SC Conference

What SC Conference does

SC Conference (Supercomputing Conference) is an annual international conference series dedicated to high-performance computing (HPC), networking, storage, and analysis, jointly organized by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society since its founding in 1988. The nonprofit event rotates annually across major North American convention centers — SC22 was held November 12–18, 2022 in Dallas, Texas — and is structured as a week-long program combining peer-reviewed technical papers, tutorials, workshops, panels, invited talks, Birds of a Feather sessions, and a large industry exhibition. The conference also hosts the most prestigious awards in the HPC field, including the ACM Gordon Bell Prize, the ACM/IEEE-CS Ken Kennedy Award, the IEEE-CS Sidney Fernbach and Seymour Cray Awards, and the ACM A.M. Turing Award Lecture, which together anchor its position as the field's flagship venue.

The technical backbone of each event is SCinet, a custom-built ultra-high-speed network infrastructure designed and deployed annually by volunteer network engineers from HPC institutions, government labs, and industry partners. SCinet serves as both the operational network for the conference and a live demonstration platform for cutting-edge networking technologies, and it supports an active Network Research Exhibition. SC22 also featured specialized programs for workforce development — including the Student Cluster Competition, ACM Student Research Competition, Doctoral Showcase, Early Career Program, Mentor–Protégé Matching, and HPC Immersion — alongside a Digital Experience channel for virtual attendees unable to travel.

SC Conference generates revenue primarily through tiered attendee registration fees (professional in-person, student, and digital experience categories) and exhibitor booth sales to HPC technology vendors, with additional sponsorship and promotional opportunities sold through third-party event operators. Its customer base spans three primary segments: HPC researchers and academics who present work and recruit; HPC industry professionals (hardware vendors, software companies, cloud providers, system integrators) who exhibit, sponsor, and recruit; and HPC students and early-career professionals who participate in education and career programs. Governance rests with a volunteer steering committee under the joint ACM/IEEE-CS framework, with no private equity or external ownership.

Name

SC Conference

Legal name

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) - SC Conference

Website

https://sc22.supercomputing.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1988

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

SC Conference is a nonprofit annual international conference series on high-performance computing, jointly organized by ACM and IEEE Computer Society since 1988, serving HPC researchers, industry vendors, and students through technical programs, exhibitions, and the SCinet live network infrastructure.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific and Technical Conferences

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192), Professional Organizations (813920)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Academic & Scientific Conferences (MPAGAGAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Association & Society Conference Management (Nonprofit, Professional Bodies) (THAHACAA), Scholarly Societies & Conference Proceedings Publishing (MPAJABAK)

Keywords

• High performance computing
• Supercomputing conference
• HPC technical program
• Computational research events
• Scientific computing networking

Headquarters

HQ city

Dallas

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Conference Registration: Registration fees for attendees including various categories (in-person, virtual/digital experience, student, professional). Registration includes access to technical sessions, exhibits, tutorials, workshops, and various program elements.
2. Exhibitor Fees: Fees from companies and organizations exhibiting at the conference, including booth space in Exhibit Halls C, D, E, F at Dallas Convention Center

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

SC Conference is an annual international conference dedicated to high performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis. The conference delivers a comprehensive technical program including peer-reviewed papers, tutorials, workshops, panels, invited talks, and Birds of a Feather sessions, alongside student programs, early career programming, an exhibition floor for HPC vendors, the SCinet high-performance network demonstration, and prestigious awards ceremonies including the ACM Gordon Bell Prize. Organized jointly by ACM and IEEE Computer Society, the conference rotates its North American venue annually.

Product overview

SC Conference (Supercomputing Conference) is an annual international high-performance computing conference. The SC22 event featured a comprehensive program of technical sessions including papers, tutorials, workshops, panels, Birds of a Feather sessions, posters, and student programs. Key components include the main technical program covering HPC research topics, Students@SC educational initiatives, Early Career Program, SCinet high-speed network infrastructure, Exhibits showcasing HPC technology vendors, and various awards ceremonies including the ACM Gordon Bell Prize and ACM/IEEE-CS awards.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• SC22 Technical Program The main conference program featuring research papers, panels, tutorials, workshops, and invited talks covering high-performance computing topics including AI-HPC convergence, quantum computing, exascale computing, and networking architectures for HPC researchers, practitioners, and industry professionals.
• Students@SC Student-focused programs at SC22 including the HPC Crash Course, Parallel Programming Marathon, Student Cluster Competition, ACM Student Research Competition, and Mentor-Protégé matching designed for workforce development of undergraduate and graduate students in HPC fields.
• Early Career Program Professional development programming for early-career HPC researchers including career talks, interview skills workshops, mentorship mixers, and networking activities designed to support emerging HPC professionals.
• SCinet The custom-built high-performance network infrastructure designed and constructed specifically for each SC conference, featuring cutting-edge networking technologies and providing demonstration capabilities for exhibitors and the conference community.
• Exhibits Trade show floor at the SC Conference featuring HPC technology vendors, exhibitor forums, product demonstrations, and the Job Fair connecting employers with HPC professionals and students seeking career opportunities.
• Awards Program Recognition ceremonies at SC Conference including the ACM Gordon Bell Prize (with COVID-19 and standard tracks), ACM/IEEE-CS Ken Kennedy Award, IEEE-CS Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award, IEEE-CS Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award, and Test of Time Award, recognizing achievements in high-performance computing.

Quantifiable outcome

• Conference proceedings indexed and archived as major reference in HPC field
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 November 2022ACM co-organizes the annual SC conference series. ACM provides organizational infrastructure, publishing platform for proceedings, awards administration (including Gordon Bell Prize and Turing Award Lecture), and member outreach. SC conference operates under ACM conference policies and guidelines.
• IEEE Computer SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 November 2022IEEE-CS co-organizes the annual SC conference series. Partners on prestigious awards including Ken Kennedy Award, Sidney Fernbach Award, and Seymour Cray Award. Provides professional society infrastructure and member engagement channels for HPC community.
• Dallas Convention CenterminorOthersConvention facility hosting SC22 conference. Provided exhibit halls (C, D, E, F), session rooms, ballrooms for plenary events, and supporting facilities for week-long conference operations.
• SCinet Volunteers and ContributorscoreTechnology or IntegrationNetwork engineers and volunteers from HPC institutions who design and deploy SCinet - the custom high-speed network for each SC conference. Contributors include academic institutions, government labs, and industry partners providing expertise and equipment.
• Exhibitor CompaniesminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorHPC technology companies purchasing exhibition space to showcase products and services to conference attendees. Includes hardware vendors, software companies, cloud providers, and service organizations. Booth space and function rooms available for rent.

Scale indicators4 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA): Premier IEEE conference on computer architecture with overlapping HPC systems research audience, single-track academic format, and similar paper-review and publication rigor as SC's technical program.
• ISC High Performance: The leading European HPC conference (formerly International Supercomputing Conference), directly competing with SC for the global HPC research and industry community with annual technical program, exhibits, and awards. Most directly comparable peer in product, audience, and business model.
• NeurIPS: Premier machine learning/AI research conference whose audience increasingly overlaps with HPC due to AI training infrastructure demands; competes for research attention and sponsor dollars in adjacent technical territory.
• SIGGRAPH: ACM's flagship computer graphics conference, comparable in scale, sponsorship structure (ACM-anchored), and blend of academic papers, tutorials, and major exhibition floor, though in a different technical domain.
• IEEE Cluster Computing Conference: Annual IEEE-sponsored conference on cluster computing, directly overlapping SC's technical content in HPC systems, parallel computing, and cluster architecture with a similar academic/industry audience.
• SIGCOMM: ACM's flagship networking research conference, comparable in ACM sponsorship, single-blind paper review, and academic/industry audience mix; overlapping community with SC's networking/SCinet-focused content.
• PASC Conference (Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing): Joint ACM/SIGHPC/ETH conference covering HPC and computational science, targeting a closely overlapping HPC research community with a similar conference structure and European orientation.

Emerging players

• Hot Chips: Annual symposium on high-performance processor and chip technology, attracting a more specialized subset of SC's audience (chip architects, hardware engineers) with similar industry-academic mix but smaller scale.
• AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence: Major AI research conference increasingly capturing AI-HPC content and audience, drawing from a research community that historically also attended SC for HPC-related work.

Regional players

• SC Asia (Supercomputing Conference Asia): Regional HPC conference serving the Asian HPC community with similar conference structure but geographically distinct audience; emerging alternative venue for HPC engagement outside North America.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Supercomputing
• Facebookfacebook.com/supercomputing
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/supercomputing-conference
• Instagraminstagram.com/sc_conference

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 SC Conference