Hey there 👋

With less than 70 days left until we gather together in Prague for EuroPython, here’s what’s been going on.

📣 Programme

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our community voting and a special thanks to our team of 35 reviewers, who provided over 1000 reviews on the proposals! Without their help, it would not be possible to create the EuroPython programme and there wouldn’t be a conference to attend.

Our wonderful programme team has been hard at work and sent most of our acceptance letters to our speakers! Please get your acceptance tweets and emails ready! We hope to publish the list of accepted talks within the next few days!

🏃 Sprints

We are delighted to announce  our sprint weekend will be held at VŠE (Prague University of Economics and Business) on 22-23 July. Sprints are free to attend and open to the public (registration to be announced later for those who do not have a conference ticket). The sprints are a great way to learn from each other, share knowledge and ideas, and solve problems together through the medium of Python.

Find out more details and how to propose a sprint here: https://ep2023.europython.eu/sprints

🌟 Keynote

We have a couple more awesome keynoters lined up!!

Ines Montani

Ines Montani is a developer specialising in tools for AI and natural language processing (NLP) technology.

She’s the co-founder and CEO of Explosion, a core developer of spaCy, a popular open-source library for Natural Language Processing in Python, and Prodigy, a modern annotation tool for creating training data for machine learning models.

Ines, who had already keynoted EuroPython five years ago, will share with us the developments, progress and lessons learned in the field of natural language processing. It'll be an opportunity for us to collectively retrospect on half a decade of work in the Python community within a field that is gaining in popularity and momentum.

Petr Viktorin

Petr works at Red Hat, integrating Python into Linux distros.

He started contributing to Python in 2015, answering Nick Coghlan's call for a volunteer to improve extension module loading. After about six PEPs and eight years of work, that project expanded to better support for subinterpreters and maintaining the stable ABI, and helping Eric Snow's effort to break up the GIL.

Last year, after a nomination for Steering Council forced him to look at parts of the project that needed help, Petr revived the Documentation community, and spent time removing roadblocks from contributing to Python's documentation.

To give back to the community, he started teaching free courses to local beginners. But that is a story for his talk at EuroPython.

🎫 Ticket Sales

Our tickets are up for sale now and we’re seeing a strong and steady trend in ticket purchases. Please book your ticket now, to avoid disappointment later when they all (inevitably) sell out.

Tickets can be purchased on our website: https://ep2023.europython.eu/tickets

💶 Financial Aid

Submissions for the first round of our financial aid programme have closed. With over 125 applications from over 40 countries, we're calling this a huge success. The financial aid team is currently reviewing the applications and will send out grant approval notifications by 8 May 2023 at the latest.

You can still apply for the second round of the financial aid programme. The deadline for submitting your application is 21 May 2023. If you’ve applied for a grant in round one but did not receive one, you don’t have to submit another application. Your application will automatically be considered in round two.

Visit https://europython.eu/finaid for information on how to apply for a financial aid grant.

💸  Sponsorship

We're thrilled to announce that our Platinum sponsorship packages for EuroPython 2023 have all been sold out! We're incredibly grateful for the support of our sponsors and are looking forward to an amazing event.

We still have other exciting sponsorship opportunities available which come with a range of benefits.

Check out our website for more information on the available packages at https://ep2023.europython.eu/sponsor

🗣️ Speaker Placement Programme

Our speaker placement programme supports those in our community who would like advice, guidance and friendly support while preparing for their contribution to EuroPython.

Happy news! Our first two mentees have been matched with an organiser of their choice. Now they will have the opportunity to be connected with a local community, present their talks and get more involved in new activities.

For more information about the Speaker Placement Programme please check here: https://ep2023.europython.eu/mentorship#3-speaker-placement-programme

🎤 First-Time Speaker’s Workshop

In this event, we'll have experienced speakers from the EuroPython community to share their know-how on delivering an effective talk. We hope this will help our participants learn something meaningful about public speaking before their presentation at EuroPython 2023 or in general.

The workshop will take place on 1st of June 2023 at 18.00 CET via Zoom (details will be communicated in the coming weeks). A recording of the session will be made available after the event.

⚖️ The new Cyber Resilience Act proposal

While we welcome the intention of strengthening software and digital products’ cyber security by the European Union’s proposed Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and Product Liability Act , we echo the concerns the PSF have in its potentially unintended consequences of putting the health of open-source software at risk, including Python and PyPI.

Please check out this blog post for details. If you too are concerned that the broad language of the proposed acts could make open source organisations and developers held liable for security flaws of commercial products that incorporate open source codes, then consider writing to your MEP voicing concerns and asking for clarifications about the proposed CRA law.

💥 Project Feature - Ruff

Ruff is an extremely fast Python linter, written in Rust.

In the landscape of python tooling there often comes a tool that creates a paradigm shift,  Ruff is such a tool! there are tons of linters in Python like flake8, pylint, pycodestyle, yapf etc but ruff just beats it out of the park by being 10-100x faster than existing linters and having integrations with dozens of existing Flake8 plugins. Its speed and versatility has driven adoption in major OSS projects like Apache Airflow, FastAPI, Pandas and Scipy.

Check out Ruff on: https://github.com/charliermarsh/ruff

🍿 EuroPython Classics

EuroPython’s history is full of amazing talks, entertaining presentations and thought provoking interactions… many of which can be found on our YouTube channel. These historic and important artefacts of our European Python community are a source of much wisdom, learning and community bonding. So we want you to suggest your “EuroPython Classic” from our archives.

Our inaugural suggestion comes from Shekhar: “Simple data validation and setting management with Pydantic” by Teddy Crepineau.

Shekhar explains, “Pydantic is a must-have for every Python project, and when combined with Ruff, the result is simply awesome!”

We would love to hear your suggestions for EuroPython classics., so share those bookmarked talks by tagging us on our socials @europython or email comms@europython.eu. We’d love to know why you think your suggested talk is a classic.

Let’s celebrate, recognise and learn again from those hidden gems in our archive.

🥸 PyJok.es

$ pip install pyjokes
Collecting pyjokes
  Downloading pyjokes-0.6.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (26 kB)
Installing collected packages: pyjokes
Successfully installed pyjokes-0.6.0
$ pyjoke
What do you call eight hobbits? A hobbyte.

Add your own jokes to PyJokes (a project invented at a EuroPython sprint) via this issue: https://github.com/pyjokes/pyjokes/issues/10

Dobrý den!

It’s March already, the days are flying by and EuroPython in Prague will soon be here! So, what’s been going on?

🐍 EuroPython 2023 Conference Update

🇨🇿 Prague

Since our last newsletter, where we announced our venue will be in Prague, we’ve put together a page containing links and details about the city, its infrastructure and the sorts of things you could explore outside the conference. You can find it here: https://ep2023.europython.eu/where (and we welcome suggestions for additions to this guide).

🧨 Call for Proposals (CFP)

EuroPython 2023 Call for Proposals (CFP) will be open between Monday, 6 March 2023 and Sunday, 19 March 2023

https://ep2023.europython.eu/cfp. More details will be published soon when we open our CFP.

EuroPython reflects the colourful and diverse backgrounds, cultures and interests of our community, so you (yes, you!) should go for it: propose something and represent!

No matter your level of Python or public speaking experience, EuroPython's job is to help you bring yourself to our community so we all flourish and benefit from each other's experience and contribution.

If you’re thinking, “but they don’t mean me”, then we especially mean YOU.

1. If you’re from a background that isn't usually well-represented in most Python groups, get involved - we want to help you make a difference.
2. If you’re from a background that is well-represented in most Python groups, get involved - we want your help making a difference.
3. If you’re worried about not being technical enough, get involved - your fresh perspective will be invaluable.
4. If you think you’re an imposter, join us - many of the EuroPython organisers feel this way.
5. This is a volunteer led community, so join us - you will be welcomed with friendship, support and compassion.

You are welcome to share your questions and ideas with our programme team at programme@europython.eu

👩‍🏫 Speaker Mentorship

As a diverse and inclusive community EuroPython offers support for potential speakers who want help preparing for their contribution. To achieve this end we have set up the speaker mentorship programme.

We are looking for both mentors and mentees to be a part of the programme.

To become a Mentor you need to fill in the application form here and If you are a mentee in need of help contributing to EuroPython, especially if you are from an underrepresented or a marginalised group in the tech industry, please fill in the form here. We will get in touch with you to update you on working with a mentor and how to participate in the workshops.

Along with this we will also run an Ask Me Anything for the CFP and a workshop for first time speakers

More details on https://ep2023.europython.eu/mentorship

🎙️ Keynotes

We are thrilled to announce our first keynote speaker for 2023, the New York Times bestselling author Andrew Smith.

Andrew has recently finished a book, due out later this year, about what it feels like to learn how to code. His language of choice was Python and, as part of his research, he became (and continues to be) involved in several different aspects of the Python and wider FLOSS community.

Andrew often appears before live audiences and on radio and TV, and has written and presented a number of films and radio series, including the 60-minute BBC TV documentaries Being Neil Armstrong and To Kill a Mockingbird at 50, and the three-part BBC Radio 4 history of the lives of submariners, People of the Abyss. The last decade has seen his focus shift more squarely to the digital revolution and its social implications, with high profile magazine and comment pieces appearing in The Economist’s 1843 magazine, The Financial Times and the US and UK editions of The Guardian. Smith also features in Stanford University's History of the Internet podcast series.

Find out more about Andrew via his website: https://www.andrewsmithauthor.com/

Andrew interviewing Buzz Aldrin

🎫 Ticket Sales

As usual, there will be several ticket options, so you can choose the one most suitable for you. Ticket sales are expected to start on 21 March. We are aiming to keep the ticket prices at an affordable level for all tiers, despite cost increases and inflation. Check out our ticket page to find more information: https://ep2023.europython.eu/tickets

💶 Financial Aid

As part of our commitment to the Python community, we offer special grants for people in need of financial aid to attend EuroPython. These grants include a free ticket grant, a travel and accommodation grant of up to € 400, and a visa application free grant of up to € 80.

We will review grant applications and award grants in two rounds this year. The submission deadline for the first round will be on 23 April 2023 and the deadline for the second round will be on 21 May 2023. If you submit your application in the first round, you will automatically be considered in the second round as well. So, apply early to increase your chances.

The Financial Aid Programme is now open for application. For more information and a link to the application form, check out https://europython.eu/finaid.

🥇 Speakers Placement Programme

We provide for mentees to provide speaking opportunities at a local event or meetup before or after EuroPython to help boost their confidence. If you are an event/ meetup organiser who is looking for speakers, please kindly fill in this form and we would be happy to introduce our mentee to you if there’s a match.

📞 Call for Trans*Code Volunteers

EuroPython Society champions diversity & inclusion. Following the success and fun we had at our Trans*Code event in Dublin, we are hosting, a Trans*Code event again at EuroPython 2023 in Prague - an informal hackday & workshop event which aims to help draw attention to transgender issues and opportunities.

The event is open to trans and non-binary folk, allies, coders, designers and visionaries of all sorts. Check the interviews with our 2022 Trans*Code participants to get an idea and enjoy the warmth.

This year, we are again privileged to have Noami Ceder on board to help and advise us with the organisation. We want to make EuroPython 2023 an exceptionally welcoming place for trans people and folks from under-represented groups in tech. We need more volunteers to achieve our goal! If you identify as trans or non-binary and would like to volunteer your experience and time to help us organise the event, please write to trans_code@europython.eu; or to Naomi Ceder at naomi@europython.eu (if you need to discuss something more private). If you are an ally, help us spread the word and lend us your support.

🎉 EPS New Fellows

We are overjoyed to announce the EuroPython Society Fellows in the first quarter of 2023: Naomi Ceder, Cheuk Ting Ho, Francesco Pierfederici and Jakub Musko. We are grateful for the significant contribution every one of them has made to our EuroPython community. You can read about their achievement here: www.europython-society.org/europython-fellow/

🐍 Upcoming Events in Europe

• Pycon Limerick https://python.ie/ 🇮🇪
• Pycon Estonia https://pycon.ee/ 🇪🇪
• Pycon Italia https://pycon.it/en 🇮🇹
• PyCon DE & PyData Berlin https://2023.pycon.de/ 🇩🇪
• Pycon Lithuania https://pycon.lt/2023 🇱🇹
  

🦊 Project Feature - FoxDot

This amazing project helps with livecode music using Python and converts your favourite programming language into a musical instrument

https://github.com/Qirky/FoxDot

Foxdot does this by providing a programming environment that provides a fast and user-friendly abstraction to SuperCollider. It also comes with its own IDE, which means it can be used straight out of the box; all you need is Python and SuperCollider and you're ready to go!

We had a very nice lightning talk about this project at EuroPython 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7q4lB49IGM and a full length one at Pycon US 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUIPcXduR8E

🎗️ Clacks of Remembrance

In the Terry Pratchett novel "Going Postal", a telegraph-style system known as "Clacks" was used to pass the name of a deceased character endlessly back and forth, keeping their memory alive. But where the book had "GNU John Dearheart" -- the prefix being a basic code to instruct clacksmen to pass on, not file, and return the message -- we add meta headers to our base template in a silent but appropriately geeky tribute and act of remembrance to those in our EuroPython family we have lost.

We invite you to take a moment to “View page source” and remember our departed friends.

🤭 PyJok.es

$ pip install pyjokes
Collecting pyjokes
Downloading pyjokes-0.6.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (26 kB)
Installing collected packages: pyjokes
Successfully installed pyjokes-0.6.0
$ pyjoke

Why do sin and tan work? Just cos.

Add your own jokes to PyJokes (a project invented at a EuroPython sprint) via this issue: https://github.com/pyjokes/pyjokes/issues/10

Hey hey!

Been awhile since we slid into your inbox. A lot has happened since our last update, we discharged the previous board, ratified a new one. We went through 10+ community and commercial proposals for where the next home for EuroPython 2023 will be. Back and forth with the lawyers, venues and everything that comes with it. Phew, it's been a minute, but, we are ready to kick things off and start putting together a wonderful experience for EuroPython 2023.

Read along to find out more..

🇨🇿 EuroPython 2023 - Prague Congress Centre 17-23 July

Put the date in your calendar!

We’re delighted to provisionally announce that EuroPython 2023 will be held in Prague, at the Prague Congress Centre, between the 17th and 23rd of July, 2023. To stay up to date with the latest news please visit our website and we encourage you to sign up to our monthly community newsletter.

Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic and historic capital of Bohemia.

Sitting on the Vltava river, the city boasts numerous cultural, culinary, architectural, artistic, civic and tourist attractions. The beautiful historic centre is a UNESCO world heritage site. So, in addition to the conference, there's a LOT to see, do and enjoy. Prague has an extensive and modern public transport system, so travelling around won't be a problem and getting there is easy via well serviced train, air and road infrastructure. With an average July high of 25°c, remember to pack your shorts and sandals with your laptop, along with a spirit of adventure to explore one of the most visited and vibrant cities in Europe.

As with previous years, Monday and Tuesday (17th and 18th) will be for tutorials and workshops; the main conference talks will take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (19th, 20th and 21st) with Saturday and Sunday (22nd and 23rd) for community sprints held at another location (the details for which are to be confirmed).

Our prospectus for sponsorship will be forthcoming soon, but if you already want to sponsor one of Europe’s biggest, friendliest and longest running community organised software development conferences, please do reach out to us at sponsoring@europython.eu and we’d be delighted to help.

Because EuroPython is a community organised conference, our volunteers are at the heart of everything we do. Without them, there simply wouldn’t be a conference. We’ll soon start recruiting volunteers, who are organised into teams responsible for different aspects of the conference. To register your interest please email volunteers@europython.eu.

🌍 EuroPython Society

EuroPython 2022 was a highlight for so many of us, and a worthwhile wait after 2 years. We are delighted to hear the diversity and inclusion initiatives made a difference, so more of you could join us, present, contribute, and be yourself in our community. At EuroPython 2023 we are committed to empowering through diversity by welcoming and enabling folks, and by encouraging a more enlarged and wide-ranging view on the topics and content of interest to the Python community .

With a budget of €75,000 for the grants programme in 2023, we continue supporting the European community. Until recently, we have almost exclusively supported conferences and events, but we are open to alternative ways to fund European Python events and support projects and activities that benefit the community.

Our conference city and team might change every year, but our devotion to support the European Python community remains unwavering, and so we listen to you. Guide us to do better for the community by reaching out any time to board@europython.eu.

🤓 EuroPython Society Board

Since September 2022, the EPS board have concentrated much of our efforts on selecting the 2023 conference venue. We were delighted to take community suggestions into consideration and had the pleasure of engaging in discussions with several national PyCon organisers as part of this comprehensive selection process. With Prague as our conference home in 2023, we are deeply honoured to benefit from the friendly advice and support from our ever-growing Czech friends in the local community.

However, having EuroPython in a different city every year is not without its challenges. We often find ourselves having to suspend our excitement of planning the event, and brace for the complicated VAT and tax rules of the new country and months of review and revision of the venue’s contracts. This year, we started interviewing for a Czech accountant and legal counsel early on, which has been of great help. But next year, the lengthy process of interviewing and briefing specialists will repeat again. We know this is not a unique problem for the EPS.

We know our community is made up of resourceful individuals with vast experience in pretty much all subject matters. We want to hear your advice and suggestions on how we can reduce the bureaucratic burden. Whether you have experience in accounting, finance, event organisation, music gigs, or know any helpful software, I hope you share your ideas with us at board@europython.eu and help us make EuroPython travel around Europe more efficiently.

🐍 Upcoming Events in Europe

The EuroPython Society is proud to be supporting these amazing events around Europe.

🇨🇭 GeoPython 2023 6-8 March

Enjoy a rich programme in the 8th GeoPython conference in the beautiful city of Basel: https://2023.geopython.net/talks.html
Get your ticket now: https://2023.geopython.net/#price

🇪🇸 PyCamp 2023 7-10 April

PyCamp is a 4-days event in a rural house in the forest, organised as an un-conference event. People propose what projects to work in groups, eat and have fun together. The 2023 edition is fully booked, but subscribe to receive the latest event news for future editions: https://pycamp.es/

🇩🇪 PyCon DE & PyData Berlin 2023  17-19 April

Over the course of three days, attendees will have the chance to take part in workshops, see live keynotes and talks, and socialise with other Python and PyData community members. We offer a welcoming, community-driven conference with talks from beginners to experts.
The eagerly anticipated Conference Ticket Sales started on January 16, 2023 and it’s still going on!! We have a great range of prices and different categories for the tickets. More details on our website - https://2023.pycon.de/

🇮🇹 PyCon Italia 2023 25-28 May

PyCon Italia will be back again in Florence, from the 25th to the 28th of May! We have just announced our first keynote Marlene Mhangami. Make sure you follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/pyconit) or on Mastodon (https://social.python.it/@pycon) to stay updated on more news (schedule will be out soon too!)
Oh and why not try to do a PyCon Italia + DjangoCon Europe mini tour? Florence has direct flights to Edinburgh 😄

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 DjangoCon Europe 2023  29 May-02 June

Following the success of the Porto Edition of DjangoCon Europe 2022, we are excited to welcome you to the beautiful capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, for DjangoCon Europe 2023! Join us in the 15th edition of the conference for a source of inspiration, education and networking opportunities. We welcome people from all over the world with Django skills at all levels! Better yet, why not consider submitting a talk and share your knowledge and insight with other like-minded community members?
DjangoCon Europe CFP open till 26 February. Submit your talk now: https://2023.djangocon.eu/news/announcing-call-for-proposals/

⚽️Project Feature - Sports Python

Interested in Football Analytics? Or exploring Data Science? Or teaching Computing and want to demonstrate a use-case beyond traditional industries? If so, check out the Sports Python Educational Project!

Sports Python is a tech outreach initiative based in London helping to democratise Python education through the medium of Sport, as an alternative gateway through which more new and/or underserved audiences can discover the open-source ecosystem we love, and further foster the inclusiveness of our global community.

Originating in Spring ’22 with the award of a (EUR1,500) EPS grant, the project has since developed Open Educational Resources (OER) based on real Football Analytics which can be used for a variety of hands-on learning or teaching, from language fundamentals to professional Data Science skills. These Football-themed OER can be accessed on GitHub https://github.com/SportsPython.

Feel free to get in touch with the Sports Python project about anything that sparks your interest, either by email to info@rhozeta.io, on social (find project author Chiin-Rui Tan on LinkedIn, @AnalyticalPanda on Twitter), or open a GitHub issue!

🃏 PyJok.es

#pip install pyjokes

import pyjokes

print(pyjokes.get_joke())

A programmer walks into a foo...

Thanks for reading along, we'd have a regular (monthly) appearance in your inbox from now on. We're happy to tailor our future editions to accommodate what you'd like to see here, drop us a line here: communications@europython.eu

EuroPython 2023 Team 🤗