Content: Blog

The conference's main hall

Jacob presenting end-to-end testing with Playwright

Informal django CMS dinner on Wednesday night

Fabian giving a lightning talk on how the component-first approach of djangocms-frontend came about

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Engaging Talks by Experienced Speakers

The conference featured a line-up of exceptional speakers who shared their expertise and insights. Some of my personal highlights include:

• Jacob Rief: In his talk, "End-to-end testing Django applications using Pytest with Playwright," Jacob, a long-time django CMS contributor, explored methodologies for comprehensive testing of Django applications, emphasizing the integration of Pytest with Playwright for robust end-to-end testing, with some interesting learnings on concurrency issues to avoid.
• Tim Bell: Tim presented "Turn back time: Converting integer fields to bigint using Django migrations at scale," discussing strategies for safely and efficiently migrating integer fields to bigint in large-scale Django applications with the need of uninterrupted uptime.
• Adam Johnson: In "Data-Oriented Django Drei," Adam delved into the principles of data-oriented design within Django - looking at database indices, offering insights into optimizing data structures and access patterns for improved performance.
• Haki Benita: Haki's talk, "How to get Foreign Keys horribly wrong in Django," highlighted common pitfalls and misconceptions related to foreign key usage in Django, providing guidance on best practices to avoid these issues.
• Maxim Danilov: Maxim introduced "One more time about µDjango. The next step in the evolution of asynchronous microservices technology," presenting µDjango as a ready-to-use solution for building asynchronous microservices with Django.

As a small side-note I presented how the new component-first approach of djangocms-frontend was created - with the help of the community and actively exchanging ideas.

Django CMS Association Gathering

A notable highlight of the conference was the gathering of members from the Django CMS Association. Representatives from organizations such as the University of Innsbruck, Divio, Surfgreen.dev, the Passive House Institute, and A.IX Capital came together for a memorable spontaneous dinner at a traditional pub in Dublin's city centre. This event provided an excellent opportunity for these members to strengthen their collaboration, share experiences, and discuss the future of Django CMS.

Django's upcoming 20th birthday

This year's 20th birthday of Django was present (not only in form of balloons on the stage) everywhere. Reflections of things achieved, of what strengths have made Django to a reliable long-term platform lead to many discussions about the future of Django, and how it will develop. Both Carton Gibson and Emma Delescolle reported from the energized initiatives of the Django Steering Council (versions 6.x). 

Conclusion

DjangoCon Europe 2025 exemplified the spirit of community and collaboration that defines the Django ecosystem. The conference not only offered a platform for learning and professional growth, but also fostered connections among developers, contributors, and organizations dedicated to advancing Django.

As we reflect on the insights and relationships forged during this event, we look forward to the continued growth and innovation within the Django community