Turning Conversations into Community

In this episode, AVK VP of Marketing Giuseppe Caltabiano turns the tables on Andy Davis to discuss his ever growing data center community. 

Sitting at the centre of the data centre industry with 70,000+ followers and the founder of Data Centre Club, Andy Davis takes us through the importance of a community and the journey he is on in continuously building his network. From DCC's inception to spin off communities such as Data Centre Marketing Club, he speaks about the progression and the future of the data centre industry.

Key topics covered in this episode are:

• The process of starting a community, Data Centre Club, from scratch and the benefit to members.
• The multi-faceted approach to building a personal brand, as well as a community. The Data Centre News newsletter, for example.
• The progression of a community, and the value in physical connection when making industry relationships.
• The future of the community.
• The value of fresh perspectives coming into the data centre industry – talent from other industries brings a new point of view.

You can watch the interview here - Turning Conversations into Community - AVK – Innovative power solutions

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

The data centre industry is moving faster than ever, and behind the scenes some seriously smart people are making it all happen. Welcome to the Inside Data Centre 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 infrastructure. Whether you live and breathe data centres or just want to understand what's powering our connected world, you're in the right place.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

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

SPEAKER_01 0:32

I I always wanted to start a community. I thought there was a massive opportunity in industry for a community, mainly because the data centre club, yeah. And mainly because people always phoned me or messaged me saying, Andy, do 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.

unknown 0:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah, obviously I've got a I've got a good network, 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 if you know a 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. Yeah. So that was the idea behind it, to make a community that's access for everyone. Uh you know, and then the idea of data centre club came about.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Did you immediately think about LinkedIn as a yeah?

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Well, LinkedIn is the easy way to just bring obviously I have my network 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 centre club group came from, and that's now up to I think it's just under 8,000 members.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah, so so so you started this like an experiment, right? But uh now we have a community of nearly 100,000 people, if not more. Uh when did you realise that this was really becoming something serious?

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I s I still don't realise it's becoming something serious. I think that's part of the problem for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Until Well, it is serious for all of us.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Until people come up to it and they say, Oh, data center club, I love that idea. I mean that's when you start to realise it's I I guess when I launched it and it snowballed pretty quick, I thought I'm onto something here, and I still get I use the 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 we're still I'm still learning.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

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 was just like a second step?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

I think I started posting news on Fridays years ago, like on my feed, and then somebody said to me you should do it as a newsletter. I thought that's a good idea, and I I I can't remember the date, it's probably about three years ago, I'd say. So it's pre-data centre club, it's before data centre club, and and again, I think as the industry's grown, the the newsletter's growing. You know, I've got nearly over 50,000 subscribers now, which seems crazy, and it's something that, like you say, the industry relies on, and I feel that pressure every uh every Friday morning when I'm right panically writing it after uh a busy.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

You should also 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 any attention?

SPEAKER_01 3:13

I always go with I've always focused on like big announcements, so whether that's construction projects, capital investment. So 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 you'll see in my newsletter negative articles on the industry. I won't just show the positive, I'll show the you know 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 make and formulate their own opinion.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

And that brings me to another point, which is reputation. I think uh don't you think you have a responsibility at this point to considering the community you have in terms of how much you can drive eventually the reputation of uh the data center industry?

SPEAKER_01 4:07

I think I do I do feel it more as a responsibility now than I did, but again it's unintentional. So I 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. Like it's you know it's I can't see everything. Um or if it I look uh products, I don't really include products because it would just become too much. It's not a it's not a choice, it's more of what the newsletter was when I started, it's just grown from there, and you could there's only a lit, there's a limit to what you can include in it. So I've tried to focus on the same areas, you know, even now. I'm sure if I went back, you know, it feels like the newsletter's getting longer and longer than it was two years ago.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

That's the way the industry works, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, and some weeks you look at you know North America and it'll just go on and on and on and on forever. So it's difficult, uh, 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, whether it's 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.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

And that's the digital part of it, and then you also added the physical aspect of it because we have like in-person kind of meeting and gathering, right? Uh, how did it come to your mind, you know, to create those kind of events?

SPEAKER_01 5:24

I think you a community has to have physical, doesn't it? I guess post-COVID we became more physical, physical events became more important.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

I tend to forget those two years when this time.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

And I think as AI comes in, it's going to be even more important. Physical connection is 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.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Um, and I think the demand was there, and more people wanted it. And 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 data centre club nights, and and obviously we met at one in London a few years back. We've had them in Bahrain, Singapore, Sydney, um, Zurich, all over the world. And but they've they're driven by an individual in that area, it's not it's not me. Obviously, London was us, but it 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 the whole idea.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

That's what makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Use the brand, launch it, data centre club night Scotland's become quite a data centre club Scotland.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

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 uh I think what's the future for this kind of mini spin-off of the office world.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Well, a data centre marketing club is you, obviously asking me for a coffee and saying I'd like to start a marketing community, you know. And that's what it takes. It takes someone passionate about their specialism or their niche to drive it, and and then you use the community to bring people together.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

You have a request from other functions or people.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

We've looked at we're looking at one in sort of talent, so people around HR, talent acquisition, try and get people collaborating in that world, but it's a very difficult world to get people to collaborate in when it when they're all fighting for the same talent. So it's trying to that's a challenge. Um, but we've looked at loads of different ones. I think there's value, 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 know, like marketing club works because you're in marketing, you understand the challenges. I think I couldn't start one on engineering.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

I think you'd need an engineer to really drive it, and I guess that's yeah, and I think I found one of the main needs for uh the data center 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.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Well I think that's that's data center club and it's like it's ethos was everywhere, the whole industry is like that. Yeah, exactly. But the industry now is pretty collaborative to a degree. If you go back three, four years, yeah, no one even talked to each other. And that was what I struggle to understand when I go to events and it was all very siloed, and you know, no one will tell anyone what they were doing, even though everybody knew what everyone else was doing, we just didn't talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Which is also giving you more responsibilities, right? And how they are driving a so large community at the point that you are considered and properly an influencer. So you you are a proper B2B influencer, which is also the reason why you are here in Dublin.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

I'm in Dublin with you, AVK. Yeah, I think um, and again, like I find I'm very fortunate I get these opportunities like today with you, an AVK and pure. Not a 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 the 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 I'll argue, I 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 I'm sure I'd be a very rich man, but I think it works because it's accidental. Um and I 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. It doesn't mean anything to you.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Andy, 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.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

I think the pucast was again, we were chatting about it a few, it seems like ages ago, but it probably wasn't that long ago, a year ago. And um I just wanted to bring people into an environment where they feel comfortable, and that's the guest 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. And I think that's a pub, isn't it? Like if you go back to the yeah, we're in Dublin now, you can 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, who's a good mate anyway, from the industry helps. It it gave us that ability to use our friendship to have a bit of a chat with with industry veterans, and uh, and we definitely want to do more.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

What else do you envision for the community? How this is evolving, in your opinion.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

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 of today are brilliant. That's morally the case. 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're generally where they've learned something, and it might be that it's leadership or you know, it 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. And I think that's really important. I think we're a siloed world of data centers.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

I think you're touching also an interesting point. All the new people coming to the industry, they are in a way lost, and uh they need some kind of centre of gravity, and the community can be one of the different things.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

And I think they can also they can bring brilliant ideas because they see it differently, and I think that's what I've learned. Like the people that are come from other industries, they see the challenges totally different, or 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 we're 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 than it was, but yeah, so I'd love to create something where that kind of ethos of a a community is is a bit more physical. Um what that looks like, I'm open to ideas. Good.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Andy, thank you very much for uh uh sharing all this information with me. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Thank you for having me in Dublin. Go to the pub.