About

This meetup is for those who work or aspire to work in fields like machine learning, data engineering, MLOps, visualization, and statistical modeling. We share real-world experiences about solving problems in these fields using open-source tools, including but not limited to Python and its libraries – users of R, Julia or other languages are welcome.

We welcome speakers to talk about these tools and experiences using them, regardless of the level (beginner, intermediate, advanced are welcome). The usual talk is about half an hour long, but lightning talks of 5–10 minutes are great too! Occasionally we will include a debate! Come with a thought-provoking question or a hot take, and we'll set up a discussion where everyone can take part.

• Sign up for our events via Meetup
• Join the conversation on the Helsinki Python Discord
• Contact us via email: pydata-helsinki@googlegroups.com
• Follow us on the Fediverse: @pydata_helsinki@fosstodon.org
• And on LinkedIn: PyData Helsinki
• If we succeed in recording talks (no promises), we'll put them up on YouTube

Sponsors

• We are always looking for sponsors who can provide us a venue and food and drinks for our meetup. In return, you can present your company or product at the meetup.
• The Meetup group is sponsored by NumFOCUS: Promoting open code for better science.

Give a talk

Please contact us by email or on the Discord server if you are interested in giving a talk. We are looking for talks at any level, from beginner to advanced. Suitable topics include data science, AI, Python, Julia, R, etc.

Upcoming events

• We're looking for venues. Please contact us at pydata-helsinki@googlegroups.com or on the Helsinki Python Discord.

Past events

• Meetup at Reaktor's office on 2 December 2025, 18:00. Programme:

  • Ville Rantanen: Bottling AI

  • Panel Discussion: How to Land a (Data) Job in Today's Market. Our panelists:

    • Marko Aalto thrives at the intersection of business, technology and AI. Decades of experience, including two startups, of building cool things. He works currently at Reaktor as VP of Data & AI.
    • Hanna Hagström is an experienced AI & data leader with over 25 years of expertise in digital transformation, data solutions, and AI, currently the CEO and co-founder of Lakeview.
    • Jerry Pussinen is an engineering leader who has conducted over 300 tech interviews and most recently shaped the tech hiring efforts at Wolt.
  • The PyData Helsinki Quiz is coming back!
• Meetup sponsored by Cactos at Sofia Helsinki on 11 November 2025. Talks:
  • Jussi Pyörre: Intro to Cactos: Energy, but better
  • Olli Ruokojoki: Data-Driven Batteries: Modeling State of Charge and Health from Operational Data
  • Tuomas Sivula: Stochastic Models in Energy Storage Operating Environments
  • PyData Helsinki Quiz
  • Quentin Salomé: ⚡️ Estimating the surface area of lakes using satellite images
  • Osvaldo Martin: ⚡️ ArviZ 1.0: Refactoring for flexibility, extensibility, and power
  • Jouni Seppänen: ⚡️ Python Visualisation Tools
• Meetup at Supercell on 22 September, 2025. Talks:
  • Heikki Arponen: Reinforcement learning for games at Supercell
  • Chandreyee Roy: Exploring sleep and activity using wearables
  • Allan Nevala: Meeting your people. For real. (⚡️ Lightning talk)
  • Alexander Kevin Gilbert: Estimating weight of cars from their dimensions (⚡️ Lightning talk)
  • Teemu Säilynoja: Marimo - a reactive, git-friendly Python notebook (⚡️ Lightning talk)
• Meetup at Wonna, Elimäenkatu 17-19 on 26 August, 2025
  Talks:
  • Teemu Säilynoja: Bayesian Beasts: Iterative modelling with PyMC to forecast Korkeasaari visits
  • Allan Nevala: The Model Kitchen: Live Python Performance Lab
• Summer Picnic in cooperation with Helsinki Python and DataTribe meetups, Meripuisto on July 27, 2025, 14:00
• Pub evening in Kaisla on June 25th, 2025
• Online meetup: NLP & Feature Store (March 2021)
• Online meetup: MLOps (February 2021)
• Online meetup: xAI & NLP (January 2021)
• Online meetup: Evaluating Machine Learning Models (November 2020)
• Online meetup: The Kick-Off Meetup (October 2020)

Organisers

• Cal Paterson
• Daniel Vahla
• Hugo van Kemenade
• Jouni Seppänen
• Niko Föhr
• Teemu Säilynoja

Community

• Helsinki Python is a local Python user group in the Greater Helsinki region.
• DataTribe is a community for data professionals, engineers, analysts and anyone interested in data.
• PyLadies Tampere is a mentorship group focused on helping more women become active participants and leaders in the Python open-source community.
• Archipylago is a community in Turku with meetups and sprints.
• Techtribes collects the tech meetups in Finland in one place.