Research IT

conference audience

PyCon UK Comes to Manchester!

PyCon UK will be held in Manchester for the first time this year. The University of Manchester will have a booth at the conference, organised by members of the eScience Lab, Software Sustainability Institute and Research IT. Find out how you can get involved!

PyCon UK, the community conference for the Python programming language, is coming to Manchester for the first time this year. It will be hosted in CONTACT, running from Friday 19th to Monday 22nd September 2025.

The conference consists of three days of talks and workshops, covering all things Python, followed by a day of sprints on the Monday – where attendees can collaborate on contributions to open source Python projects. Tickets prices are scaled according to ability to pay. Unwaged tickets, available for those in full-time employment, cost £90, and there is financial assistance (subject to availability) for those who would otherwise not be able to attend. These options are especially relevant for undergraduates – if you teach any who might be interested in attending please pass this information on to them.

The conference is a great place for beginners to start their coding journey, with both a Young Coder’s day, as well as a Django Girls workshop, running on the Saturday. The Young Coder’s day is aimed at 8-16 year olds, costs only £9 for an adult plus up to two Young Coders, and offers the chance to learn the basics of coding and then collaborate with other participants on a project. Django Girls is a free one-day workshop for female / non-binary people new to programming to learn the basics of python through working with the popular Django web framework. Tickets for Young Coders can be purchased through the PyCon UK website, while applications for the Django Girls workshop can be submitted until 3rd August via the Django Girls website.

The University of Manchester will be present at the conference, with a booth in the exhibition centre. Michael Sparks, Shoaib Sufi, and Oscar Seip from the eScience Lab and Software Sustainability Institute, together with Douglas Lowe from Research IT, are organising this booth, if you would like to be involved, please contact them. We are also interested in suggesting open-source Python projects for the sprint day. If you would like to lead contributions to a Python-based project – perhaps yours – please let us know.