Eyeo Festival

What Eyeo Festival does

Eyeo Festival is an annual four-day creative-technology conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, operated by eyeo festival, LLC under founder and owner Dave Schroeder (via Pilotvibe). Founded in 2011, the festival curates talks, workshops, evening keynotes, and an un-conference summit for an audience of approximately 600 attendees drawn from more than 400 organizations, including artists, data designers, creative coders, AI and XR explorers, storytellers, and researchers. Attendance is intentionally capped to preserve an intimate, community-driven atmosphere that the operator markets as differentiated from typical large-scale tech conferences, with programming anchored at the Walker Art Center and evening events hosted at multiple Minneapolis venues (Aria, The Machine Shop, Malcom Yards Market, Nicollet Island Pavilion).

The product surface comprises four components: a $699 general festival pass granting access to all daytime talks and evening events; pre-conference full-day workshops at $329 each (plus $10-$50 materials fees), with 2022 sessions on kinetic sculpture, data life drawing, interactive machine learning, and DIY solar panel design; the Code+Care Summit, a day-long un-conference at the Minneapolis Central Library using a pay-what-you-can model (minimum $10, suggested $40) capped at 100 participants; and a permanent Vimeo archive of all talks from 2011 onward, which functions as a long-tail reference asset for the field. Auxiliary access tiers include free student volunteer passes and application-based artist and non-profit fellowships.

Revenue is generated through ticket sales, workshop fees, summit contributions, and sponsorships, with the 2022 edition anchored by Runway as main sponsor and supported by an ecosystem of academic and open-source partners (Carnegie Mellon's Frank-Ratchye STUDIO, MCAD, MICA Open Studies, University of Denver's Emergent Digital Practices, Clinic for Open-Source Arts, OpenProcessing, Washington University's Sam Fox School, and Cranbrook Academy's 4D Design). Ticketing and registration are distributed through Eventbrite, while marketing relies on social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook), an email newsletter, the Vimeo archive, and word-of-mouth from a repeat-attendee base. The core team is small — four named organizers plus rotating curatorial fellows — and the company is independently owned with no disclosed external investors, debt, or M&A activity.

Name

Eyeo Festival

Legal name

eyeo festival, LLC

Website

https://eyeofestival.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Eyeo Festival is an annual four-day creative-technology conference in Minneapolis serving roughly 600 artists, data designers, creative coders, and researchers through curated talks, workshops, summits, and a permanent Vimeo archive, independently operated since 2011.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Creative Technology Conference

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192), Convention and Trade Show Organizers (561920), Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries (711)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Retail, Consumer Goods & Lifestyle Shows Organizers (THAHABAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Cultural & Community Festivals (Ticketed) (THAJAFAI)

Keywords

• Creative technology conference
• Data visualization events
• Creative coding workshops
• Art tech festival
• Interactive design summit

Headquarters

HQ city

Minneapolis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Festival Pass Sales: Primary revenue stream from selling festival passes at $699 per attendee, granting access to all talks and evening events during the 4-day festival.
2. Workshop Registration Fees: Additional revenue from pre-conference workshop registrations at $329 per workshop, with materials fees ranging from $10-$50.
3. Code+Care Summit Registration: Separate ticketed event with pay-what-you-can model, minimum $10, suggested $40, with limited attendance of 100 participants.
4. Sponsorships: Revenue support from sponsors including Runway (main sponsor) and partner organizations such as MCAD, MICA, Carnegie Mellon, University of Denver, and others.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Eyeo Festival is an annual 4-day creative technology conference held in Minneapolis, featuring daytime talks and evening keynotes at the Walker Art Center and surrounding venues. The core offering is a ticketed festival pass that grants access to 30+ speaker sessions, plus optional separately priced pre-conference workshops and a pay-what-you-can Code+Care Summit. The event targets artists, data designers, creative coders, AI/XR explorers, storytellers, and researchers.

Product overview

Eyeo Festival is a four-day annual conference bringing together the creative technology community including artists, data designers, creative coders, AI & XR explorers, storytellers, and researchers. The event features a unified core festival experience (talks and evening keynotes) supported by optional pre-conference workshops (Creating Kinetic Flora, Data Life Drawing, Interactive Machine Learning, DIY Solar Panel Design) and the Code+Care Summit. Past festival talks are archived as a video resource. The 2022 edition runs June 14-17 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Eyeo Festival A 4-day annual conference for the creative technology community featuring talks, evening keynotes, and networking at the Walker Art Center and other Minneapolis venues. Includes 30+ speakers spanning data visualization, creative coding, AI, XR, and generative art.
• Pre-Conference Workshops Full-day hands-on workshops offered on June 14th as a separately ticketed add-on, including Creating Kinetic Flora, Data Life Drawing, Interactive Machine Learning, and DIY Solar Panel Design. Materials fees range from $10 to $50.
• Code+Care Summit A day-long un-conference exploring care in creative technology communities, held at the Minneapolis Central Library in a wiki-style format. Limited to 100 participants with a pay-what-you-can model (minimum $10, suggested $40).
• Festival Talks and Sessions Daytime breakout talks and evening keynotes featuring artists, creative coders, data designers, and technologists across the Walker Art Center and multiple Minneapolis venues, included with the festival pass.
• Video Archive Archived recordings of past Eyeo Festival talks from 2011 through present, organized by year and freely available on Vimeo as an ongoing content resource for the creative technology community.

Quantifiable outcome

• 600+ attendees from 400+ organizations attend annually
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20222022 partner. Laboratory for atypical, anti-disciplinary research at intersections of arts, science, technology and culture. Founded 1989 within College of Fine Arts at CMU. Emphasizes new-media arts with world-class science and engineering departments.
• Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20222022 partner. Recognized nationally and internationally for innovative approaches to art and design education. Home to approximately 800 students from 45 states and 15 countries. Offers bachelor's degrees in fourteen disciplines, one MFA, and three online master's degrees.
• MICA Open StudiescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20222022 partner. Maryland Institute College of Art's 21st-century leadership in artist and designer education. Offers degree and non-degree programs including Data Analytics and Visualization master's. Supports creative journeys through innovative learning models.
• Emergent Digital Practices (EDP) at University of DenvercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20222022 partner. Groundbreaking fusion of digital art, design, culture, and technology focused on building a better world. Founded same year as Eyeo (2011) and has been at the festival from the start. Offers MA and MFA degrees with critical, technical and artistic skill development.
• Clinic for Open-Source Arts (COSA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20222022 partner. Explores, supports, and celebrates efforts to make free and open-source tools for artists. Resource for open-source arts projects at all stages: innovating tools, ensuring access, building communities, and ensuring sustainability.
• OpenProcessingcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 20222022 partner. Open Source Creative Coding Platform for Artists and Educators. Since 2008, millions of open source Processing projects have been shared and 1000s of classes taught using OpenProcessing.
• Washington University at St. Louis - Sam Fox SchoolsupportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20222022 partner. School of design, art, and architecture inside research university with programs in science, medicine, engineering, and liberal arts. Strong in data visualization and human-computer interaction. College of Art founded 1879, first professional university-affiliated art school in US.
• Cranbrook Academy of Art - 4D DesignsupportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20222022 partner. 2-year MFA program in contemporary design focused on creative applications of emerging technology. Emphasizes tangible interaction, augmented reality, applied robotics, and 3D printing. First new program in 47 years at Cranbrook.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Moogfest: Durham, NC festival blending music, art, and technology. Direct overlap in creative-tech community focus and conference-plus-evening-programming format similar to Eyeo's talk/mixer structure.
• Ars Electronica: Annual Linz-based festival at the intersection of art, technology, and society. Directly comparable to Eyeo as a long-running creative-tech gathering with talks, exhibitions, and a curated community focus, though at much larger scale.
• OFFF Festival: Design and digital creativity conference with stops in Barcelona, Mexico City, and elsewhere. Comparable as a festival for creative coders, designers, and motion artists, similar in scale and European/Latin American reach.
• Strange Loop: Annual St. Louis-based conference for software developers and technologists with adjacent creative/arts programming. Comparable intimate scale and developer-meets-creative audience overlap with Eyeo.

Broad incumbents

• Sundance Film Festival: Large-scale annual creative gathering (film/arts) with a curated, community-oriented identity. Comparable as a celebrated annual arts festival that builds brand through curation rather than scale, though far larger and broader.
• AIGA Conference: Professional design association conferences serving the broader design community. Adjacent attendee base (designers and creative professionals) but broader professional association rather than curated creative-tech festival.
• SXSW: Massive Austin-based festival spanning film, music, and technology. Comparable in converging creative and tech communities, but vastly larger and broader than Eyeo's curated intimate format.

Emerging players

• Resonate (Belgrade): European creative technology festival focused on music, art, and digital creation. Comparable in community-driven GTM and creative-coder target audience, though smaller and more geographically focused.

Regional players

• Creative Mornings: Free monthly creative talks across dozens of global chapters. Thematically adjacent to Eyeo with strong community focus, but local/recurring vs. annual festival and free rather than ticketed.

Others

• Eyeo Festival Vimeo Archive: The Eyeo Festival's own Vimeo channel containing the full archive of past talks since 2011; referenced as a peer here only because it serves as the closest content-as-distribution analog to competitors' media operations.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/eyeofestival
• YouTubevimeo.com/eyeoestival/channels
• Facebookfacebook.com/Eyeo-Festival-Page-173367692704522
• Instagraminstagram.com/eyeofestival

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 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 Eyeo Festival