What’s the antidote to Monday night happy hours run late at DTECH? Morning coffee and conversation to charge up for the conversation in day two of the conference!
With today being the first day of the DTech floor is finally open, Energy Central was honored to be stop 1 on the way to the conference center for so many of our friends in the industry as well as new connections who trusted us to kick off their day.
As we looked around the room, there were dozens of conversations taking place simultaneously over coffee and bagels so it’s impossible for me to distill down what the themes of EVERYONE’S conversation was, but here are some nuggets I heard as I bounced around and connected:
- People in the industry are eager to learn and debate, but what’s the value of doing that until we define the terms (what is digitalization? Can we agree on those terms before we keep hammering them to the ground?)
- Wildfires are clearly a topic that’s top of mind to so many of us—it’s not just a California issue anymore, it’s an every utility area of focus and it’s taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to make it happen
- Data, data, data. I heard conversations about how we need to collect more, how we need to clean it better, and how we need to finally and actually use the data to its fullest extent.
- We all see AI coming and we all want to embrace it, but we can’t just do it to do it. Let’s make sure we think about and focus on the real business case.
- And not for nothing, but no matter what corner of the country people were from, a common sentiment was how happy we were to be in sunny San Diego and escape the cold that seems to be encasing…everywhere
In the end, Sabyasachi Chandra (the feature speaker for the event from Tata Consultancy Services, our partner who made this possible) highlighted that he feels optimism that humanity can rise up and pass the exams that are in front of us. And the way we’re doing to do that? By getting together and meeting these moments head-on.
People are here to learn. People crave this conversation in smaller, intimate groups where real conversation can take place. No shade to the 2-minute handshake and business card exchanges on the conference floor, but we really need to carve out these times and spots to dig deep and build real relationships.
Our brains are stimulated, our hearts are full, and we’re energized to keep these conversations going in person, over on EnergyCentral.com, and via our newsletters, podcasts, and more (surely more to come on this great event as we digest and chat from our friends who were in attendance, including some behind-the-scenes of what it takes to pull off an event like this!)