A data scientist asking for conference budget has to say what comes back. Usually that is one of two things: hands-on training the team can use next month, or exposure to applied research before it reaches the libraries. Executive AI summits rarely deliver either.
This page covers both kinds of event for 2027. Training-heavy practitioner conferences, a European data and analytics summit, and the two applied research meetings closest to day-to-day data science: KDD for data mining and JSM for statistics. For each you get dates, the city and the ticket price, or Not announced when the organizer has not published one.
Dates, cities and ticket prices in the table come from each organizer's official site, checked on 5 Nov 2026. If an organizer has not published a 2027 price, the table says Not announced. Prices move, so confirm the live figure at checkout. The method is on How we review tools.
ODSC AI East
ODSC AI East is the Boston edition of the Open Data Science Conference. It sells training-heavy passes in tiers, in person and online.
Best for: Working data scientists and ML engineers who want hands-on training. Managers sending a team, since group discounts apply from three people.
Dates and city: May 10-12, 2027. Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Boston. In-person and virtual.
What you actually get: Four in-person tiers: Explore (2-day Expo Hall), Learn (2 and 3-day Silver and Gold), Build (3-day Platinum and VIP) and Accelerate. The AI X Leadership Summit is free with any VIP pass.
Notable limitations:
- The Explore pass is Expo Hall access, not training.
- Listed prices exclude processing fees.
- The current sale is a First 100 countdown with no end date shown.
Tickets: Learn: from $359. Build: from $999. In-Person Accelerator: from $1,099. VIP + Accelerator: $1,299. Explore (Expo Hall only): free by application, or $99 guaranteed. Virtual: free, Premium $129, Virtual Platinum $249, Virtual Accelerate $499.
Which ODSC pass should a data scientist buy?
If you want training, start at Learn. Explore only covers the Expo Hall. Build adds three days with the top tiers.
Data Innovation Summit
Data Innovation Summit is a data, analytics and AI conference in Stockholm. It mixes workshops, technical talks and an industry day.
Best for: European data science and analytics teams. Groups who want onsite and online access on one ticket.
Dates and city: May 18-20, 2027. Kistamässan, Stockholm. Foundation Days on May 18-19, Industry Day on May 20. Onsite and online.
What you actually get: A Full Access ticket covers all three days, including workshops, presentations and on-demand content, onsite and online. An Industry Day ticket covers day 3 only. An online-only ticket covers all three days remotely.
Notable limitations:
- The 269€ ticket is one day. Workshops are on the Full Access ticket.
- Vendors of data, analytics or AI products buy separate vendor tickets.
- The early-bird end date is not shown.
Tickets: Early-bird industry tickets, excl. VAT: Industry Day 269€, Full Access 599€, Online Full 299€. VAT does not apply to international clients, per the page. Groups: 15% off for 2-4 people, 20% off branded tickets for 5 or more.
KDD 2027
ACM KDD is the knowledge discovery and data mining conference. It is the main research meeting for applied data science.
Best for: Data scientists who read and publish papers. Industry teams with applied research to show. Recruiters looking for research-level data scientists.
Dates and city: August 1-5, 2027. San Jose McEnery Convention Center, San Jose. In-person.
What you actually get: Five days at the convention center. The site has a registration section, but no fees are listed yet.
Notable limitations:
- It overlaps with ICML 2027 in Rio (July 31-August 6). You cannot attend both in full.
- Fees are not published.
Tickets: Not announced.
JSM 2027
JSM 2027, the Joint Statistical Meetings, is the largest annual meeting of statisticians in North America. In 2027 it goes back to Chicago.
Best for: Data scientists with a statistics background. Teams in biostatistics, survey research, experimentation and forecasting.
Dates and city: August 8-12, 2027. Chicago. In-person.
What you actually get: Five days of sessions run by the statistical societies behind JSM. Registration and housing open April 29, 2027.
Notable limitations:
- Fees are not published. Early registration runs until June 1, 2027, and later tiers cost more.
- The program is large and statistics-first. Plan your sessions ahead.
Tickets: Not announced. Registration opens April 29, 2027. Early registration ends June 1, regular runs June 2-30, late runs July 1 to August 12, with increased fees after the early tier.
Still to come in 2026
PyData Global runs online on December 9-10, 2026. The published schedule has talks in four tracks on both days, with a keynote each day. Tickets are pay what you can, with suggested amounts of $100 for individuals, $50 for students and $200 for corporate attendees.
Other data science conferences worth considering
posit::conf is the conference for teams working in R and Python on Posit tools. The 2026 edition ran September 14-16 in Houston, with virtual sessions. 2027 dates are not on the official site yet.
ODSC AI West is the California edition of ODSC. The site shows a 2027 waitlist and no dates.
PyCon DE runs April 20-22, 2027 at HCC Heidelberg and carries a strong PyData program. The current Blind Bird ticket is 790€, until February 10.
How we picked these conferences
We listed data science events with official exact dates in 2027: practitioner training conferences and the applied research meetings data scientists actually attend. We applied the same rule to every candidate, and a missing price did not exclude an event. Machine learning research venues and data engineering events have their own pages, so no event appears twice. Dates and prices were checked on the organizers' sites on 5 Nov 2026. In the From column, a number is a price we read on the official ticket page, with VAT shown as the site states it. Not announced means the organizer has not published a 2027 price yet. Expo-only, virtual-only and free application passes are described in the event sections, not the table.
FAQs
Which event suits a small team on a budget?
In 2026, PyData Global is online and pay what you can. For 2027 in person, ODSC AI East Learn passes start at $359 and Data Innovation Summit has a 269€ Industry Day ticket, excl. VAT. Compare the agendas once they are posted.
Is there a virtual option in 2027?
Yes. ODSC AI East sells virtual passes from free to $499. Data Innovation Summit sells an Online Full ticket at 299€, excl. VAT.
KDD or JSM?
KDD if your work is machine learning on data at scale. JSM if it is statistics, experimentation or biostatistics. They are a week apart in August, in San Jose and Chicago.
Should a data scientist go to NeurIPS or ICML?
Only if you publish or hire researchers. Those venues are on our machine learning conferences page.
Where are the business AI and analytics platform events?
Enterprise AI shows such as Ai4 are on our AI conferences page. Gartner Data & Analytics Summit and FabCon are on our big data conferences page.
Bottom line
For 2027, pick by what you need back. Training: ODSC AI East in Boston in May. A European mix of workshops and talks: Data Innovation Summit in Stockholm a week later. Applied research: KDD in San Jose or JSM in Chicago in August. If you want something before then, PyData Global is online in December 2026.
