PyData London 2026

PyData London 2026 is a 3-day in-person event for the international community of data scientists, data engineers, and developers of data analysis tools to share ideas and learn from each other.

Neal Richardson will present on “MCP, or not MCP”.

Description: Model Context Protocol is a standard for defining tools that can be made available to LLMs and AI applications. There’s a lot of noise out there about what you should use to get the best results from AI, so in this talk, I will provide some guidance on when you should use MCP, and when you should reach for some other tool. I will describe cases where MCP is the right tool for the job, and when other things, like skills or other context files, are better. I will also devote attention to questions of security and authentication, which are important for MCP, and provide concrete examples of how MCP servers can be used to unlock agentic workflows while also strengthening data governance. This talk is intended for those who are interested in using LLMs for workflows involving data. No prior experience with MCP is required.