What does ESUG offer to the Smalltalk community?

ESUG (the European Smalltalk User Group) is a non-profit user organization that supports initiatives around the Smalltalk programming language, with a particular emphasis on free and open-source actions that benefit the whole Smalltalk community. If you use, teach, research, or build with any Smalltalk dialect or environment, ESUG's activities are aimed at you. Its support takes several concrete forms: connecting users, promoting teaching and learning, helping publish and share books, backing local user groups, encouraging exchange between students and practitioners, and organizing or sponsoring events.

Connecting the Smalltalk community

ESUG describes its role as connecting individual and corporate users of Smalltalk dialects and environments in Europe. This is the broadest of its functions and underlies the others: it provides a shared point of contact for people who might otherwise be working in isolated local or organizational settings.

Promoting teaching, learning, and use

ESUG promotes the teaching, learning, and using of Smalltalk. This includes educational activity around the language, not just development practice, which is relevant if you are introducing Smalltalk in a course, a study group, or a self-directed learning path.

Supporting books and publications

ESUG supports publishing and sharing books. The site also provides channels for promoting community writing more generally, including sections for articles, publications, and sponsoring books. If you have written or are planning Smalltalk-related material, this is the part of ESUG's work to look at.

Backing local user groups

ESUG supports local user groups and the establishment of new ones. That means existing groups can seek backing, and people who want to start a group where none exists have an organization to approach. The site lists user groups among its sponsoring actions.

Encouraging exchange and collaboration

ESUG supports exchange and collaboration between students, researchers, innovators, and practitioners. This spans academic and industrial participants rather than treating them as separate audiences, which is useful if your work sits between research and production use of Smalltalk.

Organizing conferences, schools, and workshops

ESUG organizes a yearly conference, school, and workshop. Recent and upcoming events listed on the site include:

The annual program typically includes a main conference track, the International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies (IWST), an Innovation Technology Awards edition (the 20th edition was held in 2025), and a "Show us your Project" session. The isLoop Summer School has been colocated with the conference in recent years — in 2025 it ran 28–30 June, just before the main conference. Slides are published on Slideshare and in the ESUG Archive, and videos are posted on YouTube, so past material remains accessible if you cannot attend in person.

Sponsoring other Smalltalk events

Beyond its own conference, ESUG sponsors other Smalltalk events. This extends its support to activities organized by others in the community rather than concentrating everything under one annual meeting.

How to take part or get support

The site offers two direct routes:

• Support us — review the sponsoring actions (visit lab, books, summer schools, user groups) or donate to ESUG via HelloAsso.com. PayPal appears among the site's payment platforms.
• Join us — membership information is available under the Membership & Support section, alongside a Become a Sponsor option for organizations.

ESUG also publishes a Guide of Conduct, which the site notes is open for feedback.

What to check before relying on a specific detail

Event dates, venue details, and program contents are the most likely things to change, so confirm them against the current announcement for the event you care about. Sponsoring terms and membership conditions are described on the site's own pages rather than summarized here. If your interest is a local group or a book project, start from the corresponding section of the site, since those actions have their own pages and contacts.