Connect | Virginia // Agenda
8:00 a.m.
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Pickleball Tournament
- Open Session
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Badge Collection & DCD Connect | Virginia Open
- Open Session
8:30 a.m.
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iMasons Member Summit
- Open Session
9:00 a.m.
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Welcome Panel: Under pressure - Rethinking data center infrastructure for the AI era
- DCD Main Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Management & Operations
- Telecoms & Connectivity
- Open Session
Speakers
Frank Scalzo
VP Site Selection North America, Vantage Data Centers
Susan Mcleod
VP, Business Development, Data Centers, Hitachi Energy
VP of AI Infrastructure, Oracle
9:30 a.m.
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DCD Talks with Viega
- DCD Talks Stage
- Open Session
10:00 a.m.
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Debate: Should we trust AI to run our data center operations?
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
Mike Parks
CEO, MCIM
Neila Wilson
Director, Data Center Engineering & Operations - East, Visa
Youn Hur
Colo Engineering Regional Manager for Canada, LATAM, AWS
Jeff Wabik
CTO, DC BLOX
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Debate: Does sustainable infrastructure cost too much to scale?
- Energy & Sustainability
- Data Center Cooling
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
Vice President, Engineering, Prime Data Centers
Laura Cunningham
Customer Solutions Manager, AWS
Managing Partner, 98six Redevelopment Partners
Director Data Center Canada, WSP
Director, Climate and Decarbonization, JLL
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DCD Talks integrating large loads with synergistic microgrids with Shiv Mani
- DCD Talks Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Senior Analyst, Independent Participant
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Panel: United we stand - Unlocking collaboration across the data center ecosystem
- Energy Summit
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Steven Carlini
Chief Advocate AI and Data Center, Schneider Electric
Director Energy Americas, Ramboll
VP of Data Center Development & Construction, Powerhouse Data Centers
Senior Director II, Procurement & Offsite Fabrication, Rowan Digital Infrastructure
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Debate: Air, liquid, or hybrid - Which strategy wins when workloads explode?
- Data Center Cooling
- Open Session
Speakers
Vice President of Innovation, Tensorwave
Akshay Viradiya
Senior Staff Data Center Engineer, LinkedIn
Staff Mechanical Engineer, Independent
PE, CxA, ATD, Mechanical Engineer, Black & Veatch
VP of Trane Technologies & General Manager, LiquidStack
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Debate: After the grid - Are operators ready for the power challenges that come after access?
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
President & Chief Innovation Officer, EPC Power Corp
Ehsan Mir
Principal Reliability Engineer, Data Center Engineering, AWS
Vice President, Industrial Sales and Service, Volvo Penta
Sharmila Bokka
Electrical Engineer, Crusoe Energy Systems
10:30 a.m.
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Tech Showcase: Harmonic mitigation strategies for powering reliability | MTE
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Director of Engineering, MTE Corporation
10:45 a.m.
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Interactive Debate Debriefs
- Open Session
11:00 a.m.
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Debate: Is the AI infrastructure boom investment in energy in disguise?
- Energy Summit
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Richard Choe
Executive Director, Equity Research , JP Morgan
Justin Jordan
Head of Data Center Growth & Development, Galaxy
Rachel Rosenfeld
Senior Counsel, Norton Rose Fulbright
Head of Digital Infrastructure North America, Investec
VP, AI Ecosystem, Bloom Energy
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Tech Showcase | Vessco Water
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Open Session
Speakers
Founder and President, Santa Fe Water Systems
11:15 a.m.
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Debate: Who wins the capacity race when delivery takes years?
- Mission Critical Power
- Management & Operations
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
Jasmeet Singh
Senior Data Center Design Manager, AWS
VP of Data Center Development & Construction, Powerhouse Data Centers
Ken Sullivan
Founder & CEO, BayCompute
Chante Harris
Managing Partner, Eunoia Group
Executive Director, National Sales, Constellation
Haynes Strader
Chief Development Officer, Skybox Datacenters
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Debate: Bridging the gap - Can the industry close the gap between power demand and grid supply?
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Lee Ye
Vice President, Data Center Power Procurement, Prologis
Varun Sivaram
Founder & CEO, Emerald AI
Joniel Cha
Energy & Infrastructure, Google
Stan Blackwell
Director - Data Center Practice, Dominion Energy
Executive Vice President Industry Relations, CoVolt Power
Partner, ASG Team
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Debate: Beyond Ashburn - Does Virginia still have room to grow?
- Data Center Construction
- Investment & Markets
- Open Session
Speakers
Kaitlyn Bencosme
Principal, Virginia Practice Lead, Air and Climate, Ramboll
Jesline Leston
Program Manager, Construction, Microsoft
John Temple
Director, Data Center Engineering, Hanwha Data Centers
Buddy Rizer
Executive Director of Economic Development, Loudoun County
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Debate: Will AI inference finally make edge mainstream?
- Edge Infra & Inference
- Open Session
Speakers
CEO, Alpha Compute
Scott Charter
Director AI & Cloud Strategy, Oracle
Jonathan Schroth
Senior Analyst, Market & Competitive Intelligence, Cologix
Zachary Carpenter
Scale-Up Solutions Innovations Engineer, Corning
11:30 a.m.
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Tech Showcase: Turning wasted heat into power | Turboden
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Business Development Heat Recovery – Senior Consultant, Turboden
11:45 a.m.
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Interactive Debate Debrief
- Energy Summit
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
12:00 p.m.
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Tech Showcase: the data center is evolving. Is fire protection keeping up? | Marioff
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
Business Development Manager, Data Centers AMER, Marioff
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Interactive Debate Debriefs
- Open Session
12:30 p.m.
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Networking Lunch
- Open Session
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The Future of Cooling Welcome Lunch
- Data Center Cooling
- Invite-only Session
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Construction Welcome Lunch
- Data Center Construction
- Invite-only Session
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Networks & Connectivity Welcome Lunch
- Telecoms & Connectivity
- Invite-only Session
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iM Women Welcome Lunch
- Invite-only Session
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Compute, Storage & Networking Welcome Lunch
- Compute, Storage & Networking
- Invite-only Session
2:00 p.m.
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DCD Talks nuclear’s role in unlocking data center growth with Brian Gitt | Oklo
- DCD Talks Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Open Session
Speakers
SVP, Head of Business Development, Oklo
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Tech Showcase: The AI connectivity readiness gap | VIAVI
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Compute, Storage & Networking
- Open Session
Speakers
Data Center Ecosystem Sales, Viavi
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Debate: Can the connectivity ecosystem thrive without telcos at its core?
- Telecoms & Connectivity
- Open Session
Speakers
Greg Pierce
Senior Manager Product Development and Technical Resources, Sumitomo Electric
Founder & CEO, Sloka Partners
Hunter Newby
Owner, Newby Ventures
Wil Tirado
VP, Global Connectivity Strategy, EdgeConneX
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Debate: Is AI investment running ahead of reality?
- Investment & Markets
- Open Session
Speakers
Lawrence Vo
Vice President M&A, Csquare
COO, CleanArc Data Centers
Javier Hernandez
Principal, DigitalBridge
Brian Cullen
CEO, Vico Infrastructure
Kiersten Hileman
Vice President of Partnerships, Available Infrastructure
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Debate: Are storage and networking AI densification's hidden bottlenecks?
- Compute, Storage & Networking
- Open Session
Speakers
Jonmichael Hands
CEO, FarmGPU
Harsha Bojja
AI Platform Architect, Google
Shubhankar Shilpi
SVP, Senior Director Software Engineering- Enterprise Payments & Wholesale Technology, Truist
Chief AI & Growth Officer, BluSky AI Factories
AI Infrastructure Architect, QumulusAI
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Debate: Can data centers ever earn back public trust?
- Energy & Sustainability
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
Alex Rakow
Director of Sustainability, Data Centers, Schneider Electric
Ryan O'Neill
Associate Director, United States Green Building Council
Senior Director, Energy & Data Center Solutions, ICF
Melissa Farney
Education Committee Chair, Nomad Futurist
Aaron Ruffin
Site Selection & Infrastructure Lead, OpenAI
Ronita Wade
Executive Director, Tulsa Authority for Economic Opportunity
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Panel: The regulatory arena - Navigating fragmented power development policies
- Energy Summit
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Director, Energy Strategy, Rowan Digital Infrastructure
Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Danovo Energy Solutions
2:30 p.m.
-
Tech Showcase: Inside AI-powered optimization with etaONE | Etalytics
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
Niklas Panten
Co-Founder and CEO, Etalytics
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DCD Talks community-compatible data centers with Emmanuel Levy | Phinergy
- DCD Talks Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
CEO , Phinergy
2:45 p.m.
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Interactive Debate Debriefs
- Open Session
3:00 p.m.
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Debate: Behind-the-meter spotlight - Are data centers becoming the new utility?
- Energy Summit
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Gary Hill
President & CEO, DVL Group
Dax Kepshire
COO, ON.energy
Head of Power Systems, SPOC Energy
3:15 p.m.
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5x5 Lightning Pitches
- Open Session
3:45 p.m.
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Interactive Debate Debrief
- Energy Summit
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
4:15 p.m.
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Fireside chat: SMRs and Nuclear - Too far from reality?
- Energy Summit
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Mark Gusakov
CEO, The Digital infrastructure Alliance
Chief Technology Officer, Nuclear Science & Technology, Idaho National Laboratory
4:30 p.m.
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DCD Talks fueling data center resilience with Charlie Earthman | Musket Corporation
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Senior Originator, Musket Corporation
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DCD Talks where do solid-state transformers fit in the AI power stack? with Jake Ring | PDM
- DCD Talks Stage
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
CEO, Power Data Management (PDM)
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Explore the Floor
- Open Session
4:45 p.m.
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Panel: Beyond the megawatts - Power diplomacy, transparency, and the social license to operate
- Energy Summit
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Chief Marketing and Product Officer, EdgeConneX
Preston Grisham
Vice President of Policy & External Affairs, Cologix
Kimberly Embrey
Director, Training & Development, Stream Data Centers
5:00 p.m.
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Keynote Panel: Reality check - The state of AI infrastructure in 2026
- DCD Main Stage
- Investment & Markets
- Open Session
Speakers
Bryant Farland
CEO, Edged US
Vice President, Mission Critical, Tetra Tech
Simrit Dhinsa
VP Capital Markets, Galaxy
Matt Orcutt
VP, Strategy & Systems Product Management, Trane Technologies
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Tech Showcase: Improving time to weathertight | Kingspan Insulated Panels
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
Business Development Manager for Data Centers, Kingspan Insulated Panels
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DCD Talks rethinking O&M with Mike Byrnes | Veolia
- DCD Talks Stage
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
Senior Vice President, Veolia
5:30 p.m.
-
Tech Showcase: The rise of the intelligent jobsite | TrueLook
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer , TrueLook
Chief Sales Officer , TrueLook
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DCD Talks 360° power stability in the age of AI data centers with Alpesh Saraiya | GE Vernova
- DCD Talks Stage
- Open Session
Speakers
Executive Data Center Solution Leader , GE Vernova
6:15 p.m.
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Icebreaker Party
- Open Session
6:30 p.m.
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VIP Private Dinner
- Invite-only Session
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VIP Private Dinner
- Invite-only Session
No results found
7:00 a.m.
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Wake-Up 5k Run & 2.5k Walk & Talk
- Open Session
8:00 a.m.
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Badge Collection
- Open Session
9:00 a.m.
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Armed Forces and Veterans Breakfast
- Open Session
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Panel: Building for uncertainty - Future-proofing data centers in the Age of AI
- Construction Summit
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
Nicolas Rbeiz
Director, Data Center Deliver Strategy & Perfomance, Microsoft
Stuart Lawrence
SVP AI Innovation, Stream Data Centers
Sweta Dutta
Construction Program Lead, AWS
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DCD Talks power grid readiness vs hyperscale demand with Nedra Hurley | Southwire
- DCD Talks Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Nedra Hurley
Senior Vice President, Business Development, Southwire
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Major Panel: Power plays - Surviving the new energy constraints
- DCD Main Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
VP of Commercial Development, FlexGen
John Bates
EVP, Power & Development, Prime Data Centers
VP Energy Infrastructure & Grid Development, Lambda AI
Chief of Energy and Infrastructure, Silicon Foundation
-
Tech Showcase: Prefabricated modular liquid-cooled data centers | BEEHE
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
International Sales Engineer, BEEHE
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Hosted Breakfast - Data Center Heat Rejection Training
- Data Center Cooling
- Invite-only Session
9:30 a.m.
-
Tech Showcase: Power without the wait | Aggreko
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Sales Manager Data Centers - North America, Aggreko
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DCD Talks the gaps in your data center monitoring with Nicholas Barrowclough | AKCP
- DCD Talks Stage
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
President, AKCP
10:00 a.m.
-
DCD Talks understanding mission critical water infrastructure with Alex Green and Nolan Foran | Watts Water Technologies
- DCD Talks Stage
- Data Center Cooling
- Mission Critical Power
- Management & Operations
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
Director of Sales Mega Projects, Watts Water Technologies
National Sales Manager - OEM Channel , Watts Water Technologies
-
Major Panel: Can sustainable growth survive the AI gold rush?
- DCD Main Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Data Center Cooling
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Energy Business Director, Region North, Americas, Wärtsilä Energy
Managing Director, Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking
Global Head of Sustainability, STACK Infrastructure
-
Tech Showcase | EPC Power
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Open Session
Speakers
President & Chief Innovation Officer, EPC Power Corp
-
Panel: From the ground up - Closing the gap between construction and operations
- Construction Summit
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
Construction Executive, Sherwin-Williams Construction Solutions
Head of Systems Modeling and Simulation, AWS
Chief Design Officer, Sabey Corporation
VP, QuEST Forum, TIA
Krystyna Witt
VP Solutions Engineering & Implementation, Prime Data Centers
10:30 a.m.
-
Tech Showcase: Engineering batteries as integrated power infrastructure | MPI Energy
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Vice President of Critical Power Solutions, MPI Energy
Michael Sirard
CTO , MPI Energy
-
DCD Talks cooling as critical resilience infrastructure with Aaron Harkness | Stulz
- DCD Talks Stage
- Data Center Cooling
- Open Session
Speakers
Aaron Harkness
Technical Business Development Manager, STULZ
11:00 a.m.
-
Major Panel: Right tool, right rack - Building a smarter cooling strategy
- DCD Main Stage
- Data Center Cooling
- Open Session
Speakers
Market Leader - Americas Data Center, BAC
Staff Data Center Mechanical Engineer, Google
-
DCD Talks Navigating the 25 GW buildout with Sean Farney | JLL
- DCD Talks Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Data Center Construction
- Investment & Markets
- Open Session
Speakers
Vice President of Data Center Strategy, JLL
-
Tech Showcase: Right power, right timescale | FuelCell
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Open Session
Speakers
Shankar Achanta
Executive Vice President & Chief Product and Technology Officer, FuelCell Energy
-
Debate: Modular construction - Transformative shift or temporary hype?
- Construction Summit
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
Valerie Crafton
Chief Revenue Officer, Mod42
SR VP, Duos Edge
Head of Data Center Development, Radiant
11:30 a.m.
-
Tech Showcase: Distributed pumping & modular cooling systems | Grundfos
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Data Center Cooling
- Open Session
Speakers
Liam McDermott
Sales Development Manager, Data Centers, Grundfos
-
DCD Talks the utility model advantage with Phil Fischer | Black & Veatch
- DCD Talks Stage
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
Data Center Client Executive, Black & Veatch
11:45 a.m.
-
Construction Summit: Debate Debrief
- Construction Summit
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
12:00 p.m.
-
Data Center Construction Hosted Lunch
- Data Center Construction
- Invite-only Session
-
The Future of Cooling Hosted Lunch
- Data Center Cooling
- Invite-only Session
-
Networking Lunch
- Open Session
1:30 p.m.
-
Major Panel: No easy builds - Navigating cost, speed, and risk in data center construction
- DCD Main Stage
- Data Center Construction
- Open Session
Speakers
National Business Development Manager - Semiconductor Industry & Digital Data Storage, Endress+Hauser Group
Mark Bidinger
Vice President, Procurement, Design & Construction, Equinix
Sophie Smith
Vice President. Estimating & Cost Management, Accenture
Co-Founder & COO, Pulley
Global Digital Infrastructure Builders Risk Leader, Aon
-
DCD Talks fire resilience in AI-scale data centers with Adhishesh Sood | Honeywell
- DCD Talks Stage
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
Sr. Director – Datacenter Technologies, Honeywell
-
Energy Usage Impact (EUI) - New Holistic Metrics for AI Data Centers: A Discussion with The Green Grid
- Energy & Sustainability
- Data Center Cooling
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
Senior Research Scientist, IBM Research
CTO & Founder, NAAT & Co-Chair of the Data Center Energy Effectiveness Workgroup, The Green Grid
Manager, Environmental, Energy & Climate Programs IBM, Chief Sustainability Office, IBM
-
Tech Showcase | Ecolab
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Open Session
-
Student & Military Community Next-Gen Workforce Session
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
2:00 p.m.
-
Tech Showcase: Modernizing power infrastructure beyond mission-critical | DVL
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Cole Bevan
Sales Engineer, DVL Group
-
DCD Talks building cooling around live workloads with Joe Capes | LiquidStack
- DCD Talks Stage
- Data Center Cooling
- Open Session
Speakers
VP of Trane Technologies & General Manager, LiquidStack
2:30 p.m.
-
Tech Showcase: Supply-chain discipline for power procurement | PROPWR
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Open Session
Speakers
Dave Bosco
Senior Vice President, Commercial and Strategy, PROPWR
-
Major Panel: Bridging IT and OT - One strategy, no weak links
- DCD Main Stage
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
Managing Director, Ramaley Group
VP & Chief Security Officer, PJM
Andy Linn
Senior Vice President, Fleet Data Centers
-
DCD Talks future-proofing power amid uncertainty with David Skeans | Legrand
- DCD Talks Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
David Skeans
Senior Vice President of Sales, Legrand
3:00 p.m.
-
Tech Showcase: Grid-free power, the power behind AI | Langley Holdings
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
VP Sales Americas, Bergen Engines – Langley Power Solutions
-
DCD Talks with SPX
- DCD Talks Stage
- Open Session
3:30 p.m.
-
DCD Talks with Path Robotics
- DCD Talks Stage
- Open Session
Speakers
Heather Carroll
CRO, Path Robotics
-
VIP Cocktail Hour
- Invite-only Session
-
Tech Showcase: Connecting data into operational confidence | S.A.S. Transition
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
CEO, S.A.S Transition
-
Major Panel: Own it, cloud it, edge it - Rethinking where data lives
- DCD Main Stage
- Cloud & Hybrid
- Open Session
Speakers
Glenn Dekhayser
Global Principal Technologist, Equinix
4:00 p.m.
-
DCD Talks how energy storage drives architecture with Ben Gully | SPOC Energy
- DCD Talks Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
CTO, SPOC Energy
-
Closing Happy Hour
- Open Session
-
Tech Showcase: Permanent power plants and mobile fleet strategies for AI | Solaris
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Energy & Sustainability
- Mission Critical Power
- Open Session
Speakers
Senior Vice President of Commercial, Power Solutions, Solaris Energy Infrastructure
4:30 p.m.
-
DCD Talks with HammerheadAI
- DCD Talks Stage
- Open Session
-
Tech Showcase: Building a realtiy capture program - owner's view | DroneDeploy
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Management & Operations
- Open Session
Speakers
Growth Operations Manager, DroneDeploy
-
Major Panel: The other bottleneck - Closing the gap between data centers and global networks
- DCD Main Stage
- Telecoms & Connectivity
- Open Session
Speakers
Gil Santaliz
CEO, NJFX
5:00 p.m.
-
Tech Showcase | LiquidStack
- DCD Showcase Stage
- Open Session
