Europython versus New Wine

I can imagine that there are not too many people who know both conferences. At least I wore the T-shirt from EuroPython at New Wine and that only got blank looks. A short introduction seems in order then. Python is a programming language; I use it daily for my job. EuroPython is a yearly conference in Europe for python users and developers, sometimes affectionately called pythonistas. New Wine is a Christian movement that originated in England and has made the leap to the Netherlands and other countries. Their goal is: equipping churches to see Jesus' kingdom grow. Last week I visited the Dutch Summer Conference for the third year in a row.

As an aside: I haven't quite finished adding to this website summaries of all the talks at EuroPython that I went to. I plan to do that eventually, but first I want to migrate my home grown Zope 2 weblog to Plone plus Quills. If you don't know what I am talking about, then you are probably more in the New Wine camp than in the EuroPython camp. ;-) Anyway, you can expect more EuroPython stuff to appear here and also more New Wine summaries, although I will probably do those in Dutch only. I'll try to make it easier to view just the English weblog entries for those of you who are just as good in Dutch as the English speakers at the New Wine conference. :) Right, on to the comparison.

There are of course lots of similarities between the two conferences. You learn a lot, you meet new people, you get to know friends better, there is a good atmosphere and you have a lot of fun.

There are also marked differences:

• At EuroPython you get to know python better; at New Wine you get to know God better.
• At EuroPython no people got healed as far as I know; at New Wine several people got healed. I know at least of three people who got their foot healed; one person's back has improved considerably; one little girl who got bullied at school the whole year was now filled with joy.
• At EuroPython you learn to program the way Guido indented it (note for New Winers: that's not a spelling error); at New Wine you learn to live the way God intended it (note for pythonistas: that's also not a spelling error). I know I made some happy progress here, thanks to a good talk with Michelle and a seminar by Paulien Zeeman. All glory to God though.

By the way, Guido and God are much alike: they are both Benevolent Dictators For Life. For God life is a bit longer though. Oh, and they are both Dutch. ;)

If forced to choose, I would pick the New Wine Summer Conference any day. Except in winter, as that wouldn't make much sense. ;) Preferably though I would again visit them both next year.