PyData Berlin 2026 February Meetup

Welcome to the PyData Berlin February meetup!
We would like to welcome you all starting from 18:00. There will be food and drinks. The talks begin around 18.30 and the doors will close at 18:45. Make sure to arrive on time!
Please provide your first and last name for the registration because this is required for the venue's entry policy. If you cannot attend, please cancel your spot so others are able to join as the space is limited.
Host:
GetYourGuide is excited to welcome you to this month's version of PyData.
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The Lineup for the evening

Talk 1: How Data (Science) is Transforming Professional Sports
Abstract: From Moneyball's linear regression revolution to AlphaGo's Move 37, data science has fundamentally reshaped how we understand and play sports. This talk explores three key dimensions of this transformation: first, how analytics revolutionized scouting and training—from the Oakland Athletics' 20-game winning streak to Liverpool FC ending their 30-year championship drought through data-driven player selection. Second, how machine learning and real-time tracking systems have changed gameplay itself, making the mid-range jump shot obsolete in basketball and revealing chess strategies that had eluded grandmasters for thousands of years. Finally, we'll examine the darker consequences, including how ML-powered microbetting has transformed sports gambling into a $149 billion industry that resembles slot machines more than traditional wagering.
This talk offers insights spanning baseball, soccer, basketball, chess, and Go - demonstrating how data science doesn't just optimize existing strategies, it fundamentally questions the assumptions entire sports were built upon.
Speaker: Kaan Isik
Bio: Kaan Isik is a Data Scientist at GetYourGuide where he works on the Activity Ranking team. As a member of this team, he focuses on developing and optimizing the learn-to-rank deep learning model that powers real-time activity recommendations for millions of travelers worldwide. His work directly impacts how users discover activities across GetYourGuide's platform, making their travel planning more personalized and efficient.

Talk 2: Can Foundation Models outperform classic ML on structured data? Hands-on experience with TabPFN
Abstract: LLMs excel at generalising over text data, but cannot reliably predict outcomes from spreadsheets and databases, which drive most critical decisions across medicine, finance, science and virtually all industries. In this talk, we will showcase how TabPFN, Tabular Foundation Model developed by Berlin-based Prior Labs, successfully generalises over structured data problems, beating classic ML with win rates ranging from 100% to 87%.
Speaker: Diana Kriuchkova
Bio: Diana is leading Product at Prior Labs. She is a part of the team developing TabPFN, a foundational model for tasks on structured data. TabPFN was published in the 2025 issue of Nature journal, and has shown to beat classic ML methods like XGBoost in >80% of cases. Diana's former background is in machine learning, and she spent last years leading product at developer-focused startups in Berlin.

Lightning talks
There will be slots for 2-3 Lightning Talks (3-5 Minutes for each) between the two main talks.
Kindly let us know if you would like to present something :)

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