[3] It was modelled after and co-organised by the South by Southwest festival,[4][5] President's Committee on Arts and Humanities,[6] and tech media company Futurism.

[11] The first festival to be staged at the White House,[12] it was considered by the Times columnist Carol Midgley to be "the coolest event of the year" and "better than a ticket to the Oscars".

[13] The New York Times considered the event "like the swan song of the first president who seemed to get it — “it” being the value of start-up culture"[14] while Pitchfork, sharing similar views, wrote that it felt "idyllically removed from the present political tire fire".

[15] The festival was noted by the LA Times in a December 2016 retrospective as reflecting "many of the cultural shifts that happened during the Obama presidency.

One exhibit comprised a virtual reality experience by the Guardian and The Mill that showcased the sensation of spending nine minutes in solitary confinement, while another was mounted by the American toy company Sphero and allowed visitors to play with robots.