The Haskell Love Conference has become one of the largest online gatherings for anyone involved in Haskell. Since its launch in 2020, it has quickly grown into a global forum where developers, researchers and educators share new ideas, showcase cool projects and explore the intricacies of Haskell theory and practice. This look back shows how the conference runs, the topics it covers, how it shapes the community and which talks stood out from 2020 to 2025.
Origins and Organizational Philosophy
Founding Vision and Leadership
In 2020, Oli Makhasoeva and her team launched Haskell Love, inspired by their earlier success with Scala Love. Unlike typical academic events — such as the Haskell Symposium — Haskell Love focuses on community and ease of access: participation is free, the event is hosted online for a global audience and highlights different perspectives from academia, industry and even the arts.
Another unique aspect is the majority female organizing committee, which counteracts the usual gender imbalance at programming conferences. Their approach combines grassroots leadership with a genuine passion to get more people excited about Haskell.
Operational Challenges and Solutions
The first conference in 2020 caused some problems — last-minute streaming outages, problems with the remote desktop — but the organizers spontaneously set up backup systems. Attendees came in large numbers (over 2,000 individual participants), which is no small feat for a niche language. Slack channels quickly became the hub for networking, allowing attendees to discuss advanced GHC features one moment and job opportunities or random industry trends the next.
Program Structure and Content
Thematic Tracks
- Language Extensions & Type System Innovations
Dives deep into things like GADTs and TypeFamilies, often connecting theory with practical examples. - Developer Tooling Ecosystem
Tackles memory profiling for lazy evaluation, CI/CD integrations, concurrency debugging, etc. Library Design Patterns
Talks on linear types, domain-specific embedded languages, and type-safe APIs often draw big crowds.Theoretical Foundations
Spotlight on Haskell’s academic roots, covering everything from System Fω to DependentHaskell.Artistic & Cross-Disciplinary Applications
Showcases Haskell in unexpected contexts.
Community Impact and Industry Adoption
Corporate Engagement Strategies
Sponsors such as Stack Builders, Well-Typed, FP Complete and Serokell help fund the conference, but are not allowed to turn the sessions into sales pitches. Instead, they report on real-world use cases — from optimizing huge codebases at GitHub to exploring the internals of GHC. Attendees generally rate these talks as helpful and on par with purely academic talks.
Educational Outreach
As it is free and online, people from all over the world can participate. This has attracted a diverse audience, including developers from South America, Southeast Asia and Africa who might not otherwise participate. The Haskell Love Fellowship, launched in 2023, supports aspiring developers from these regions and expands the community even further.
Technical Program Analysis
Paper Selection Process
Although it is not peer-reviewed like an academic journal, Haskell Love keeps the bar high. The organizers want fresh content, clear learning outcomes and real-life applications. A double-blind review process with dozens of committee members selects the best proposals. Accepted presentations go through a trial run with feedback from experienced Haskellers, raising the quality each year.
Signature Presentations
A few talks really stand out:
“Haskell in Production: Lessons from 10,000 Core Clusters” (2023)
The Meta Code Modeling team showed how they use Haskell for massive static analysis, including GHC compiler optimizations, memory optimization for 1TB+ ASTs, and cross-version compatibility.- “Type-Driven Game Development” (2024)
A popular workshop on developing a roguelike game in Haskell. Covered LiquidHaskell for stronger type guarantees, concurrent game loops, and property-based testing with Hedgehog.
Challenges and Future Directions
Sustainability
Because Haskell Love is run by volunteers and does not charge registration fees, there is always a risk of participant burnout and funding issues. Suggested solutions include more structured sponsorship levels or working with universities to cover costs.
Technological Evolution
Haskell is always on the move — WebAssembly goals, effect systems, new approaches to theorem proving — so future editions will need to keep pace. The 2025 conference is already planning a “Future of Haskell” track to address these forward-looking topics.
Conclusion
As functional programming continues to grow — GitHub, Meta and major banks all use Haskell — this conference plays a key role in bringing theory and practice together. The question now is whether it can maintain its grassroots atmosphere, remain financially stable and continue to showcase the latest developments in the language. Judging by its track record, the chances are pretty good.
