It seems like so long ago already, but I'd like to thank everyone involved in EuroPython 2007, not only those who put a lot of work into organising things, but of course everyone who attended the conference and provided us with many interesting talks and discussions on a range of subjects. I'd also like to thank those who offered suggestions and advice about making EuroPython 2008 even better, both inside the session reserved for that purpose as well as in informal conversations during and after the main event. Having just returned from another, much larger and more commercial conference, I'm in the mood for reflecting somewhat on conferences and what makes (or should make) EuroPython as special as it has been in the years I've been there.
In the run-up to EuroPython, the issue of attendance came up a few times: how many people would we get, and would it be as many as last year? I don't think I'm sharing secret information by saying that there were probably around 220-230 people in attendance this year, versus 280-300 people last year. However, I don't think we should regard this as a sign of defeat or decline for the Python community, since there are more conferences this year, including a number of successful regional Python conferences in Europe (PyCon Italia apparently being well-attended and PyCon UK looking very promising at this stage). Moreover, even at the larger size EuroPython remains an event on a "human" scale, in contrast to the conference from which I have just returned which had 2000 attendees and where you often couldn't find anyone you knew in the breaks because there were probably three or four venues for coffee or lunch! A certain Web technology community supposedly had a 1600 person event this year, and I imagine that Java events routinely surpass that. On such scales, the organisers can certainly brag a lot more and bring in many corporate delegates, but such an agenda for the Python conferences would destroy the genuine community aspects of them - the attendance fee might not be the biggest cost at EuroPython now, but these megaconferences with a ticket price of 600 EUR or more certainly don't seem compatible with EuroPython to me. So, although one can look with envy at PyCon's 580 person level of attendance, I think it's actually something to be worried about as an organiser. One thing that was said quite a bit in conversations is that Vilnius is a really nice venue - something which might not have been fully appreciated by those putting together their conference travel plans earlier in the year, but which is surely communicated by the many photos made available by various participants. As has already been mentioned, it would be nice to have people license their photos appropriately so that we can show off the venue a bit more in the promotional channels for the conference. All these Python people who have now been to Vilnius can use their materials help persuade others to join them for EuroPython 2008. ;-) In a wider sense of promoting EuroPython and related events, perhaps we should consider making better use of europython.org to show people what happened in previous conferences in order to generate enthusiasm for those which are to come. The message for anyone who wants to see a better EuroPython site, even to come up with fancy ideas and implementations, is that the time is now to start such work, well before the next conference and with enough time to play with to find out what works and what doesn't. On a related topic with some technological content, I'd like to see a longer registration period and I'm sure we'd all like more of the menial tasks taken care of by the technology. The first point is related to a suspicion that I had which was confirmed in conversation after the conference: insiders may be very confident that everything is going according to plan and that we all might as well book our flights and hotels, but there's nothing more reassuring that being able to book your place at the conference well in advance, rather than running the risk that after booking travel and accommodation, the conference is suddenly full. As for the technology, and having been "Indico's reluctant bodyguard", I think that everyone whose workload could have been reduced by the technology needs to consider improvements and replacements well in advance of next year, too. And since ultimately humans are really responsible for the organisation (as Jacob's long list of jobs showed), we need to think about who does what and how they do it. We must not forget the end-users, either: having recently seen some of the verbose output from commercial conference organisers, we need to give participants concise information about their conference agenda/experience. Before the conference, I started a Wiki page about improvements to how EuroPython is organised: http://wiki.python.org/moin/EuroPython/2007/SuggestionBox I don't recall whether Jacob's list made it to the wider Internet, but the two are somewhat complementary. The "Call For Organisers" has really already happened, I suppose, but it would be great if through this mailing list and via the above page we can get a good idea of how we can make EuroPython and related events more attractive and accessible to the community in such a way that we have enough time to act on our intentions. I almost can't wait until next year's conference, but I look forward to hearing some opinions about the future of EuroPython now. ;-) Paul P.S. And if presenters could work their magic with Indico and upload their slides, we can make a start on communicating what happened in Vilnius with the wider community. _______________________________________________ EuroPython mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/europython
