Keynotes are great, key relationships are better. Let’s really connect at DTech this year!
The utility industry is one that by its nature has its heavy hitters regionally spread out. Financial titans can meet on Wall Street, entertainment executives can always grab lunch with their peers in LA, and politicos have their epicenter in DC. But every single corner of the world needs energy, so we have leaders and devoted armies of experts in each of those nooks and crannies of the country ensuring the power comes on when customers flip the switch– regardless of time of day, extreme weather pattern, or what’s going on in the world.
That’s why so many of us have DistribuTECH regularly circled on the calendar. DTech bills itself as the “leading annual transmission and distribution live event” – and that’s a fair assessment of the critical panels, keynotes, and learning sessions that are set to take place over the next few days in San Diego (where I’m flying to as I write this).
Proof: I’m en route!
But on a human level, the conference can be and is so much more than that. While the industry has no shortage of other events in different places most weeks of the year, DistribuTECH is the one that has tended to rise above as the gathering where you know that everyone will be there.
That’s what makes this one that our team at Energy Central has always looked forward to. Yes, we want to see what people are announcing from stages with filled agendas over the next few days. Yes, we want to sit in on the learning sessions and panels (be sure to check out Kinsey’s panel in the data center workshop on Monday at 1:45 pm - 2:30 pm: The Interconnection Bottleneck: Taming the Queue for Hyper-Scale Load– Room 5AB). And yes, it’s a great time to see and be seen as professionals and brands.
But more than that? We are excited to talk shop on the showroom floor. The real value at a conference like this, and it underscores the real mode of change in the industry, is the people. At an event like DTech, you can catch up with people in the industry– old friends and new players.
So, after you see what the latest exciting tech vendors have to announce and demo, you can also gossip with the people putting on those demos at happy hours and off-site events to hear about the pressures they’re feeling from regulators or investors. You can listen to a panel that will really drive home some essential talking points, but then you can catch up with those panelists afterwards to get the real scoop on what has made recent months exhilarating or challenging for them.
Our team is here for those big keynote events, but we’re also all about those little conversations that will take place in the middle and behind the scenes.
Poll the attendees who are currently traveling from across their homes to San Diego and ask them what they think the trends at the 2026 event will be, and I bet the answers will cluster around some expected topics:
AI as a tool for utilities
Data center load growth and how to manage that
A quickly evolving political environment
Affordability pressure that every single utility is feeling
An ever present focus on reliability
Those topics are obviously some of the most important ones for us as an industry to be focusing on. And I’ll be there with my laptop and notebook ready to jot down the nuggets of wisdom I hearing in panels, keynotes, and interviews.
But the real juicy stuff I want to hear?
How are the pressures of those working in the energy sector evolving?
How are those pressures changing the perspective and makeup of the workforce?
What are the underreported roadblocks currently in the way or expected in the coming months that we should be preparing for?
How can we all work together to make this industry hum?
What sort of partnerships and collaborations are people looking for to make?
What relationships will come out of the DTech happy hours to build towards all of the above?
That’s all to say, you can catch the Energy Central team (shout out to Josh, Chloe, Kinsey, Sean, and Megan for all also making the trek and landing well before me!) at various events, panels, and learning sessions across the conference floor. When you see us, say hi and we’ll be glad to share in those tangible parts of the conference.
But we also hope to see you in those little in between moments– at the happy hours, on the walk to and from the conference, in the lines at lunch. And when you do catch us there, let’s dig deeper and be sure to share the juicy stuff. We’re all humans, let’s act like it!'
More to come as DistribuTECH 2026 unfolds!