Couple of thoughts on EuroPython 2011

Taking a break from writing up my notes into blog posts to share a few general thoughts about the conference.

General feeling: Woohooooo! This was a fantastic week, I learnt a ton and met an amazing amount of awesome people. If you're here because I gave you one of my cards, hi! o/ It was lovely to meet you. (If you asked about the card and forgot, these are MooCards from moo.com. Get yourself some! People fought over these at EuroPython, I'll have you know. They're that good!)

The conference was wonderfully well organised, including the evening events. I fondly recommend the bistecca alla Florentina from Zaza! Everyone was incredibly friendly, like at PyCon Ireland last year it was common to strike up interesting conversations with a random stranger besides you and impromptu dinner plans would be shared between groups.

I was humbled by how egoless most people I spoke with were. They seem to know that no one knows absolutely everything about Python (and there were funny anecdotes about this, such as famous names requesting new features that are already in the language!). I was incredibly surprised when one of the keynote speakers sat at my table during lunch on the first day -- I had assumed well-know people would have solid cliques and no time or desire to meet new faces. And of course they ended up being just as nice as everyone else.

Some things I grumbled over: the constant strikes in Italy, first at the airport when I landed then the trains when I (tried to) leave! I was disappointed to miss out on the training I was hoping to attend as well, the rooms were a bit small and filled up long before the training starting time. Lesson learnt for next year!

...And indeed I am much looking forward to going again next year. In the meantime I welcome all Pythonistas to `PyCon Ireland <http://python.ie/pyconireland/>`__ in Dublin this October! :D

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