PyLadies, PacMan, and Public Health
EuroPython 2025: A Retrospective
On 29 March 2025, the programme committee informed me that my abstract (“Python, Politics, and Public Health”) had been accepted for a talk at EuroPython 2025 in Prague. As luck would have it, I ended up delivering it on the first day after my retirement from WHO. The talk thus became a manifesto for where I hope to go next, uniting my work in public health with my long-standing love of Python.
I’ve divided my notes into short sections, aiming to capture the essence of the conference from many perspectives. I want to jog happy memories among those who attended, and to entice others to join next year. Skip to the parts that interest you.
As delighted as I was to hear the news that the abstract proposal had been accepted, many questions remained: how would the Python community respond to a retired public health official from a different world? Would there be kindred spirits interested in the health and social impact of code?
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Community at the Heart
The ubiquity of PyLadies, the Conference Code of Conduct, the youthful energy of EuroPython, an invitation to pitch in... and to ignore the haters, plus a sneak preview of The Python Documentary.
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Health and Society
Politics, equity and fairness, outbreak responses, disaster relief, cancer real-world evidence, diagnosis of genetic diseases -- the many facets of Python's health and social impact.
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Lightning, Emotion, and Learning
In which I sample the sheer variety of the talks, and hint at the energy, the joy, the surprises, the insights and delights of the conference.
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Voice and Participation
An invitation to pitch in next year with your own talk; and some tips I gleaned on what talks make the greatest impact.
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Hey Python...
As we await the announcement of the 2026 venue for EuroPython, it is surely time for reflection on the language, the community, and the conference. And to air a niggling concern.