EuroPython 2026 with Mia Bajić

Speaker 1: Hi, welcome to another episode of Django Chat. I'm Will Vincent with Carlton Gibson. Hey Carlton.

Speaker 2: Hello, Will.

Speaker 1: And we're very pleased to have Mia from EuroPython join us today. Welcome, Mia.

Speaker 3: Hi. Hello everyone and thank you for inviting me. Oh

Speaker 1: so maybe let's start with a quick pitch. EuroPython, when is it? What do people need to know so they can attend? Uh I'll be there. You'll be there. Everyone should be there.

Speaker 3: Yes. Yes, exactly. Everyone should be there. EuroPython will be hosted this year in Krakow in July. Uh for those who who you for those who don't know EuroPython, it's uh week of all things Python, so we have two days of tutorials, three days of talks, and we have two days of Sprints. This year sprints will be shared with EurosciPi. Uh and after that there will be EurosciPy and Krakow 2. So in case you would like to spend two weeks in the beautiful city of Krakow, you have an opportunity uh to be there. Uh European is a very big conference. Uh I guess that most of uh our guests uh No uh JengaCon uh which is uh smaller conference, Zero Python has uh five to six tracks depending on which year

Speaker 3: Apart from talks, we also have open spaces where if you have any idea, you can just write it on a whiteboard or you can write it um digitally and then you can just gather with people and have some informal discussions. We also have summits, we have social events, speakers dinner, and all fun evening activities. We have piloted sessions, sessions for beginners, also for advanced users So yeah, it's going to be a fun week.

Speaker 2: DjangoCon gets a or DjangoCon Europe was held um just last week or week before in Athens. We had three hundred visit people, just over three hundred people there in person. How many people will be in Kraków?

Speaker 3: Uh so typically there are around 1500 people at EuroPython on site plus a few hundred online. Uh we don't know how many people will be there, but we expect that uh there'll be around 1500 probably

Speaker 2: Okay.

Speaker 3: Like in previous years.

Speaker 2: It's about five times as big, huh?

Speaker 3: Yes, exactly. It's uh it's quite big

Speaker 2: Okay, so I I guess if you're gonna be there for all that time then you've you g you gotta um m manage your energy. What's your no number one um tip for getting through the week?

Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think uh depends. I'm a night owl and I really like um spending my night outside in the afternoons and in the evenings, so I usually skip uh morning talks

Speaker 2: Right.

Speaker 3: So they go somewhere um every morning to listen to talks, open spaces, etc. I think it's very hard to Uh because there's so many events and so many things happening. There are many talks, there are many open spaces, informal events, uh activities in the evenings. So I think you can get very easily overwhelmed if you try to attend everything. So you go there every morning at nine A. M. and then you spend the whole day, uh, you know, at the conference and then in the evening you go for some drinks and whatever and then you come very late. Uh so I think it's very hard to do it all. So um my tip is I think it's always good to think about what are your top picks, what would you like to visit, uh maybe watch talks, uh or maybe some other events or something, and then to plan the rest according

Speaker 3: uh to your energy and how you feel there in general because it's very hard to be everywhere and to attend all the

Speaker 2: marathon not a sprint, especially if you were gonna stay for side pike on afterwards.

Speaker 3: Yeah, right.

Speaker 2: And if I'm a first time attendee, what's your top what's your top tip for a first time Europi? Because I you know, I've been to a few Django cons but never been to something quite so large. How do I handle the step up to the bigger environment?

Speaker 3: Yeah, I think your apartment is a very friendly and it's a community conference, so I don't think it's that different from DjangoCon. Uh of course it's bigger, so this is one of the things that might be different to you because there'll be so many rooms and the halls are bigger, all the venues are bigger. Uh I do see how it might be intimidating for someone coming there for the first time, but we also have orientation session for first time um attendees. So if you are there for the first time, you can come to the orientation session where you'll get some uh advices where to go, what to see. Uh but in general we always remind our attendees of the Pac-Man rule, which means that if you are standing somewhere with a group of people You should always leave an empty space. So if someone would like to come and join, then uh they can, you know, just fill in the gap.

Speaker 3: Um and my experience in general is that People are very nice and friendly and you can just go uh and talk to everyone. I think open spaces might be more interesting for first time attendees because uh they are small. Uh so you are there in a s smaller group of people, so maybe like I don't know ten, twenty people, depending on how many are there. So it's a very nice opportunity to chat with some people. You can all introduce yourself. You can talk about topics you're passionate about. It can be something about tech, maybe your favorite technologies, maybe um something like that, or it can be even something unrelated. So I think that's a nice opportunity how to talk to people. Apart from that, we also have community boots So this is a section with many communities where uh you can go and talk to them.

Speaker 3: Every year we have the Django Software Foundation And we have also some other ones. For example, we have PyLadies, we have National PyCons, we have other foundations and OSS nonprofits. So if you're a member of some community, for example, if you're a POI lady or if you're a GSF member, you can also go there, chat with people, find out what are they up to. Um so I think this is um a nice uh experience as well. Uh I would maybe like to ask Will about his experience because last year Django celebrated 20 years, uh if I remember correctly And we had a small celebration with a cake um in the open spaces. And the DSF was also our community partners.

Speaker 3: So I would maybe like to ask Will if he could share his experience

Speaker 2: We might have to wait for him to come back though because his internet is struggling, folks. So that's why Will keeps dropping in and out and hasn't said too much at the moment. But he'll be back and when he does, we will ask him that. So the the the point being that there's l there's lots of you know, you just go and join in and whatnot. I always think that that w as programmers, we're all introverts, right? We're not all introverts, right? Some of us are slightly more precarious than but most of us are introverts. It's all that awkwardness. But it's Everyone feels like that, right? So it's not just you if you're sh shy, just go on put yourself in.

Speaker 3: Yeah, I I think yeah, I think always like when you go somewhere you feel a bit shy, you know, and you are hesitating to approach people to talk to them but once you start you see that it's not actually that bad. We also have a quiet room and we have a low stimulation room. So uh if you would like just to sit in quiet and just to you know recharge uh just to spend some time isolated from everyone without any external stimuli. This is also an option. So I would also like to encourage everyone who feels like they need some quiet uh just

Speaker 2: Okay. PyCon US every year, right? But there's a new arrangement to alternate between EuroPython and PyCon. Can you tell us about that?

Speaker 3: Yes, so there is a new arrangement. Uh from this year, uh the language summit will be alternating between PyCon US and EuroPython. Uh this is to give uh an opportunity to more people to attend, uh, because some people cannot get uh to DS uh now for um other reasons. Uh the language summit is a summit where all CPython core developers gather and they talk together about topics that are relevant to them. They talk about the uh roadmap, so what's new happening? They have discussions on various uh features. Uh and we are super happy that this year we are hosting the language summit and that we will have so many uh core developers among us.

Speaker 2: But it's one of like the big th things that push forward Python, right? I think.

Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this is one of very big things because this is the place where everyone gathers, so this gives them an opportunity to talk about features and to have those discussions. Uh but it's also a lot about the hallway tracks, uh what I was told by them because they're all at the one place so they can uh discuss, spark new ideas, um

Speaker 2: You also attend

Speaker 3: Django Con sprints, so uh I guess you have a similar experience with that.

Speaker 2: Yeah well the yeah no I mean the the sprints are where it all happens in the end because you you you you get that small amount of time to spend um together and it's such high bandwidth compared to what you can do on the issue tracker or, you know, um a mailing list or a dis forum discussion that it it really works. This is why we're doing Django on the med. I must put in a little So go on then tell us about the keynotes because they're quite exciting.

Speaker 3: Yeah, we have some quite exciting keynoters to announce. Uh so in general we have six slots uh because we are a big conference uh three days, so we have two slots a day. Uh I can um announce now our first keynote speakers who are already um who have already confirmed their attendance. So this year, for the first time, Guido van Rossum is coming to Poland and he will be our keynote Uh we are having a special Core Pie episode with Guido and with uh Bukash Langa and uh Pablo Galindo Salgado who will be uh hosts of the podcast so they will record an episode um on stage.

Speaker 2: Okay, that's really cool. That's really cool. We've all we've always been too shy to do a Django chat live That's amazing. How did you bag Guido? That's uh that's a real

Speaker 3: Yeah, so um Guido is coming because of the language summit and there will be some more core developers around so we asked Guido if he would like to give a g keynote at EuroPython alone or if he would like to uh record an episode on stage and he said that he would prefer to record an episode Uh lots of us thought that actually it would be very hard to persuade him because we know that he is not really into uh attention. Um He doesn't really like yeah, he doesn't really like when people approach him and ask him for selfies and you know, this kind of things. So we were a bit uh hesitant but we thought why not give it a try and you know just pitch this idea to him and we were lucky that He said yes. So um

Speaker 3: I think this is going to be pretty cool.

Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it is. It's super cool. I d you know, I heard about the the the other day. I was like

Speaker 3: wow. Yeah, I also like that this would be an informal chat. This is basically a podcast episode, so it will not be uh some like very prepared presentation, which I think would be very interesting to see some other side of him Uh I have listened to lots of podcasts with him and I have heard lots of his talks. Um and I'm a big fan of those informal conversations because I think if something is not prepared Uh and also as a conference speaker I have this experience that if something is informal that you have like more uh opportunities to ask more questions, some things you know just pop up, uh so uh so some questions just pop up on the fly. So I think

Speaker 2: Um

Speaker 3: this is going to be pretty cool. We have five more keynote slots uh at this moment. Uh I cannot uh announce any of those. We are working on confirmations from those keynote speakers. But you can follow us on social media for more info. We'll be announcing them in the um upcoming weeks.

Speaker 2: So y Mia, you mentioned about beginner sessions that you have. Um that's included some um Django Girls sessions over the years, right?

Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. So um Django Girls started at EuroPython in 2014 and in 2024 we had ten years um of Django Girls. So we had a small celebration at EuroPython and we also had the workshop. We held a workshop last year as well. So every year we have workshops for underrepresented groups in programming. Sometimes it's Jenga Girls, sometimes it's Humble Data, sometimes it's PyLadies workshops, sometimes it's all of those. Uh so this year we are going to have um some workshops too. Um and for those who don't know Django Girl workshops, uh those are workshops for beginners where Uh they have an opportunity to create a web uh in one day. There's a mentor who is able to help them with everything, they get

Speaker 3: documentation Um the verb is it's surprise, surprise Django.

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well obviously, you know, you've got to build it in something. I didn't know that Django had so I knew Django had done uh Django Girls had done ten years and in those ten years over twenty five thousand women have been through Django um girls workshop. We've got globally rich is amazing, right? But I didn't know it started at EuroPython. That's

Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's super cool. Uh so the workshop started in twenty four 2014 in Berlin, uh there were two Polish women, Ola Sitarska and Ola Sendetska. And uh They decided to use Django and Python to create workshop to help women to develop their ideas. And since then the initiative has spread through many uh countries throughout the world. Which I think is super cool.

Speaker 2: Super cool. And I don't know if Will's gonna be able to join us again. He's got the internet problems. But he he was there last year when Django had his birthday party at um Europe, which was nice for the open space type thing, right?

Speaker 3: Yeah, so at the open space there was a cake. Uh so they had a small celebration where they uh ate cake and uh gathered all together. Unfortunately I I couldn't be there because I was at a different place at that time And there was also another cake that was on Wednesday evening when there was um there was a social event which was organized uh in collaboration with the local Python community. Uh we have uh in Prague we have events called Pivo. I'm based in Prague and last year your Python was in Prague. So our events are called Pivo, which is a monthly gathering of uh Python enthusiasts. So uh and it's held every third Wednesday in the month, which was last year exactly the Wednesday when EuroPython was taking place in Prague Uh

Speaker 3: so we also we had a gathering uh in a very nice beer garden. Uh it was n it was outside because it was very nice and sunny and warm. And we also ordered a kid so we had a small cake and we were all singing Happy Birthday Django.

Speaker 2: Fantastic, fantastic.

Speaker 3: It was super funny because We cut the cake, there was someone you know cutting the cake and uh so we all went there to grab a piece and because this was in an open uh beer garden where we booked two hundred places but they were also like uh it was open for public and some other people who were not part of the group came there and were like oh can we also have a piece of cake

Speaker 2: This is guerrilla marketing. This is how you get the new people on board, right?

Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Only if you use Django.

Speaker 2: Well, okay, that's reasonable. The um there was a Django birthday um sort of f celebration all year and so there was a a site that listed all the places around the world that um held a little birthday event. We had one in Palo Vigel for Django on the Med, so we had a pin a a Django Pony pinata which uh took took some bashing to.

Speaker 3: Right. I remember there was a celebration at uh DjangoCon Europe as well. I was in Dublin and there was also a cake uh

Speaker 2: Yeah. So anyway, Django. Um right, you've mentioned you've got your own podcast, right?

Speaker 3: Yeah, so I have a very small YouTube channel. Um basically I travel a lot and I get to uh talk to some cool people building very cool technologies, so I have a podcast uh where I record informal chats with uh open source maintainers across Europe and beyond. It's called Behind the Comets, so feel free to check it out. It's on YouTube and it's on all podcasting platforms.

Speaker 2: Okay, and we'll put the uh link in the show line there. You you enjoyed making that is quite a lot of work, right? It it seems like nothing but

Speaker 3: Yeah, it's way more work than I expected. Post processing takes so much of time, even with all the AI and all the technologies you can use, it's way more work than I expected. But it's fun.

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. No, I mean it's fun. These kids. Good. Okay then. So um before we move we're just gonna we're gonna finish off with books, right? But before that was there anything else that you wanted to while you've got the the mic in hand and you Got the floor. Was there anything you wanted to mention?

Speaker 3: Yeah, so may maybe basically maybe some sort of uh uh call for action. Uh so I could mention that our tickets are open and you can follow us on social media Uh so you could maybe say something like we could finish the EuroPython section where it's some you could ask something like if I would like to learn more about EuroPython or like uh where can I follow it and then I can say Uh and then I can say uh tickets are open, ticket sales are open. Uh when does this episode go out by the way?

Speaker 2: It will probably go out in two weeks' time.

Speaker 3: That's okay. So I can say tickets sales are open and follow us on social media and YouTube and we can finish the episode with that.

Speaker 2: Okay, so brilliant. So let's do books and then we'll swing back to um uh we'll wrap up with that and then we can call, you know, we'll we'll can edit that up and that's nice and tight Um, he says he Will says even his cell reception is not working now. So I don't know what's going on over there. Right, so we've got into a habit, Mia, of talking about Books um w on the show, just what we've been reading, what we've been doing. So you've got a couple I see in the list in the notes.

Speaker 3: Yeah, so I love reading and I'm always happy to receive recommendations for books Um I was thinking what kind of books to recommend and there are two books that I read uh many years ago and that I really like and that stayed in my memory. Uh so one of the books is called Humble Pie When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker. This book is very interesting because it's written by a stand-up comedian and mathematician, which is a very rare and very unique combination. And uh he talks about all uh sort of funny, um and not so funny uh accidents or cases where there were some math errors which were uh obvious but uh

Speaker 3: maybe not that visible Uh so I found there lots of very interesting stories. Uh and the second book is called The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. And I thought that this would be a book about design and the This would be a very like technical book. However, this is a book that actually really made me think about why are things designed the way they are designed. Because people use things not the way they're supposed to be used but the way they are designed. Uh so there were lots of examples about things which might not be logical but they are designed in a certain way because uh for example for historical reasons for cultural reasons or or maybe only because someone was lazy and they just designed it in some way and then everyone uses it in that way

Speaker 3: just because um that's how it's been designed. Uh so I totally recommend it because after reading this book I started more thinking about the things I designed, whether it's a website or a button on a website or a physical object. I started thinking actually How is this going to be used and is this the way I it 's supposed to be used or is it just like my mindset, how I imagine that it should be used. Um so I can totally recommend both books. Have you read any of those?

Speaker 2: I've read I've read the design of everyday things. I haven't looked at the the Humble Pie so I can check that one out. Yeah yeah, no, I mean design of everyday it's it it's amazing. Like n the w as you were just saying about whether it's websites or whether it's it it's like even if it's a function, you know, w you gotta design the API of the function so it's cooled in the way that It's meant to be called, right? Um what's this phrase? The pit of success. You've got to design for the pit of success. You've got to make sure that people fall into it. And it th there's just so much in there and it particularly um Maybe working on UIs, things like um giving an indication that something's happening, giving feedback that something did happen. Like these the these kind of principles that it puts forward there. Um well they just make you a better designer. It's not about graphic design, right? It's not it 's not about how things look necessarily. It's but it's about how they work.

Speaker 2: Um And yeah, so that's a wonderful uh I you know.

Speaker 3: I think lots of things are uh obvious from the user perspective, but when you're designing them they're not obvious to you and this This book made me think about this actually. Like, is this obvious from both and all perspectives are only from mine?

Speaker 2: Yeah, no, super. So that's a great that's a great suggestion. I'm gonna j I've got one um I'm um Hands on Rust, it's called. I haven't got the actual physical book because I just got an e-book, but it's by um Herbert Wolverson. It's from the uh Pragmatic Programming Um book um publishers. hands on Rust. It's a um introduction to the Rust programming language that um you build a game with it. And I'm r it's a few years old now, but it's still, you know, Rust. Rust is a nice stable language now. It does evolve, but you know the learning of it doesn't the learning of it bit doesn't really evolve very much anymore. Um and I'm going through it with my 15 year old. So they were they were busy compiling um drivers for their graphics card and downloading Python and doing all this thing and they were We're like, right, come on, let's let's work through this. So we're doing a chapter a week with that. And I read it a few years ago and it's a great book.

Speaker 2: Um and it's a it's quite good fun to be going back through it. So I can really recommend it if you're looking pick up Rust. And you know, you get to do something fun, you're building games rather than just going through a tutorial. So it's you know, it's it's good. And at the end, you know, you've you can be compiling it to WASM and running it in your browser or you know whatnot. So that's so cool. Hands on Rust by Herbert Woolworthson

Speaker 3: That sounds super cool. I was also searching for some materials on learning Rust, so thank you for the recommendation.

Speaker 2: Well no, I mean it's a good book. It's a good book and it it you know it builds up It builds up there's a nice learning curve to it. I mean, you know, Rust is uh supposedly a very difficult a more difficult language. Well, it builds up in a way that makes it

Speaker 3: It requires more thinking.

Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to reason through the ownership problems and things like that. So anyway, um I'm it's quite good fun to go through it with my son. So uh that's that's cool. Right, I guess we should round up. Will's Will's texting me to say he's got an area issue with the internet in his um in uh Brookline, so I don't know what's going on there, but so he's he can't join us for the rest of the show. But um How how should we wrap up? If I'm interested in EuroPython and um how do I find out more or what should I look out for or you know?

Speaker 3: Let me think. Um Yeah, you can ask something like if I'm interested in EuroPython, how can I learn more?

Speaker 2: Okay, so I was just asking it, but let's do it again. So just to wrap up, if I'm interested in Path EuroPython, what should I look out for or what how can I find out more?

Speaker 3: So ticket sales are already open, uh, so you can already purchase your ticket. Uh we are on all social media. Uh we have a website, uh europython. eu. Uh on social media our handle is EuroPython, so feel free to check out our YouTube channel. We have Lots of videos from previous um editions so you can have a look just to see what kind of talks were there were there. Uh we also record shorts. Uh you can also have a look at the program which is also released on our website and you can follow us on um all other social media.

Speaker 2: Okay, so europython. eu and we'll put that in the show notes as well Okay. Well, Mir, thank you for joining us. Um I hope the conference goes well. I'm sure it will. It certainly sounds very exciting. Um And uh, you know, you'll have to let us know how it goes.

Speaker 3: Thank you for inviting me. It was my honor and I am super happy to see you all at EuroPython.

Speaker 2: All right, take care. This was Django Chat. Join us next time, folks.