What Open Data Science Conference (ODSC) does

ODSC operates a multi-format AI and data science education platform anchored by three flagship in-person conferences — ODSC West (San Francisco, October 27-29, 2026), ODSC East (Boston, May 10-12, 2027), and ODSC AI NYC — and supplemented by a virtual training layer comprising the Ai+ Training subscription platform (aiplus.training) and the AI Accelerator cohort program. Founded in 2014-2015 and headquartered in Cambridge, MA, ODSC serves a horizontal audience of AI and data science practitioners, business leaders and executives, career reskillers, and technology vendors seeking to reach AI builders. The platform emphasizes hands-on, code-first training delivered by leading researchers and practitioners; notable past speakers include Turing Award recipient Yoshua Bengio (Université de Montréal / Mila) and Daphne Koller (CEO/Founder of insitro, former Stanford and Coursera). Adjacent content properties include the Ai X Podcast, the opendatascience.com blog, a jobs board, community meetups, and webinars.

The business generates revenue across three streams: one-time conference registration fees for in-person events, recurring virtual training subscriptions via Ai+ Training, and partner sponsorships from major technology vendors. Approximately 20,000 attendees participate across ODSC's events annually, with ODSC West 2026 alone expecting 1,700 attending companies and 40 solution partners including NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Databricks, IBM, Hugging Face, LangChain, CrewAI, and MIT. The company is privately held under founder and CEO Sheamus McGovern with 11-50 employees, no disclosed funding rounds, and no publicly reported revenue. Its two wholly-owned subsidiaries — AI Accelerator and Ai+ Training — house the virtual training operations, while distribution combines direct event sales for enterprise audiences with self-serve and product-led growth channels for individual practitioners and SMBs.

ODSC's strategic posture is to convert an annual event franchise into a year-round recurring training and content business. The core asset is the speaker and partner ecosystem built over eleven years, which feeds both audience demand and sponsor willingness-to-pay. The model carries inherent event-cadence risk concentrated in Q4 (West) and Q2 (East), partially offset by subscription training, but revenue, pricing, and contract economics remain undisclosed, limiting external visibility into the durability and growth rate of the underlying business.

Name

Open Data Science Conference (ODSC)

Legal name

Open Data Science Conference (ODSC)

Website

https://odsc.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

ODSC operates an AI and data science education platform combining flagship in-person conferences (West, East, NYC) with the Ai+ Training virtual platform, AI Accelerator cohort program, Ai X Podcast, blog, and jobs board, serving AI practitioners, business leaders, and career reskillers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Training and Conferences

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (611430), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Live Class & Webinar Marketplaces/Directories (EDAFAIAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Virtual Training, Workshops & Masterclasses (Interactive Sessions) (MPAGAOAJ)

Keywords

• AI conferences
• Data science training
• Machine learning education
• AI builder community
• Tech event production

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Revenue model

1. Conference Registration: Revenue generated from attendees paying to participate in in-person conferences (ODSC West, East, NYC) and virtual events. Events feature workshops, training sessions, and networking for AI and data science professionals.
2. Virtual Training Programs: Ai+ Training platform provides online training courses and bundles for AI and data science skills development.
3. Partner Sponsorships: Technology companies sponsor ODSC events and conferences, gaining visibility among AI practitioners and builders. Partners include Intel, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Databricks, IBM, and many other AI/tech companies.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

ODSC (Open Data Science Conference) produces regional AI and data science conferences (West, East, NYC) and complementary virtual training programs (AI Accelerator, Ai+ Training), delivering hands-on, code-first education to AI practitioners. The company monetizes through attendee registration fees for in-person events, paid virtual training courses and bundles, and corporate sponsorships from technology vendors. Supporting community assets include a podcast, blog, jobs board, local meetups, and webinars that sustain engagement between flagship events.

Product overview

ODSC (Open Data Science Conference) operates as a comprehensive AI builders conference and training ecosystem. The core offering consists of regional in-person conferences (ODSC AI West, East, NYC) featuring hands-on workshops and training sessions. This is complemented by the AI Accelerator virtual training program and Ai+ Training online courses, providing code-first training in core AI and data science skills. The portfolio also includes the AI X Podcast, ODSC Blog for thought leadership, a Jobs board for career placement, and community meetups/webinars that extend engagement beyond the main events. With 11 years of operation, ODSC has trained tens of thousands of AI builders globally through its multi-format learning approach.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AI Accelerator: AI and data science training accelerator program offering hands-on training
• Ai+ Training
• Ai X Podcast
• AI+ Summit NYC

Quantifiable outcome

• Nearly 20,000 attendees annually across all events
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

20 partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• IntelminorGTM or Marketing PartnerTechnology partner and sponsor for ODSC AI conferences, providing visibility among AI practitioners and supporting the AI builder community.
• Google CloudminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCloud platform partner sponsoring ODSC events for AI community engagement and platform visibility.
• Microsoft AzureminorGTM or Marketing PartnerAzure cloud platform partner for ODSC AI conferences, reaching AI developers and practitioners.
• NVIDIAminorGTM or Marketing PartnerGPU and AI computing partner sponsoring ODSC events for developer community engagement.
• DatabricksminorGTM or Marketing PartnerData and AI platform partner for ODSC conferences, engaging with AI builders and data scientists.
• IBMminorGTM or Marketing PartnerEnterprise technology partner sponsoring ODSC AI events for brand visibility among AI professionals.
• DellminorGTM or Marketing PartnerHardware and infrastructure partner for ODSC conferences.
• SAPminorGTM or Marketing PartnerEnterprise software partner sponsoring ODSC AI events.
• MITminorGTM or Marketing PartnerAcademic institution partnering with ODSC for AI education and research outreach.
• Weights & BiasesminorGTM or Marketing PartnerMLOps platform partner for ODSC conferences, engaging with AI practitioners.
• Hugging FaceminorGTM or Marketing PartnerOpen-source AI platform partner for ODSC events.
• LangChainminorGTM or Marketing PartnerAI framework company partnering with ODSC for community engagement.
• CrewAIminorGTM or Marketing PartnerMulti-agent AI company partnering with ODSC for AI builder community outreach.
• ClouderaminorGTM or Marketing PartnerData platform company sponsoring ODSC AI conferences.
• ElasticminorGTM or Marketing PartnerSearch and analytics platform partner for ODSC conferences.
• Arize AIminorGTM or Marketing PartnerML observability platform partner for ODSC AI events.
• StarburstminorGTM or Marketing PartnerData query platform partner sponsoring ODSC conferences.
• CleanlabminorGTM or Marketing PartnerData quality platform partner for ODSC AI community.
• PostmanminorGTM or Marketing PartnerAPI development platform partner for ODSC conferences.
• JetBrainsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerDeveloper tools company partnering with ODSC for AI developer community.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• KDD (ACM SIGKDD): Major data mining and knowledge discovery conference. Competes with ODSC for data science practitioner attendance and sponsor mindshare.
• Strata Data Conference (O'Reilly): O'Reilly's flagship data and AI conference series. Closely comparable to ODSC in targeting practitioners with hands-on data science and AI training across in-person and online formats.
• DataCamp: Subscription online data science and AI training platform. Directly comparable to ODSC's Ai+ Training business and competes for the same self-serve practitioner learner.
• NeurIPS: Premier machine learning research conference. While more academic, it competes with ODSC for the attention and travel budget of AI/ML practitioners and researchers.
• ICML (International Conference on Machine Learning): Leading ML research conference. Like NeurIPS, it competes with ODSC for AI/ML practitioner and academic participation and sponsor attention.
• AI Summit: Business-oriented AI conference series with global editions. Competes with ODSC for enterprise attendees, executive sponsorship, and vendor mindshare in applied AI.
• The AI Conference: Practitioner- and business-focused AI conference series. Overlaps with ODSC on audience and sponsor base, particularly for applied AI and enterprise adoption content.

Broad incumbents

• Coursera: Major online learning platform with university and industry AI/ML courses and specializations. Competes with Ai+ Training for individual learners and enterprise upskilling budgets.
• O'Reilly Media: Large established technical learning platform spanning books, online courses, and conferences (Strata, Velocity). Competes broadly with ODSC's training portfolio at much greater scale.

Emerging players

• PyData: Community-driven NumFOCUS conference series for Python-based data science and AI users. Overlaps with ODSC's audience and speaker ecosystem in the open-source Python DS community.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/odsc
• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/OpenDataScienceCon
• Facebookfacebook.com/OPENDATASCI
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/odsc-ai
• Instagraminstagram.com/odsc.ai

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Open Data Science Conference (ODSC)