Turning Conversations into Community

The data center industry is moving faster than ever and behind the scenes some

seriously smart people are making it all happen. Welcome to the inside data center

podcast where we dive into the stories insights and innovations driving real

change across the industry. From hyperscale campuses to game-changing

technologies we're talking to the people shaping the future of digital

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understand what's powering our connected world you're in the right place.

Right so talking about your early days how did the idea of the community start?

I always wanted to start community I thought there was a massive opportunity in

industry for a community mainly because the data center. The data center club

yeah and mainly because people always found me or messaged me saying

and did you know someone that could do this or do you know someone that could do

that and I used to think it shouldn't be so difficult for them to find these

people yeah obviously I've got I've got a good net I've been in

industry a long time so I've got a good network but it's not like it's a secret

source it's more if they ask me to do no really good marketing person they

should they should be able to find you you know it's not they shouldn't have to

ask me so that was the idea behind it to make a community that's

access for everyone you know and then the idea of data center club came

about did you immediately think about LinkedIn as a yeah well LinkedIn is the

easy way to just bring obviously on my network to LinkedIn which helps but it's

the easy way to bring people together and I wanted to start a group

and that was where the the data center club group came from and that's now up to

I think it's just under 8,000 members yeah so so you started

this like an experiment right but now we have a community of

nearly 100,000 people too many not more uh when did you realize that this was

really becoming something serious I still don't realise it's becoming something

serious I think that's part of the problem for me until

well it is serious for all of us until people come up to me and they say

I think it's in a club I love that idea I think that's when you start to realise

it's like I guess when I launched it and it snowballed pretty quick

I thought I'm onto something here and I still get I used to tagline are you in

and I still get people saying I'm in and the early days kind of

made me understand what it could become yeah but I'm still nowhere near along

the journey of what will it become I think was I'm still learning

tell me about the newsletter I mean that's a critical point of the

community and quite frankly I look forward every Friday to get the newsletter

in the morning so how I mean is it something you started immediately with the

community or that wasn't just like a second step I think I started posting news

on Fridays years ago but on my feet and then somebody said to me you should do

it as a newsletter that's a good idea and I I can't remember the date it's

probably about three years ago I'd say so it's pre-date it's in a club

it's before date it's in a club and again I as the industry's grown

the newsletters growing I've got nearly over 50,000 subscribers now it's

which seems crazy and it's something that like you say the industry relies on

and I feel that pressure every year every Friday morning when I'm

panicking right in it after a busy rest so bring the question how do you

decide what kind of news you want to share with the rest of the

community versus the one that maybe don't simply deserve any

attention I always go with I've always focused on like

big announcements so whether that's construction projects capital investment

it's always on that but I've also always tried to incorporate

articles that are I guess thought-provoking that are sharing different

stories so you'll see in my newsletter negative articles on the industry I

won't just show the positive I'll show that

the difference in opinions because I think it's important that people

can formulate their opinion based on everything that's out there you know

there's there's pros and cons to everything depending on the way you look at

it and I think what I've tried to do is share

the holistic view of the industry so people can read

both sides of the story and formulate their own opinion

and that brings me to another point which is a reputation I think

don't you think you have a responsibility at this point to consider in the

community you have in terms of how much you can drive eventually the

reputation of the data center industry I think I do I do feel it more as a

responsibility now and I did but again it's unintentional

so I do feel sometimes I get some people message me saying why didn't I

include their article it could have been I just didn't see it

but it's you know I can't see everything um or if I look of

products I don't really include products because it would just become too

much it's not it's not a choice it's more of

what the newsletter was when I started it's just grown from there

and there's only a there's a limit to what you can include in it so I've tried

to focus on the same areas now even even now I'm sure if I went back you know

it feels like the news that it's getting longer and longer than it was two

years ago and if you do the way the industry works exactly yeah and some

weeks you look at you know North America and it'll just go on and on and on and on

for over so it's difficult and you could just keep going and keep going so I

try and I guess what I try and include is the big news yeah try and find all the

big news over its big investment big projects whatever it might be

and then the other interesting articles is just like if it's thought provoking

or if I read it and I learned something and I think someone else that makes

sense and someone else and that's the digital part of it and then you also

added a physical aspect of it because we have like

in person kind of meeting and gathering right how did it

came to your mind you know to create those kind of events I think he

community has to have physical doesn't know I guess post COVID we became more

yes physical physical events became more important I tend to forget those

two years ago and I think as AI comes in it's going to be the more important physical

connections going to be what we've got isn't it that's what we that's what we're

going to be doing technology will do a lot of the rest but physical connection

and I think the demand is that more people want it I know if you've got a

community it has to be connected I don't think it you can obviously have an online

community but that's not what I wanted I wanted a physical connection and I was

chatting to Paul Hammer and he said about doing dates and a club nice and

obviously we met which is where we met London a couple of years back we've

had them in Bahrain Singapore Sydney Zurich all over the world and

but they they're driven by an individual in that area it's not me a lot

obviously London was ours but a lot of the time it's somebody in that region

saying look I'd like to get a little group of people together can I use your

brand yeah of course that's a whole idea use the brand launch it dates and a

club night Scotland's become quite a dates and a club Scotland and then now we

have also some kind of spin-offs like the Centre Marketing Club yeah tell me

something about how did you start and I think what's the future for this kind

of meany spin-off of the name well the dates in a market club was you obviously

asking me for a coffee and saying I'd like to start a marketing community and

that's what it takes it takes someone passionate about their

specialism or their niche to to drive it and and then you use a community to

bring people together and we've looked at we're looking at one in

sort of talent so people around how you're in that position try and get

people collaborating in that world but it's a very difficult world to get

people to collaborate in when they're when they're all fighting for the same

talent so it's trying to force the truth that's a challenge but we've looked at

loads of different ones I think there was about you could have a community I

think in every every niche I think it's just is that possible is it

sustainable and you need somebody really to drive it I think it's important

that you're like marketing club works because you're in marketing you understand

the challenge I think I couldn't start one on engineering you need an engineer

to really drive it and I guess yeah and I think I found one of the main

needs for the Centre Marketing Club being the fact that we are isolated

meaning we are part of small marketing teams but in a way we are completely

isolated from all the other companies so that is in a way

fielding I think that's that status in a club and it's like

it's ethos was every the whole industry is like that yeah but the industry now

is pretty collaborative two it's a great if you coming more if you go back

three four years yeah not even talk to each other and that was what I've

struggled to understand when I go to events and it was all very siloed and

you know no one tell anyone what they were doing even though everybody knew

what everyone else was doing we just didn't talk about it we was also giving

you more responsibility so that now they are

driving a so large community at the point that you are considered and

properly an influencer so you are a proper bit of influencer which is also the

reason why you are in Dublin with you yeah I think and again like

I find I'm very fortunate I get his opportunities like today with you and

AVK and pure yeah not people in my job shouldn't have these opportunities

that's yeah I'm very fortunate I've got it but I think I've achieved it because

I've always done it with a right ethos like my ethos is to share to

collaborate to help help the industry like promote the industry is it's the

best industry in the world I'll argue with everyone about it and I think

people ask me for like the blueprint you know how how did you do what you do

like if I could sell what I've created I'd be I'd be I'd be a very rich man but

I think it works because it's actually I'll always say to my children like you know

they're like are you a creator or an influencer I'm like well in this little

world of data centers I am but don't worry about it kids doesn't mean anything to

you tell me about your plans for the future of the community I mean you already

did some something that in my opinion is extremely innovative for example

the pubcast yeah tell me about the pubcast but also what you have in mind for

the future I think the pubcast was again we were chatting about it a few

seems like ages ago but it wasn't that long ago a year ago and I just wanted

to bring people into an environment where they feel comfortable and that's

a guess and the audience I think one thing I noticed about the pubcast

audience was there were some different people there there were people from

other industries that were trying to learn about the sector there was

obviously you know some important people from the industry there as well

but it was that environment where everyone I guess felt comfortable I think

that's pub isn't it like if you go back to the

yeah we're in Dublin now you give the perfect place for pubs like pubs are

that environment where you can go sit down with your mates or with your friends

have a chat over a beer and that that's what I wanted to create and obviously

doing it with Rory is a good mate anyway from the industry helped it gave us

that ability to use our friendship to have a bit of a chat with

with industry veterans and we definitely want to do more we're going to do what

I want to do your vision for the community how this is evolving in your opinion

I want to do more physical events but not events as they are today I don't want to

compete with the event the events that today are really unique yeah that's

not what I want to do I want to create informal

networking environments where people can learn you know people can connect but

they can also go away thinking I learned something today not just

I saw some good products or I saw a good panel about power like

they generally where they've learned something and it might be that it's

leadership or you know they might be they're learning from a different

industry you know like I'm sure like you know we learn a lot from you from your

time outside the industry bringing it into the industry

that's really important I think we're we're a siloed world of data centers and

some are touching also an interesting point all the new people coming to the

industry they are in a way lost and they need some kind of center of gravity

and the community can be well and I think they and also they can bring brilliant ideas

oh yes because they see it differently and I think that's what I've learned

like the people that have come from other industries they see the challenges

totally different all they say actually we dealt with this challenge before in

maritime this is what we did and that's what the industry didn't do for years it

was with data centers don't come and help us whereas now all these fresh minds

are bringing new ideas but and they do they but they also want to connect with

the people that are in the industry because it's

can be difficult to get into that circle again it's much easier now and it was

but yeah so I'd love to create something where

that kind of ethos of a community is is a bit more physical

well that looks like I'm open to ideas

Andy thank you very much for

sharing all this information with me thank you thank you thank you for having me

not doubling go to the pub