Data Center World 2025 Scheduled for April 14-17, 2025 in Washington, D.C.

Data Center World, the leading global conference for data center facilities and IT professionals, brought more than 2,600 attendees and over 220 exhibitors to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. to explore the future of the industry. The event offered keynote presentations, panel discussions and case studies focused on AI, power, community relations, edge computing, colocation, cooling considerations, demand trends, and more. Data Center World is AFCOM’s annual gathering of IT and data center professionals.

“We had a terrific week bringing the entire data center industry together in Washington, D.C.,” said Tara Gibb, Senior Director, Data Center World. “Attendees addressed the vital issues central to data center leaders driving innovation today. We explored new technologies, considered alternative energy sources and networked with peers. We look forward to connecting with the global data center community next year at Data Center World 2025.”

Data Center World event highlights:

Omdia Analyst Summit

Data Center World hosted the Omdia Analyst Summit presented by global technology research firm, Omdia. The Summit featured a data-driven, expert-led discussion on the theme “The AI Data Center – Evolution or Revolution?” The Summit examined the entire technology stack from software to IT equipment and physical infrastructure.

Data Center World Innovation Challenge

The Data Center World Innovation Challenge contest pitted data center technology startups against each other. The panel of judges included Ali Fenn, President, Lancium; Vladimir Galabov, Director, Cloud and Data Center Research, Omdia; and Josh Claman, Chief Executive Officer, Accelsius.

Data Center Innovation Challenge Winners include:

• Most Disruptive Technology: Graphene Manufacturing
• Best Chance for Market Success: Graphene Manufacturing
• Most Influential Founding Team: Sapphire Technology
• Best Ability to Gain Additional Capital: Apolo

The complete list of finalists includes:

• Apolo
• Graphene Manufacturing
• MetalSoft
• Gateview
• Sapphire Technology

Data Center World Awards Programs

Data Center World offered two awards programs. The Data Center World Lifetime Achievement award honors a leader who has made significant contributions to the industry – demonstrating mentorship, dedication to sustainability, and promotion of innovative technologies and processes in the data center. Peter Gross, Managing Partner, PMG Associates, received the second annual award. The Data Center Manager of the Year celebrates exceptional leaders in the data center industry and was awarded to Bjarne Sorbo, Green Mountain AS, Operation Director.

Finalists included: 

• Rebecca Beard, DC Blox 
• Len Fransen, T5 Data Centers 
• Joe Kendra, STACK Infrastructure  
• Glen Lobacz, NTT Data 

Data Center World congratulates all participants.  

Keynotes

This year’s keynotes provided a comprehensive overview of the current trends impacting the data center industry including: Dr. Rian Bahar, the esteemed Assistant Director for Nuclear Technology and Strategy, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Ali Fenn, President, Lancium; Jen Huffstetler, Chief Product Sustainability Officer, Intel and Laura Smith, CVP Engineering Solutions, AMD Fellow.

Data Center BUILD

The two-day Data Center BUILD Summit brought together operators, decision-makers, experts and implementers to help drive smart decisions for data center growth. Nancy Novak, Chief Innovation Officer, Compass Datacenters and Phanney Kim Brevard, Chief Strategy Officer & CIO at ETAP a brand of Schneider Electric delivered the keynote address.

Expo Hall

Data Center World’s Expo Hall featured the industry’s leading solution providers showcasing their latest innovations to attendees, which empowered data center leaders to pick and choose from the technologies that would best improve their data center strategy. The Expo Hall featured a Data Center World Theater that hosted Solution Spotlight Sessions, the Innovation Challenge, and Data Center World’s second annual Rack and Stack Challenge, which brought together multiple teams of two to see who could create the tidiest rack space in the shortest amount of time.

PowerUp Program

More than 50 students attended Data Center World’s third annual PowerUp Program, which offered small group sessions with data center professionals, valuable advice for professional development from industry experts, a “Data Center 101” class, and access to the expo floor, all designed to embolden students and young professionals to consider a career in the data center industry.

Data Center World will take place April 14-17, 2025, in Washington, D.C. For additional information on exhibition or sponsorship opportunities, contact Susan Gillespie at Susan.Gillespie@informa.com.

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About Data Center World


Data Center World is the global conference for data center facilities and IT professionals. It offers premier education, abundant networking, and the broadest access to best-in-class vendors. Designed to help data center and IT infrastructure professionals with challenging issues, Data Center World presents top quality knowledge without bias towards a specific vendor product or service. CIO Dive named Data Center World one of the top technology conferences to attend in 2024 for the second consecutive year. Additionally, for the second year in a row, Data Center World has been recognized by Trade Show Executive as a fast-growing trade show. Data Center World 2025 will be held April 14-17, in Washington, D.C. Data Center World is produced by Informa Tech.

About AFCOM

AFCOM advances data center and IT professionals by delivering comprehensive and vendor-neutral education and peer-to-peer networking to its members around the world. Through forward-looking research, AFCOM supports thousands of IT, operations, facilities, builders/designers and vendors working in the data center and IT infrastructure industry. In serving the data center industry for more than 40 years, AFCOM has earned recognition as the market leader in educating, connecting and guiding the data center community.

About Informa Tech

Informa Tech is a leading provider of market insight and market access to the global business technology community. Through in-depth expertise and an engaged audience community, Informa Tech helps business professionals make better technology decisions and marketers reach the most powerful tech buyers and influencers in the world. Across its portfolio of over 100+ trusted brands, Informa Tech has over 1000 industry experts, including over 400 research analysts and consultants in global research group Omdia, and a monthly audience reach of over 125 million. Informa Tech is a division of FTSE 100 company Informa plc.

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