faced by a new, disruptive technology, when adoption moves from innovators and visionaries into the mainstream. Test Driven Development is clearly a disruptive technology, that changes the way you approach software design and testing. It hasn’t yet been embraced by everyone, but is it just a matter of time? Ten years from now, will a non-TDD practicing developer experience the horror of being labelled a technology adoption ‘laggard’, and be left working exclusively on dreadfully boring legacy systems?

It could be a smart move to get down to your nearest Coding Dojo and practice TDD on some Code Katas. On the other hand, the thing with disruptive technologies is that even they can become disrupted when something better comes along. What about Property-Based Testing? Approval Testing? Outside-In Development?

In this talk, I’d like to look at the chasm-crossing potential of TDD and some related technologies. My aim is that both you and I will still be able to get a good job in 2024.

About Emily Bache

Emily Bache is a software developer and test automation specialist. Currently an employee of a Swedish company, Pagero, she works on their electronic invoicing product. Together with her team, she regularly delivers working software. Emily has previously worked as a developer in organizations as diverse as small startup and large corporation, using
Python as well as other languages such as Java, Scala and Ruby. For several years she worked as an independent consultant, facilitating many Coding Dojos and developer training events. Emily is a well-known conference speaker, and author of “The Coding Dojo Handbook”. She is originally from the U.K. but now lives in Göteborg, Sweden.

Code of Conduct

EuroPython 2014 is a community conference intended for networking and collaboration in the developer community.

We value the participation of each member of the Python community and want all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Accordingly, all attendees are expected to show respect and courtesy to other attendees throughout the conference and at all conference events, whether officially sponsored by EuroPython 2014 or not.

To make clear what is expected, all delegates/attendees, speakers, exhibitors, organisers and volunteers at any EuroPython 2014 event are required to conform to the following Code of Conduct. organisers will enforce this code throughout the event.

The Short Version

EuroPython 2014 is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form.

All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks.

Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other attendees. Behave professionally. Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate for EuroPython 2014.

Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the conference without a refund at the sole discretion of the conference organisers.

Thank you for helping make this a welcoming, friendly event for all.

The Long Version

Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

Exhibitors in the expo hall, sponsor or vendor booths, or similar activities are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, exhibitors should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment.

Be careful in the words that you choose. Remember that sexist, racist, and other exclusionary jokes can be offensive to those around you. Excessive swearing and offensive jokes are not appropriate for EuroPython 2014.

If a participant engages in behavior that violates this code of conduct, the conference organisers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference with no refund.

The full Code of Conduct text including contact information can be found here.

This text is based on the Code Of Conduct text by PyCon IE which is based on the original PSF Code of Conduct.

Preliminary schedule available

We are pleased to present a preliminary list of finally accepted talks. There are currently further talk proposals in the decision queue including trainings. We will announce a final list of talks and trainings shortly. Thank you for your patience.

Deadline for poster session extended - Schedule to be published soon

We extended the deadline for the poster session until 28/04/2014. If your talk has been rejected this will give you the opportunity to resubmit your talk proposal for the poster session. The review process has come to an end and we will publish a list of accepted talk with in the next days.

Book your SIM card online or buy additional Financial Assistance support tickets!

We are pleased to announce that you can now order a prepaid SIM card through the EuroPython 2014 website. For 15 Euro you can select between a data plan with 1GB traffic limit or a phone plan with 200 minutes, 200 SMS and 200 MB traffic inclusive. You can choose the plan online as soon as you hold the SIM card in your hand. For more details see the official offer. Unfortunately the company doesn’t offer an English translation, but Google Translate or something similar should work fine - both plans are special deals between blau.de and EuroPython.

We also started the sale of Financial Assistance support tickets. You can buy one or more Financial Assistance support tickets for a value of 10, 20, 50 or 100 Euro. With the purchase of Financial Assistance tickets you will support further Python enthusiasts to go to EuroPython 2014 in case they need financial support for a ticket or travel expenses. The EuroPython organization team granted already 5.000 Euro last month in the first of three rounds. Please show your appreciation for the Python community and help us to bring more people to the conference which could not make it otherwise.

You can buy the SIM card(s) and the Financial Assistance support tickets directly through the EuroPython website (“ticket sale” menu).

EuroPython website sprint a success - many new features implemented

Last weekend the web team met in Berlin (and was supported by one member remotely) in the rooms of Veit Schiele Communications GmbH in order to bring the EuroPython 2014 website software forward. The team under the leadership of Markus Holtermann implemented the following new features:

A short while ago we made some heavy changes to the main menu. Unfortunately the user experience wasn’t the way we expected it to be. Thus we got some comments on the EuroPython mailing list [1]. It took us some time to decide how to change the way the menu should work. Eventually, a click on a main menu item only toggles the menu as of now (GitHub issue 103) [2]
We want to generate the badges (and other stuff for the conference) directly from the user data you provide on the website. This presented us with some kind of challenge as you will see in the next bullet point, too. We decided that the singe point of truth for the user data is the user profile. We therefore added a field where you can enter your interests. (GitHub issue 105) [3]
As said before, the single point of truth for the user data is and will be the user profile. Unfortunately, during the purchase process of a ticket, we only have information about the buyer, not any of the intended ticket users. Although we didn’t change this part in the update (and we won’t change it in the future), you are now able to assign a ticket to another user. This is incredible useful for those buyers ordering multiple tickets, eg. for their colleagues or friends. To assign the ticket to somebody else, ask him/her for the user name and assign the ticket to him/her from your purchase view [4]. If the intended user doesn’t have a account yet, ask him to create one. All tickets that are *not* assigned to somebody will use the first and last name given during purchase. (GitHub issue #101) [5]
Since many attendees are not from Germany, we looked for a way to hand out SIM cards. Due to legal restrictions this is not *that* simple in Germany (you normally need to present a photo ID). Fortunately we found a reseller where we become some kind of reseller ourselves (it’s a bit more complicated than that ;) ). Hence we will offer SIM cards within the next days that you can buy beforehand and you can pick up during check-in (more details soon). (GitHub issue #100) [6]
When you modify your profile and try to upload a new avatar, but there are errors in some other fields, the avatar gets lost. We solve this by adding front-end validation to this and many other forms. (GitHub issue #47) [7]
If you are looking for a job (in your real live, not the one on the internet :D), or if you think about getting a new job for whatever reason, you can now opt-in (and later opt-out) of job offers by our sponsors. We will *NOT* hand over any of your data to the sponsors. The sponsors have to give us their offer and we will send it only to those users interested in job offers. (GitHub issue #78) [8]
The list of your purchases now shows canceled purchases too. (GitHub issue #102) [9]

First round of the financial assistance programme completed

We just completed the first round reviewing the financial assistance requests. The financial assistance programme offers grants for people in need of a financial aid to join EuroPython. In the first round we granted a total of 5.500 Euro to sixteen persons.

The financial assistance program is still open for further grant requests. The next decisions will me made middle of April and May. So please make sure that your request arrives in time. The complete process and requirements is described here.

Financial Assistance Programme

EuroPython keynote speakers

We are pleased to announce two of our keynote speakers of EuroPython 2014.

Travis Oliphant will speak about “Python’s Role in Big Data Analytics: Past, Present, and Future” and Bob Ippolito will talk about “What can Python learn from Haskell”.

For details check our keynote speakers page.

EuroPython 2014 flyers available — Spread the word!

Dear European Python communities,

we created a EuroPython 2014 flyer for promoting the conference at various other events over the next weeks and months. We encourage everyone going to related conferences or events spreading the word about EuroPython 2014. Just send an email to the EuroPython helpdesk with information about who you are (name and postal address), how many flyers you need and information about the event where you intend to distribute the flyer.

In addition we ask all local Python user groups and communities to add the EuroPython 2014 logo to their website and a link to the EuroPython 2014 website.

The success of EuroPython 2014 also depends on you!

Spread the word!

Thank you very much in advance.

We started today with the review process for the submitted proposals. 248 proposals for talks and 38 proposals for trainings have been submitted. The Call for Proposals for posters is still open until 12/04/2014. Rejected proposals can be resubmitted for the poster session.

All registered reviewers can now start with the review process. You just have to login with your account into the ep2014.europython.eu site and click on the “Reviews” menu. There is a lot of work to be done so please start early.

The review phase ends on 30/03/2014.

Thank you all in advance for submitting this huge amount of proposals and all reviewers.