About Valerio Maggio
Valerio is a Data Scientist and Developer Advocate who has spent 16+ years in the Python and open-source ecosystem trying to be two things at once: someone who reads the ML/AI papers, and someone who explains them without everyone in the room quietly opening LinkedIn. That impulse has taken him from (Senior) Research Associate roles at FBK and the University of Bristol to Developer Advocate gigs at Anaconda and OpenMined — same mission, different hats.
His technical interests cluster around trustworthy AI, reproducible ML, and privacy-preserving technologies, and he’s contributed to a handful of open-source projects across the PyData ecosystem along the way.
A member of the Python community since 2009, Valerio has helped organise PyCon Italia, PyConDE, EuroPython, and EuroSciPy: a tally that comes with a proportional collection of pre-conference anxiety dreams. Over the years, Valerio has delivered several talks and workshops to audiences ranging from a handful of curious individuals to a couple of thousand developers. And more recently serves as resident host of lightning talks, a role that mostly consists of cheerfully ushering brave speakers off stage when the gong rings.
Unapologetic nerd. At Magic:The Gathering tables he goes by lotus_vale: half a tribute to the MTG card of the same name, half a nickname hidden in the tail end of “Valerio”. The pronunciation depends on which passport you ask.
