 Okay, sorry for starting late. We had some last-minute changes to do on the slide set Plus also have dinner very late lunch very late. So Fabian I am gonna present you How we run your Python? Because for next year we're gonna Have a switch in location again. We're gonna move away from from Bilbao, unfortunately because it's been really great here and And of course we need my help for that and if you're interested in helping then Maybe we have something here for you. So let's just give a short introduction about what the EPS does in this EPS is an Organization behind your Python. It was founded in 2004 in Gothenburg in Sweden To provide like the legal backup like like the PSF right now. We have the trademark of your Python The intention is that we also provide some financial support for the for the organizers and We've also run the selection process for the location a couple of times and Since 2014 we started actually actively working with the local teams to make everything happen and in 2015 we added some extras which I'm gonna talk about in the next slide So first the the first period of the EPS was basically just providing these things like trademarks logos selection of the the location and Then in 2015 we decided to basically Reset the whole EPS and change completely change the organizational model to a work group based model And this has turned out to be really working well. So we now have quite a few work groups to to work with The main reason for doing this was to reduce the loss of Institutional knowledge that we had each time we changed location So previously the onsite team did everything and every time we changed location The new onsite team had to relearn everything and we do everything Which also for example meant that we had a new website system for each and every location and We're moving away from that. So we have one website system that we use We have these work groups that continue to work throughout the years all the knowledge is kept in those work groups and it's it's really Yeah, working out so This is how we're working now So the EPS structure now looks like this you have a board With with board meaning that is basically the most active members working on the Europathian organization Then you have work groups that help with all the different parts of an organ of the organization And then of course you have the EPS members and we're going to have the general assembly right after this session Where we are going to report to the members what we did last year And of course you have the Europathian attendees and all the attendees are welcome to to join the EPS because we think that you Should have a say in how everything works out So Gonna pass over to Fabio now So just a quick timeline about this year organization, which was Definitely different from last year in November 2015 we launched a preview site in January We started real active work in Europe item your groups We're missing work Before but the real work started there In February we will we launched you have the upside all the tickets the early words the call for proposals March we had the regular ticket sales and talk voting We started the financially Programming April and we also did the schedule online around that date We'd actually did a new thing this year to help Last time Proposals or proposals for hot hot topics So in June we did a second call for paper And in July we basically switched the on desk rates and In the last minute nice thing was the conference app online. We actually had a big great feedback about the app online And well, of course, we all know that July 17th we started the conference and today we were having a general assembly So the conference organization read that the hard work Take took six months But honestly, it's more than that this year every second year is easier A lot because you already know a lot of things that It's not really it's it's hard to predict regarding venues regarding communications regarding Yeah, people that can show up or not Financial small things So this year we were more much more aware of the things And we can in actually we made some adjustments based on last year feedback People still complain anyway for for stuff That that's how it is so small like advice for volunteers Or people that are organizing their conferences or doing community Always take the positive part and try to improve the negative feedbacks like it's it's always good to have negative feedbacks but never put yourself down really because Everyone in every community if you have issues you should and people are not good with it It should really invite everyone to join and make a better community as they would like so that that's the same thing We tried to do here This year we added the telegram Communication hub that was a really good thing and helped a lot both organizers and the communication between attendees volunteers and everyone So some history and some development regarding that the evolution First conference was in in Belgium fairly Good number to 240 then we have some I don't think we have a reliable data for those years But we did have a Neuropython at New Switzerland and Vilnius We had two in Götzburg. We had two in Birmingham. We had one in CERN and in Switzerland. We had two in Vilnius Yeah Three in Florence Yeah, yeah, one in Berlin Yeah, the evolution before was as much there was a big evolution between UK and in Italy And that's where probably the number of attendees require a much more structured a much more planned organization This year we we paired basically the last year number of attendees Which is probably very good still It's probably due to DjangoCon being in the US and in this week as well So lots of Django developers probably went over to the US instead of coming here as the user either Yeah, and the sci-fi was last week as well. So a lot of people from the data science community were there So the work groups we already talked about them last year, but it's good. It's really good to To repeat and also because they are they are working quite better We have the work groups have one chairperson sometimes two and The working groups member it's it's mostly driven by Who's more active was more? Who's more helping more Some cases it's not the case and we we try to talk and you know making natural roles Wait, it's necessary But it's always necessary to have a contact point to talk between work groups And work groups have voting and nobody members. So usually decisions that are not Can be taken quickly and are not so important a technical Small technical things that just are just taking other we have a vote We have Quite a few teams their conference administration finance sponsors communications support financial aid marketing and design the program work group web media team the code of conduct And the onsite team which is more or less a clue between those and Of course, it's the team that needs to be in contact with the venue doing the work locally and taking care of the details Okay, so Fabio Fabio left last fight for me So we also have something called the guidelines which was It's actually something that is it was an idea that was part of this move to the work group So we wanted to start to document how we actually run the the conference We started working on this document. We've not really Done much work on it recently. We should probably after this conference to have something like Like like a document that that lets new people that come into the organization Better start off in the organization. So they have a better idea of what they're signing up for and how everything works So right now basically we have the wiki That we use internally where we document stuff And we have lots of chat logs, of course now in the telegram. We have the mailing list and we the mailing list archives So the organization is basically centered around the mailing lists for more things that don't need to be done Right away and then before for things that are more urgent. We use the telegram groups Which has worked out really well. So that was the last slide Let me just show you how our Telegram groups Thing looks like let me just move this over here. Just Yeah, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna just gonna apply this filter here. So You can just see the Europe ice and stuff Don't know whether I can make it any larger in this So you can see here. Those are the this is the volunteers group for example This is how the the Well, basically the people of volunteering here at the conference do How they communicate with with each other was just really convenient because you can just right here You don't have to phone anyone or anything We do have these walkie-talkies outside there, but I don't think they're used this this year Because we're basically doing everything here Then you have the the public one. I don't know what this is This is the public one. This is one that where anyone one can sign up This is something that that we have to monitor a bit because Sometimes you have messages that don't belong there and so you need to do a bit of moderation This is our board list There's nothing special here. I mean, we just had a board meeting for example, so we voted in a few more people This is the support one Anyway, this is just The search filter See you have a few more we have a simple one for all the organizers, which is the plaza one We're using that to just directly send messages to everyone in the organization Yeah, and that's how it works. So Using telegram is great fun as well. You can send stickers photos Yeah, this has been really good Right, so now is question and answer time. Do you have any questions? Yes, right? The way that it works is that you basically write an email to the board We then contact the chairs of that particular work group that you want to work in ask them whether they have a need for more people Which we usually always do And Then we just we sign you up for it There's one thing that we found in in the last year is that people we had quite a few people who signed up for these Work groups, but they didn't actually do any or not much work. Let's put it that way and because the signup process is Rather well, it's it's a lot of work So it would be better to really consider if you want to do actually do work in that work group To only then apply for the work group and then of course we'd happily happily sign you up for everything Right. We have a we have a wiki for this We're happy for suggestions how we can manage better because we have many people just like being there and sometimes doing something and the problem is we some tasks have deadlines and People tend to tell after the deadline I didn't make it because and this is horrible for us because for us will be The chairs we have to step in on short notice And we're trying to find better solutions also like a way of open communication If there's a deadline and you don't make it tell us as soon as you know, it's no problem I mean, it's all volunteering And we're trying to build a great conference So actually we are I think should like that's what we discussed. We should try a little bit More doing better management as well It's not just like a one-side story because it's some it's not not everybody is made just to grab responsibility Basically working work groups was a lot like this. Just okay. Somebody does I just do it and see what happens Yeah, one thing I wanted to mention like on top of this There's also some learning curve to be active on the working groups Mostly because it's not just like sponsors work group just don't drop in and send emails randomly and that's that So yeah, we this year the work groups were new We had a quite heavy lifting raising all the documentation and raising wiki pages and raising stuff And also checking that sometimes wiki pages are too long or not work Do not work really well So we are trying to make easier for everyone to to to join It's also good to have someone joining in documenting the process saying what are the things that I missed and why I had to drop the ball because times It's in the same in both directions like both from us and new volunteers So we are trying to do a lot of work to make easier to everyone to enjoy This is the wiki that we're using so this is the main page of the wiki We have entries for different conferences down here. We have the milestones Those are the actual milestones that we used and sometimes you can see how we what we planned and what the original the final Then milestone turn on to be Then we have for each work group we have a page down here. So for example, if you go to the Sponsors one you then get the various resources that we use for that group Like a mailing list various addresses that we use for this Then we have working documents Also usually on on Google Drive somewhere. So we're using Google Docs a lot and spreadsheets And we also try to put extra information here that's being asked by by people by sponsors in this case And try to document processes of how we do certain things for example with the sponsors you there's a sign-up process for the sponsors that We have to follow each and every time and so we try to document all this here and Then later on the idea was to take this information and put it into those guideline documents that we wanted to create So right now we have everything up in here and then you have the members you voting members and non-voting members You also see inactive members so every now and then we go around and check in the work groups Which members are actually active or not and then the ones that are not active they get converted into this inactive status Which is a way for us to Basically know whether we need to add more people to that work group or not because sometimes we have a huge roster for a full work group But in in effect only very few people are actually working In that work group. That's how that works exactly Right Right when when you when you start on a work group what we do is we sign you up to all the mailing list that you need to be signed up for give you the links to the telegram groups And then we write an introduction in welcome message for you and Then we usually expect the chairs of that work group to then take you in and show you the various things that need to be done And like what what Alex just said? We also need to we need to change the method that we're currently using a bit because right now the method has been That we kind of expect people to find work themselves So they they look at something see that this needs work, so I'm just going to sit down do something That model works for some people, but it doesn't work for everyone So we probably need to apply some more management in this area I mean also want to point out it's we have improved a lot moving away from emails and Also, it's really rewarding. I mean most of the time. I mean for we work group I've been in work program work group and communications You really work with friendly constructive respectful people. It's it's once you have all the tools and you know what to do It's it's it's also fun. It's not just like not that we're only complaining about all the problems Yeah, it's also a lot of fun and especially this is very fun seeing everybody having a good time and Well for for example for the sponsors work group Since each company has a set of the same tasks everyone They are repeated tasks I used a sauna I know if you're familiar with it. So it's a task control web based System and it worked quite well for the sponsors work group. I think and There we saw some of the people in the sponsors work group were there and they We could assign tasks to different people and remind of what tasks were It's still to be done Just one cent of them. I think it's always really important to do the work somebody else can pick up if you're on holiday or and stuff Yeah, so it's not about making oneself like Organization depending on one person's information We have already identified in which you need the help with respect to this year for example Well for next year first we have to see how many of the existing work group members actually want to continue working in that work group and then of course I Mean in general we need we need help everywhere Because if you look at at this year's conference, we've been Maybe I don't know 10 or 15 members Who were really active? I mean really put in a lot of work and And this is a huge conference, so it's not really enough The last weeks before the conference are always really really stressful Because there's so many things to think about and it would be a lot better to put that on more shoulders There are a lot more help tickets Probably some of these things could be handled by Volunteers or people that are not really work groups or just backups If they have access to central information So that maybe an area that we didn't work so much this year Yeah, but also Building this knowledge base and Mostly communication So the question was why why we do need to change location every two years Very mostly because it's a tradition. It's good to have it running around Europe, you know When you centralize in one place then after three years the team tends to be the same and Or four years or five years, then you have the same problems we had Rebuilding everything two years ago No, we we are currently running this the CFI what we call CFI so a call for interest so we're trying to figure out who is interested in maybe submitting a proposal and And that is running until next Friday and then we're going to enter We want to look at what the applications we get and then we're going to Work with those people to then work on the CFP if we just get one Proposal of course it'll make things easier We can just then basically skip the CFP and go directly into then figuring out how exactly we want to to run the conference in that New location, so Right so I mean basically you have to look at it. I also have to look at it this way Doing a conference like this is a lot of work and people do get burned out and That's also one of the reasons why we changed to new locations Previously we basically did it because we wanted this to be Europe Isons, so it should be a European conference that moves around in Europe And that's of course also one of the reasons why we we change locations every now and then I don't know just complimenting what you have been said on the volunteer side of the point of view It's not if you're considering volunteering like it's really not That important where it's gonna be next year, but you can help from anywhere like I live in Brazil I helped from the I did what I could you was great like I would we there were Lots of things to do we had fun, but I think are a little bit in your codes and learn a little bit, too Well, it's an opportunity You have to give some some some some of your free time that you you normally would would be just watching TV and stuff Anything or but it's fun. You meet new new people And it was really good for me like it was a great opportunity Yes, yeah, I mean eight eighty percent of the work can be done online. Yeah, that's The conclusion if you're in a crazy time zone, it can actually be good, too People do not need to stay awake for Midnights or stuff like that could be in switching different time zones less than 20 organizers at all with volunteers, but it was in Python Brazil. It's a conference. We got like less than 300 people in there like it was 250 and Europe by Tony is 1,000 So more questions. We have strict times to switch the session or Yeah, yeah, exactly any question or anything that you Forget to ask or maybe you end up With other questions layer just drop stop by the registration desk or take us around and We will be happy to ask two replies to all the questions Can we have a screen this weekend for our bite on? for the architecture of the website and the rest on this weekend we have spring Eventually we we should probably organize a sprint for volunteers. We we can set up to set this up And organizers will be there anyway, so I hope people check that the information on We need or if there are stuff that we can do on the website We do have some okay, so we're already in the general assembly For the for the general assembly because this is a very formal kind of thing that we have to do We'd like to ask all the EPS members to sit in the front row so that we know Where to stop counting for the vote? Yes, it's Everybody's welcome. It's just and then everyone else can just sit in the in the in the back row so