Host a PyData Helsinki meetup at your office
Hosting a PyData Helsinki meetup puts your company in front of 80–120 experienced data and AI professionals for an evening – at your own office, with all the event organisation handled by us. PyData Helsinki is a community of roughly 1,000 data, AI, and open-source professionals and enthusiasts in the Helsinki area, and hosting a meetup is one of the most effective ways to reach active professionals in this space in Helsinki. Companies including Wonna, Supercell, Cactos, Reaktor, RELEX, Elisa, UpCloud, and Visma have hosted or sponsored our meetups.
As a host, you get:
We need three things from a host: a space for preferably 60–100 people, a basic A/V setup, and – optionally but much appreciated – some food and drinks. PyData Helsinki handles everything else, so hosting is as lightweight as possible for your team:
| Who | Takes care of |
| Host | Space for 60–100 people (around 50 is also workable) |
| Host | Letting people in (if your venue security requires) |
| Host | Basic A/V setup: screen, projector, microphone |
| Host | Optional: light refreshments (pizza, drinks, snacks) |
| Host | Optional: brief company presentation, and a longer technical talk |
| PyData Helsinki | Speakers and programme |
| PyData Helsinki | Promotion and registrations |
| PyData Helsinki | All other event organisation and logistics |
Most companies host the meetup at their own office, but if your space is too small, you can instead sponsor a meetup held at an external venue – you get the same visibility and presentation slot either way.
| Option | How it works |
| Your office | The usual setup: your office is the venue, and as the host you are credited as the sponsor of the event. |
| External venue | You rent a venue elsewhere and sponsor the event. For example, Cactos sponsored a meetup held at Sofia Helsinki. |
A meetup lasts about 3 hours. A typical evening looks like this:
| 17:30 | Doors open |
| 18:00 | PyData Helsinki introduction |
| 18:05 | Welcoming words from the host |
| 18:15 | Talk 1 |
| 18:45 | Talk 2 |
| 19:15 | Break – food, drinks, networking |
| 19:40 | The (in)famous PyData Helsinki quiz |
| 19:50 | Talk 3 |
| 20:30 | End of programme |
| 21:00 | Continue discussions at a nearby bar |
The exact timings are flexible and we're happy to adapt to your preferences.
Talks can be about anything data-related, and the host can contribute anywhere from zero to a few of them – if you don't provide speakers, we arrange all of them from the PyData community. The topics don't have to follow a single theme within an event: a data visualisation or pipeline tool, learnings from a data/AI/ML project, or anything that a data scientist, ML engineer, or similar professional would find useful or interesting. We have talks at all levels, from beginner to advanced, since our audience is very diverse.
There is no pressure from our side for the host to provide speakers, but we're more than happy if you want to have one or a few technical talks from your own team.
To get an idea of the kinds of talks we have, check out our YouTube channel with recordings from past events.
We try to record the talks and publish them on YouTube, but we're amateurs at it. If your company has its own recording setup, the result is likely to be better than what we can produce – and it's great extra visibility for the host too.
How often do you organise meetups? We aim for roughly one meetup per month.
Can we promote our job openings? Absolutely – this is one of the key benefits of hosting. You'll have a dedicated slot to present your company, and you're welcome to mention open positions, hand out materials, or set up a jobs board.
What if our space is smaller than 60 people? A smaller space can work – we can adapt – but it means a lot of our community members will be left out. One option is to rent a space that is not at your office and sponsor the meetup there.
Do we need to provide food? It's optional but highly appreciated. Pizza and drinks are the classic meetup combo, but anything works.
Email us at pydata-helsinki-organisers@googlegroups.com if hosting sounds interesting – we'd love to hear from you, and we'll work out the details together.