Explore the Agenda

7:50 am Check-In & Morning Coffee

8:40 am Advancing Data Center’s Opening Remarks

8:50 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Understanding Demand & End-User Requirements

9:00 am Panel: Understanding End-User Requirements to Deliver Low-Latency Infrastructure That Aligns with Real Customer Demand

Mission Critical Business Unit Lead, Arup
Vice President - Product Marketing & Cloud Evangelist, Akamai Technologies
Head of Mission Critical, Shawmut Design & Construction
  • Discovering how different use cases such as AI inference, autonomous vehicles, IoT, financial trading, etc. impact project specifications to design facilities capable of supporting a wider range of workloads
  • Assessing how power density, cooling preferences, and connectivity requirements vary across edge use cases to improve infrastructure flexibility and long-term utilization
  • Understanding how end users evaluate edge infrastructure investments to prioritize the capabilities that deliver the greatest business value  

9:30 am Case Study: Understanding How Enterprises are Leveraging Edge Infrastructure to Support AI Inference & Data Sovereignty

Executive Vice President of Strategy, Available Infrastructure
  • Exploring why clients utilize Available Infrastructure’s edge data centers to support business operations
  • Evaluating the design, planning, and implementation process to identify key lessons learned, overcome deployment challenges, and improve future edge project delivery
  • Evaluating how the deployment has improved application performance, enabled new services, and created a foundation for future AI and distributed computing initiatives

10:00 am Morning Break & Speed Networking

11:00 am Case Study: Transforming Existing University Data Centers to Meet the Demands of AI & Machine Learning

Head of Mission Critical, Shawmut Design & Construction
  •  Evaluating how universities are adapting legacy data centers to support emerging AI research and increasingly compute-intensive workloads
  • Identifying the power, cooling, and infrastructure upgrades required to enable liquid cooling and next-generation compute technologies
  • Developing phased retrofit strategies that account for long procurement lead times, capital planning cycles, and future capacity requirements

Developing Commercially Viable & Sustainable Deployment Models

11:30 am Fireside Chat: Financing the Future of Accelerated Inference Computing

Chief Executive Officer, NATIVX
  • Examining how financing models are evolving to support accelerated inference infrastructure, enabling developers to build commercially sustainable platforms beyond initial capital raises
  • Understanding how financial stability influences enterprise procurement decisions, helping buyers identify long-term infrastructure partners capable of supporting mission-critical AI workloads
  • Exploring the funding structures and commercial models needed to build resilient edge businesses that strengthen market confidence and enable continued investment across the ecosystem

12:00 pm Evaluating the Edge Ecosystem to Identify Strategic Partnerships & Coordinate Successful Deployments

Vice President - Product Marketing & Cloud Evangelist, Akamai Technologies
  • Coordinating stakeholders earlier in the development lifecycle to align commercial objectives, technical requirements, and delivery timelines
  • Evaluating ownership, operating, and partnership models to determine which structures best support scalability, investment, and long-term partnerships for edge
  • Strengthening collaboration across the edge ecosystem to break down industry silos, improve decision-making, and create repeatable deployment models capable of supporting market growth

12:30 pm Lunch Break

1:30 pm Understanding Where Private Equity, Infrastructure Funds & Early-Stage Investors Are Placing Bets on Distributed Infrastructure to Uncover How Capital Is Reshaping Edge Strategy

Chief Executive Officer, NativelyAI
  • Examining how institutional investors are evaluating edge infrastructure as an emerging asset class to understand the characteristics attracting long-term capital
  • Understanding how capital planning, budgeting, and financial modelling shape investor confidence to develop realistic business cases that secure funding and reduce project delivery risk
  • Strengthening engagement strategies with investors during early project planning to align commercial expectations, validate investment assumptions, and strengthen project viability for the edge

Identifying the Right Markets & Securing Critical Infrastructure

2:00 pm Identifying the Most Attractive Regional Markets to Prioritize Edge Deployment & Capture Emerging Demand

Vice President - Prototype Modular Data Center, Compass Datacenters
CEO, ValorC3 Data Centers
  • Analyzing the market characteristics that make certain metros more attractive for edge development to prioritize investment in those markets
  • Assessing which industries and applications are driving demand in different regions to position infrastructure where future growth is expected to occur first
  • Understanding where edge can deliver the greatest advantage over centralized cloud and hyperscale models to target markets with the strongest long-term demand drivers

2:30 pm Audience Discussion: Securing Fiber Connectivity & Understanding Carrier Hotel Infrastructure to Enable Low-Latency Edge Deployment & Maximize Network Interconnection Opportunities

Market Development Manager & Lead, AT&T
  • Leveraging carrier hotels, internet exchange points, and dense interconnection ecosystems to reduce latency and deliver services closer for end users
  • Evaluating fiber availability, carrier diversity, and network resilience to improve uptime and create more reliable edge infrastructure
  • Identifying the connectivity characteristics that make certain locations more attractive for edge deployment to accelerate market entry

3:00 pm Afternoon Refreshments

3:30 pm Optimizing Utility Engagement & Interconnection Strategies to Accelerate Energization & Reduce Grid-Related Delays

Senior Project Manager, EDGE Infrastructure Partners
  • Assessing power availability and interconnection constraints for edge to reduce deployment delays
  • Engaging utilities early in the development process to accelerate approvals and bring capacity online faster
  • Preparing for emerging North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulations to ensure compliance and avoid future grid-related constraints
  • Building long-term partnerships with utilities and regulators to align future infrastructure investment and regional growth plans to support scalable edge expansion

4:00 pm Audience Discussion: Evaluating Brownfield Sites & Developing Strategies for Repurposing Existing Infrastructure for Edge Deployments

Director of Development, Available Infrastructure
  • Leveraging underutilized industrial, retail, and commercial assets to overcome land constraints, minimize community opposition, and unlock new edge deployment opportunities in urban markets
  • Comparing retrofit and greenfield development strategies to prioritize projects that deliver the strongest balance of speed, cost, and long-term scalability
  • Assessing the structural, power, and connectivity readiness of existing assets to reduce redevelopment risk and determine suitability for edge deployments

4:30 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks

4:40 pm End of Conference Day One