9th European Lisp Symposium in Kraków
The 9th European Lisp Symposium in Kraków has ended. It was my second ELS (first time I've attended it just a year before in London). It is really cool to spend some time and talk with so knowledgeable people. The European Lisp Symposium is a unique event because it gathers people from all around the world who are passionate about what they're doing. The mixture was astonishing – the university professors, professional programmers, individual hackers, visionaries, students.
I'm glad that I have met in person many people with whom I had only the contact over the internet. I've heard about various exciting projects and ideas either during the sessions and the breaks. I have even an autograph from miss Kathleen Callaway on my Lisp in Small Pieces book. I'm also very excited that this year there was a Clojure talk, which is a modern incarnation of the Lisp idea.
During the event I had a chance to stand in front of this "angry crowd" (actually crowd of a very nice people – I still was very stressed though) during my lightning talk. I was talking about my opinions on how the contributing to the Common Lisp ecosystem should look like, how people can get involved in a productive and efficient way.
Yesterday we were on a banquet which officially closed the symposium. The food was delicious and the company was great. The only thing is that it could last a little longer. In fact many of the attendees moved to some other place to continue the meeting. I've heard they've ended late in the night (or early in the morning). I was too sleepy, so I've left to my kind host's flat.
I want to thank all the organizers and speakers for the effort they've put to make the symposium happen. Michał Psota did a tremendous job as a local chair – he managed all the local stuff and it was all perfect, Irène Durand and Didier Verna were managing things very well – everything went very smooth and only a few people got shot during the lightning talks by Didier for exceeding the time frame. I hope that I'll be able to attend the next ELS which will probably take place in Brussels.