National Data Centre Day: Building a Unified Message for the Industry

Andy Davis is joined by co-host Rory Flashman, MD at Spa Communications, for a special episode marking the first-ever National Data Centre Day.

Together they explore why the industry urgently needs a unified message – and how collaboration can transform the public perception of datacentres.

Right now, one of the sector’s biggest challenges is a lack of a truly unified, collective narrative. Andy and Rory unpack the difficulties of building a shared story, discuss the importance of transparency, and examine how new initiatives are paving the way forward for the next generation to join the sector.

“Collaboration goes hand-in-hand with community,” Rory notes. “We need to do a better job at telling stories and opening up so we can change public perception on a broader scale”.

The session also discusses the importance of National Data Centre Day - which spotlights the critical role of data centres in the UK’s economic and AI ambitions.

Its goal is to raise awareness, inspire future talent and show why this technology underpins modern life. With over 50 organisations already backing the initiative, this episode is a call to action for the entire industry to come together and amplify the #NDCD message.

📅 Join us on 16 October for our first-ever live audience podcast, featuring senior leaders and communications experts discussing how to reshape the narrative and grow the industry.

Apply for a ticket here - Inside Data Centre Pubcast

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:27

We're back. Back on the terrace. Different terrorists come now. Joined by my good friend Roy Flashman Wells.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Thanks for having me. Pleasure. Why are we here today? We are here today to talk about National Data Centre Day. Brand new awareness day. It's been accepted, kicking off this year, very much really to promote the role of data centers in the digital economy and its role in the UK government's AI ambitions as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

And we happen to be in a pub, which is a convenient place to report this episode. Obviously, more on that to come. So, Data Center Day, you talked about it. Obviously, it's a UK, it is the anniversary of when it was declared national critical infrastructure.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Yeah, 12th of September, the day the data centres were designated critical national infrastructure by the UK government.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

And I think we've talked a lot, probably too much, according to my wife, probably, but about perception of the industry. And I guess one of the reasons we need a data centre day in the UK is largely to try and get that unified message across. The perception of the industry is being, I don't want to say attacked, but there's certain views coming out from the media which are educated views, but without a rhetorical response from the data center industry. So it's trying to manage that challenge.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Yeah, I think so. If we go back to the um the inception of the awareness day, one of my colleagues, Eloise, came up with this great idea. Data center's been aimed critical, national infrastructure. We should do an awareness day to celebrate it. Moment of genius. And fundamentally, it was never about the agency, it was all about the industry, right? How can we get better industry advocacy? Exactly what you said. How can we get people talking, telling more stories? The response has just been phenomenal. It's been way more than we ever could have anticipated. But I think we're at 50 supporters now, world-leading companies all over the website, and we're getting messages all the time. We're doing this campaign, we're doing this campaign, we're launching this. Obviously, I can't tell you what it is. All I will say is keep an eye on Gen Plus One because I feel something well exciting coming. But everybody's doing everything in their own silos. And one of the biggest issues with perception of the industry is that we have no unified message, right? It was one of the big things that uh Giuseppe said. This whole year, this launch is really just about industry advocacy, getting people talking, getting people sharing content, telling stories about the companies, the good work they're doing, their role in kind of delivering services, whatever those might be. Um, and next year, I think this really gets the ball rolling. Hopefully, next year, people will come together and we'll see more collaboration, more joint campaigns, more unified messaging.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Next year we go big.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Bigger. I think it will just keep building, to be honest with you. I mean, but as I say, it was always meant to be about the industry and response has been brilliant, you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

From a unified message, we've talked about it. It's very hard to get a unified message when you've got X amount of organizations in the industry, all with different agendas or or different objectives. So, how do we get them together? And do we need to create a unified message? It's probably the start. And if we do that, how can we get everyone on board?

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Yeah, it's a yeah, it's a brilliant question. So I think we talk about collaboration a lot, right? So, and similar to um collaboration goes hand in hand with community, right? So we've got, for example, Data Sense Marketing Club. I think you need to get, first of all, those marketing decision makers and the comms decision makers in a room together and start having discussions like actually how do we move the dial? What are the big pressing issues facing the industry? Like, and then how do we change them? Is it that we need to go and have a conversation with government? Is it that we need to provide more transparent reporting? Um, that has been a massive issue recently in terms of perception. You know, you talked about not necessarily the industry's getting attacked, but there is a lot of negative media around the industry. You and me were chatting about this the other day in texting. Um, that BBC article, right? It's really interesting. I completely understand the industry's need or want to be defensive in response to the recent BBC article. But if you look back at Zoe's social media post, and if you look back at her and what she's saying, she understands intrinsically that we are dependent on data centers. We need more of them. Like the growth is fundamental to the digital economy. I mean, look, we're recording this in the heart of London, right? And it's the second largest data center cluster in the world. But with that, there is a massive environmental footprint. And I don't think that anyone in the industry would argue that. The issue isn't about data centers in themselves, the issue is about people's understanding of it and a lack of transparent data. And if we can do a better job as an industry of communicating a joint value proposition, if we can provide more transparent reporting, which I know is difficult. I know is massively difficult because we're customers. Yeah, we obviously would have done that already, right? It's the world's best industry that um no one's ever heard of. But if we can begin to solve some of those problems around data access to certain information, you can begin to move the needle, change the dial, and and ultimately tell better stories. It's not like um Zoe didn't approach the industry, and this isn't me defending the BBC, it's not like she didn't approach different multitude of different stakeholders asking for information and their perspective on certain things. She spent loads of time with TechGealing into their water report. Industry response in general has been quite defensive, and what we're experiencing as a relatively new industry is no different to the industrial sector, it's no different to aerospace, it's no different to energy, it's definitely not any different to water. People are always going to have a negative perception. So do a better job of telling better stories that are human and relevant and educate people, invite them in, open the doors up. Some people have done a great job of uh of doing that, and you'll begin to move things forward.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

I think one of the challenges with perception is you've got you're trying to change the perception of so many different people. You've got that perception that we're talking about, the the public perception on a broad scale, but then you've got the perception of younger people, you know, who who are not going to read the BBC articles, they're not going to read the press releases that the data center industry releases because it's not on their radar. So you've also got, like you mentioned Gen Plus One, you've also got that challenge around changing the perception of the industry for people that don't even know what the industry is, and then you've got challenging the perception of the industry for people that think it's a a bad thing. Yeah. You've then got enhancing the perception of it for people that think it's a positive thing, and maybe some people think it's too positive and are not considering the some of the challenges that the industry does have. Yeah. So it's quite a, I think it's quite difficult to actually change a perception. If you're in a pub like we are now, and there was four or five of us sat around a table, we probably all have different views on every industry. It doesn't matter whether it's data centres, aviation, industrial, whatever it is, we'd all have different views. So I think, and you're in PR, I'm not, but it's very, it's very hard to create a message that hits home at every single aspect of perception. I mean, there's a there's a problem that we might get too carried away with a perception from the media and not considered a perception of the next generation. 100%. People that are just don't read or watch the media.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Without a shadow of a doubt, like how are we communicating with them? What are the stories you're telling, what platforms are we using to tell the stories, and are they relevant to young people? I think the way we communicate as an industry plays right into the hands of the skill shortage as well. We need to begin to provide an education about what we do as a sector and provide pathways into the industry at an earlier level. Some people might call it root and branch, going to primary schools and stuff. Do people know that data centers, power Roblox, for example? We talked about before.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

I don't even think it's even you've got that level as well, isn't it? Do they even know they exist? Yeah. That's the challenge, isn't it? I think because the industry's growing so quickly, and I always say this when you look at any challenge the industry faces, whether it's power, land, skills, it's all because of this the rapid growth. It's had no chance or opportunity to really sit there and go, this challenge is coming. Yeah, we need to actually plan to manage that challenge. It's like the challenge has arrived before they've even had a chance to plan it. Perception is similar. The industry's gone from nobody knowing what it is, the industry not telling anyone what it is, to all of a sudden, as you've said, especially in the UK, it's national critical infrastructure, that's why we're having this chat. All of a sudden, everyone knows what it is. So then you've got to try and change that message overnight.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Yeah, I mean, it's funny, right? Because change change takes time. I talk about this all the time. Change takes time and it happens all at once, right? And if you think about just that critical national infrastructure designation, data center has been critical national infrastructure for years. Like years. Blew up in the 80s in the financial boom, absolutely fundamental during the pandemic. Think about a pivot to digital overnight, absolutely fundamental in identifying a vaccine. Genuinely, people depend on this technology in the same way they depend on water and energy and everything else, but without really understanding it.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

I guess what you've seen now is when you talk about government, and again, we're not going to get into the who the government is or what they're you know, who we believe in, if any. But you've seen suddenly in the UK the Labour government approving major developments in areas that maybe not the the best area for that community. That community has challenges with them being developed in their region. Could be the right thing, could be the wrong thing. Again, it's not not for us to debate that.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

You're talking green belts, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Green, grey, anything like that. But but that again, because that's become a a government rejected it and now a government's approved it, it's obviously a lot happens in between that, it gets press and it gets press attention because they say, well, this project was previously rejected, this project's now approved. What's really changed in there? And then and then you've got to change that that messaging around we need them because of this, but it obviously impacts communities, and what's not happening, and I know that I've talked about it before my podcast, KO Data did some great work in Manchester with communities, but that they're not the government definitely is not doing enough to engage with communities in these developments.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

I think whether you you agree with me or disagree with me from an industry perspective, I think the government thinks it's done enough by removing the red tape and letting data centres potentially be built anywhere, right? And coming back to what you're saying about perception, that does compound a negative perception. Like you could argue Manchester, Scotland, the Northwest, Wales, there are so many sites that have power available all across the UK that are ripe for sustainable redevelopment right now. Inward investment, where we're local communities, create jobs, right? Those are the things that aren't really being talked about. All that's being talked about is this massive warehouse being dropped in my back garden, right? If you talk about the economic benefits, if you talk about the community benefits, digital benefits with digital transformation benefits, all of the good things that a data center brings with it, that will begin to appeal to people. But I think if we then take one step back from that, right? Take one step back from megawatts, gigawatts, power, any of that stuff, and actually humanize it and talk about what data centers do on a day-to-day basis and the things they enable. No one cares about a data center until can't access their banking app or Facebook goes down. No one cares. But what they don't realize is their data centers are, we talked about this in Cannes, data centers are powering life science, innovation, cancer research, so many other good things, the NHS, so many good things that are absolutely essential to everything we do. And yes, there are constraints about what we can and can't talk about, and the industry's been very, very secretive. But if it if it opens its doors a little bit more and begins to engage with government communities, as as many companies in the industry have started still already, but they do it together, that sends a much stronger message out.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

I agree. I think one of the challenges you when you talk about other regions, so outside of Slough or London, and this is applies in the we do quite a lot of work in the US, it applies in the US as well. When they're they're building these large-scale facilities in new communities. So in a community, whether it's Manchester or a somewhere in Texas, or wherever it is, it's a new community that doesn't know what a data centre is. All of a sudden they see a gigawatt scale campus in the US, a 20 megawatt, 30 megawatt in in the UK facility coming into their region. They see the press release that says the size of it, like you just said, and this will employ 2,000 people during construction and 20 when it's built. So again, you've got that challenge with communities, and it's not correct because the press release, again, you said it, the the way that it's communicated does need to communicate better about the impact, the long-term benefits. It's not just about people being employed in the building, it's about what it brings to that community. Like when we went to Start Campus and we went to that restaurant, you know, overlooking a lovely restaurant, overlooking the sea. It there was, I don't know how many people were there, 50, 60, 70 of us. There'd be nobody there if we weren't there.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

That night, especially, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

You're bringing economy to regions as well. And again, it's just not, it's not always communicated as well as it can be. And I totally understand why somebody in a community that doesn't know what a data centre is suddenly sees a huge construction project happening in their community and thinks there's going to be lorries driving down my road, what's the long-term benefit for me? Raises questions and concerns about it.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

I think that's another thing as well. Put yourself in the shoes of the people who live around.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Would you want it's like, would you want one in your backyard? It's the old Nindy thing, isn't it? Without a doubt. I wouldn't want one in my backyard because my but my backyard's not very big.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

True, but then the flip side of that is if you live in a city and you live next to an industrial, an old industrial mill that is in complete disrepair, absolute state, covered in graffiti, weeds everywhere. Do you then want a business to come in and regenerate that, which will attract other businesses?

SPEAKER_01 14:47

And that's where I'm going with the grey belt. I'm not even going to say greenbelt because they're not greenbelt. They'll be they'll be said they're greenbelt, but grey belt. I'm not saying they're the wrong location, it's it's just how that's communicated is so much more critical than, like you say, an old power station or an industrial site, a brownfield site that needs regeneration, massive advances to everybody. And I think people wouldn't question that.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

You are 100%, but you know what we we're talking about terms that we know and understand, right? Yeah, yeah, they don't brownfield both. No one knows knows what that means. And the other thing you have to be mindful of, especially from a publicity standpoint, is that we have negative bias, right? There used to be like sold relative pages pay wages, right? You sell more pages, and that's what pays the newspapers and the magazines. The goal nowadays is to keep people on websites, keep them on news platforms, right? They want negative stories. That's why there's so much junk out there. Like people want negative stories. So nine times out of ten, the negative news, building on the green belt, removing the red tape, is going to dwarf any good that one particular company does on its own. And if you look at the industry, there are so many companies doing so many great things, working with local communities. That when we talk about perception, you do have to go down to a very, very local level and then build those stories outwards. And when we're talking about national data centers, this is honestly, this was all about industry advocacy. That was the whole reason for the day. Can we get the industry beginning to tell good stories on the day? And clearly, loads of companies have got good things to say. Next thing is, can't we do it together?

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Do you think these companies that have good things to say need help communicating it?

SPEAKER_02 16:27

I think I'm biased. Yeah, and I'm not sure. Yeah, without promotional. No, definitely not. I I think some companies do a fantastic job. Other companies can do much better. Well, I just think but equally companies can't say anything, is you not.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Yeah, and I and I know some of the great stories. Yeah. Well, I'm just sat here thinking, you talk, you mentioned companies, and we could mention loads of companies. Even the hyperscalers like Google have totally changed how they they communicate and the messages and Microsoft similar. They've got these blogs now where news comes out. Yeah. But do people know they're there? That's that's my point. It's again, I always say, and I think you might have said it earlier, we're really good at communicating internally as an industry. Yeah, because they're good at telling everybody what how great we are and what we're doing, and asking everyone their opinion that's in the industry about what they think of the industry. But getting that comms from within the industry to outside the industry is you know better than I do, but it's a very different platform. And sometimes I get people that listen to this and say, I'm not in the industry, but I wanted to learn about it, and I really appreciate what you're doing or get benefit from what you're saying. But that's a that's somebody that's gone off their own back to try and find how do we get from talking in the echo chamber, talking to ourselves about how great we all are, yeah, to actually getting this message to the masses.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

So that is a great question. So the first thing I'm gonna say is that what you always have to remember is that whatever we try and communicate is gonna be dominated by the news agenda, right? So data centres are in the spot line.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

So we start our own news channel. Do you want to do that? Data center club news. Compete with compete with the BBC, DC2.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Uh well, we'll probably end up in it back in the echo chamber. Um there won't have many viewers. Yeah, just be you and me go talking to each other. Um, but so coming back to um what you were saying, like first and foremost, like the spotlights on the industry. There are more nationals, there are more broadcast platforms interested in data centers. Like we've seen data centers feature on Sky, ITV, BBC multiple times. And obviously, that's being compounded by the fact there's masses of investment, masses of government interest, right? Especially around things like AI, governments plan for change, all of those sorts of things. If we step back from all of that, I think the key thing is to understand who we're trying to communicate to and why you're trying to do it. That's really, really fundamental. Like, I don't think people really realize that data centers are a data problem and they are, for the most part, away from demand for cloud, demand for AI, demand for public services. They are literally being driven by the phone in your pocket. No one really understands that that you depend on them at that level. If we can humanize this stuff, say it a few times now. If you can humanize the stories and make them relevant to people and talk to them about it from a younger age, like you depend on this stuff, then they'll know more about the industry. But there's a massive education process, a massive education process.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

And I think communicating with the masses, we're saying a pub.

unknown 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

We're recording this as a pub, and you know, the pub cast, which we'll talk about shortly, is an idea to try and communicate with different demographic, isn't it? And like do things like this where you you literally open the doors and say, anyone can come in, have a listen. When we do the event, you know, come and find out what about this industry, not having a ticketed approach, just saying, you know, if you want to come and learn, come and learn, and inviting people from outside to come and learn as well. I think that's really important from an event perspective. But National Data Centre Day, this is going out on National Data Centre Day, yeah, I believe. So you'll all hopefully you'll all obviously download it on the day we release it because you're big fans. We're uh you'll be listening to this on the data centre day. So I guess before we close up, quick question: what can anyone do today on National Data Center Day to help spread the message?

SPEAKER_02 20:19

If you're not involved, get involved. There are free to download toolkits, social media toolkits have been developed by our team, the brilliant LOEs, and loads of my colleagues. Go to the website, download it, start posting. And I would say that the next big thing to be thinking about is who are my partners? Who are the other organizations that I work with? Can we get some level of cooperation, competitors working together? How can we begin to think about having a unified message? Giuseppe said it really well. We need a unified message coming out of the market to be able to tell a collective story much better. And I think in previous years, people have tried to do that without success. There's been little pockets of initiative started. I think the communities that we're building, that you and I are directly involved with, that's a great opportunity to get those the right marketing comms people in the room. But can you get that collaboration being championed from the top down? Like and actually thinking about who the people I work with within the industry, who are the partners that I depend on, can I bring my customers into the fold? And do we have a way to tell a story with a host of companies or as an industry versus doing it all in a silo?

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Yeah, and we'll as I say, like Data Center Marketing Club helps that, but we'll facilitate it. If anyone listening wants, yeah, we'll we'll facilitate it. Come and speak to us and we'll we'll get it going. And finally, we're in a pub for a reason. We are 16th of October, I think we'll be back.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Inside Data Centre pubcast. Thanks for having me again. Pleasure. So again, we talked about it briefly, but the idea behind that is to try and break down a few barriers, get people in a more of a casual environment, have a chat over a beer in a pub and talk about the industry, and the topic will be perception. So, how can we change perception?

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Indeed. I'm quite excited to actually hear hear from the people who are going to be on these discussions as well and hear their thoughts because it's what you and I think we'll be texting each other on the weekend and the conversations we have, but then actually hearing how the industry is going to work together and different perspectives with lots of different senior leaders who aren't involved in podcasting cons is going to be very, very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Yeah, and I'll be in London. We'll put the um the ticket event right in the show notes. We'll put the website for National Data Centre Day in the show notes as well. Definitely, yeah. You can find it. But hopefully, this is a start of something where we can get that unified message out there. As difficult as it is, but try and spread a little bit of uh data centre love to the masses.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Exactly that. Data centre love to the masses. End on that one. Yeah. Thank you for having me. Cheers, mate.