Transcript: EuroPython 2026 - Mia Bajić

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Hi, welcome to another episode of Django Chat.

I'm Will Vincent with Carlton Gibson.

Hey Carlton.

Hello, Will.

Welcome, Mia.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for inviting me.

Oh, thank

So maybe let's start with a quick pitch.

Europython, when is it?

What do people need to know so they can attend?

I'll be there.

You'll be there.

Everyone should be there.

Yes, exactly.

Everyone should be there.

Europython will be hosted this year in Krakow in July.

For those who for those who don't know EuroPython, it's a 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 EurosciPy.

And after that, there will be EuroSciPy in Krakow too.

So in case you would like to spend two weeks in the beautiful city of Krakow, you have an opportunity to be there.

I guess that most of our guests know DjangoCon, which is a smaller conference.

EuroParton has uh five to six tracks, depending on which year.

Apart from talks, we also have open spaces where if you have any idea, you can just write it uh on a whiteboard or you can write it um digitally and then you can just gather with people and have some informal discussions.

Uh we also have summits, uh, we have social events, speakers' dinner, and all fun evening activities.

Uh we have piloted sessions, sessions for beginners, also for advanced um users.

So yeah, it's going to be a fun week.

We had 300 visit people, just over 300 people there in person.

How many people will be in Crack?

Uh we don't know how many people will be there, but we expect that uh there'll be around 1,500 probably.

Okay.

Like in previous years.

It's uh it's quite big.

What's your number one um tip for getting through the week?

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.

Uh I believe there will be lots of people who like mornings, 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 evening.

So I think you can get very easily overwhelmed if you try to attend everything.

So you go there every morning at 9 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 uh to your energy and how you feel there in general, because it's very hard to be everywhere and to attend all these.

Because I, you know, I've been to a few Django cons, but never been to something quite so large.

You know, how how do I handle the step up to the bigger environment?

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 sessions for first-time uh attendees.

So if you are there for the first time, you can come to the orientation session where you'll get some uh advice 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.

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 they are small.

Uh so you are there in a smaller group of people, so maybe like I don't know, 10-20 people, depending on how many are there.

So it's a very nice opportunity to chat with some people.

Uh, 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.

Um, so I think that's a nice uh opportunity uh how to talk to people.

Apart from that, we also have uh community boots.

So this is a section with many communities where uh you can go and talk to them.

Every year we have the Jango Software Foundation, uh, and we have also some other ones.

For example, we have PyLadies, we have National PyCons, we have other foundations and um OSS nonprofits.

Uh so if you're a member of some community, for example, if you're a Py lady or if you're a GSF member, uh you can also go there, chat with people, um, find out what they are up to.

Um, so I think this is uh 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.

So um I would maybe like to ask Will if he could share his experience.

Um the the the point being that there's there's lots of you know, you just go and join in and whatnot.

I always think that that as programmers we're all introverts, right?

We're not all introverts, right?

Some of us are slightly more precarious now, 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 put yourself in.

Uh, 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 to go there and to hide to recharge their batteries before going back.

That sounds brilliant.

So there's we wanted to talk about the keynotes, but before we do, I've got an interesting question about the language summit because it always used to be held at PyCon US every year, right?

But there's a new arrangement to alternate between EuroPython and PyCon.

Can you tell us about that?

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.

I think.

Uh, but it's also a lot about hallway tracks, uh, what I was told by them, but because they're all at the one place, so they can uh discuss, spark new ideas, uh, and such stuff.

Well, this is a good idea.

You also attend DjangoCon sprints, so uh I guess you have a similar experience with that.

This is why we're doing Django on the Med.

I'm just putting a little pump there.

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.

Uh so this year, uh for the first time, Guido van Rossum is coming to Poland and he will be our keynote speaker.

Uh, we are having a special Core Pi episode with Guido and with uh Bukas Langa and uh Pablo Galindo Salgado, who will be uh hosts of the podcast.

So they will record an episode um on stage.

That's really cool.

We've all we've always been too shy to do a Django chat live at uh Django Comment.

That's amazing.

How did you bag Guido?

That's uh that's a real

So we asked Guido if he would like to give a 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 thing.

So we were a bit uh hesitant, but we thought why not give it a try and you know I just pitched this idea to him and we were lucky that he said yes.

So um I think this is going to be pretty cool.

I you know, I heard about the wow.

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 some questions just pop up on the fly.

So I think um 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.

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Um that's included some um Django Girls sessions over the years, right?

So um Django Girls started at EuroPython in 2014.

And in 2024, we had 10 years of Django Girls.

So we had a small celebration at EuroPython, and we also had a workshop.

We held a workshop last year as well.

Uh so every year we have workshops for underrepresented groups in programming.

Uh sometimes it's Django 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 documentation, and the web is a surprise, surprise Django.

I didn't know that Django had so I knew Django had done uh Django Girls had done 10 years, and in those 10 years, over 25,000 women have been through Django Girls workshops.

We've got globally rich, it's amazing, right?

But I didn't know it started that you're a Python.

Uh so the workshop started in 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 workshops 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.

Super cool.

Uh so they had a small celebration where they uh ate cake and uh gathered all together.

Unfortunately, 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 EuroPython was in Prague.

Uh so uh our events are called Pivo, which is a monthly gathering of uh Python enthusiasts.

Uh 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 so we also we had a gathering uh in a very nice beer garden.

Uh it was nice, it was outside because it was very nice and sunny and warm.

And we also ordered a cake, so we had a small cake and we were all singing Happy Birthday Django.

And because this was in an open uh beer garden where we booked 200 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?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The um there was a Django birthday um sort of celebration all year, and so there was a site that listed all the places around the world that um held a little birthday event.

We had one in Palavigel for Django on the Med, so we had a pin a Django Pony pinata, which uh took took some bashing to Right.

I was in Dublin and there was also a cake.

Um Yeah.

Right, you've mentioned you've got your own podcast, right?

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.

You enjoying making that is quite a lot of work, right?

It it seems like nothing.

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.

No, it's cute.

Right, so we've got into a habit me of doing talking about books um 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.

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.

Uh, 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 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 that this would be a very like technical book.

Um, 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 maybe only because someone was lazy and they just designed it in some way, and then everyone uses it in that way 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?

I haven't looked at the humble pie, so I'll check that one out.

Like the as you were just saying about whether it's websites or what it's like, even if it's a function, you know, we'll you've got to design the API of the function so it's called 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 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 these kind of principles that it puts forward there, um, well, they just make you a bad 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.

Um and yeah, so that's a wonderful

And this book made me think about this actually.

Like, is this obvious from both and all perspectives are only from mine?

So that's a great that's a great suggestion.

I'm gonna do I've got one um I'm um Hands on Rust, it's called.

I haven't got the actual physical book because I've just got an e-book, but it's by um Herbert Wolveson.

It's from the uh pragmatic programming um um book um publishers.

Hands on Rust.

And I'm it's a few years old now, but it's still, you know, Rust, Rust is a nice stable language now.

It's not, you know, it does uh 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 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.

Um and it's a it's quite fun to be going back through it.

So I can really recommend it if you're looking, pick up Rust.

And you 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 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 Woolworths.

I was also searching for some materials on learning Rust.

So thank you for the recommendation.

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

So anyway, um I'm it's quite good fun to go through it with my son.

So uh that's that's cool.

Will's Will's texting me to say he's got an area issue with the internet in his um in uh Brooklines.

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, so just to wrap up, if I'm interested in EuroPython, what should I look out for?

Or what how can I find out more?

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.

Well, Mir, thank you for joining us.

Um, I hope the conference goes well.

I'm sure it will.

It sounds very exciting.

Um and uh, you know, you'll have to let us know how it goes.

It was my honor, and I am super happy to see you all at EuroPython.

All right,

This was Django Chat.

Join us next time, folks.

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