The first time I came to Data Centre World 4 years ago, I literally stumbled into it via a professorial invite and a college friend's visit (her company developed data centres, back when the understanding of a data centre was a far more basic concept). I was looking for sustainable cooling solutions and they were bemused that I had never seen a physical manifold. I wandered around for my lunch hour, amazed that all these global companies were here showing full-scale turbines and products, at my doorstep; it also became clear that this was mostly about power (and industry gossip).
Back then, it was already scaled with bells and whistles but you could still hear yourself speak. It took me two more years to find the entire floor of global software and services. It is now massive, having grown every year into the Singapore Tech Week and now, there are investment bank tours and every company is offering coffees and cold plates.
One thing I still wish they would do — there is an age limit on entry and I'd love for the last hours of the booth tours to be opened as interactive education sessions to younger students. They need to better understand the opportunities and the trade-offs of the world they will live in. If you have older teens, entry and registration are free.
