Social networking platform Twitter, founded in 2006, has attracted over 500 million users – of which 284 million are active. And wow has this been a game changer for attending and networking at data center conferences!
In this post, we’ll look at six conferences attended by data center professionals and evaluate which events have the best presence – and the weakest -- on Twitter.
7×24 Exchange Spring Conference
- Twitter profile – not available
- Twitter hashtag – not available
Established in 1989, 7×24 Exchange International holds two major events each year.
When visiting the website for the 7×24 Exchange Spring Conference, I was able to locate a Twitter icon in footer of the website. However, that Twitter icon was strictly for sharing the website page, rather than following 7×24 Exchange International organization or its conference organizers on Twitter.
When looking on both Twitter search and Google search, I also had no luck in finding a Twitter profile or Twitter #hashtag for their conference.
Just out of curiosity, I wanted to see if some of the conference speakers and conference partners were Twitter users. Keynote speaker Captain Mark Kelly is very active on Twitter (@ShuttleCDRKelly). However of the first six speakers listed alphabetically, none had active Twitter profiles – although a few had established profiles to reserve their names.
When I ran the six marquis-level and gold-level partners through Twitter search, it was a different story.
Ehvert Mission Critical was the only partner without a Twitter icon on its homepage. The other five marquis-level and gold-level partners – Siemens, Clune Construction Company, Power Distribution, Inc. (PDI), Sika USA, and Syska Hennessy – are all, for the most part, very active on Twitter.
DatacenterDynamics Converged
- Twitter profile – @DCDConverged
- Twitter hashtag – #DCD2015
Quite a contrast to 7×24 Exchange International, DatacenterDynamics Converged has a Twitter follow-me icon for @DCDConverged just above the footer on each page of their website.
Its Twitter profile promotes the upcoming DCDConverged conferences, held all over the globe. DatacenterDynamics Converged also gives teasers, leading back to their website for different tracks at each event.
Making it possible for conference attendees, speakers, and sponsors to network on Twitter, the DCDConverged conferences do actually have a #hashtag -- #DCD2015
The Provider Forum on Financing & Investing in Data Centers & Cloud Services Infrastructure
- Twitter profile – @IMN_RealEstate
- Twitter hashtag – #IMNevents
Produced by IMN, global organizers of institutional finance and investment conferences, the IMN Financing & Investing in Data Center & Cloud Services Infrastructure for Providers has its Twitter icon, with a “Join Us On” call to action in the upper right hand corner of each page for the event.
Titled Real Estate Events (@IMN_RealEstate), the conference organizer’s Twitter profile is loaded with pictures – taking full advantage of the evolving visually-centric Twitter.
By scrolling through some recent status updates, you’ll find some retweets from attendees, speakers, and sponsors of recent events – tagged with the #hashtag -- #IMNevents
Data Center Summits
- Twitter profile – @CapRateEvents (protected Tweets only)
- Twitter hashtag – not available
Throughout the website for CRE (CapRate Events), both on the home page and individual events’ pages, you won’t find any follow-me links for Twitter. However what you do see through the website are conspicuous links to “Join Us on LinkedIn” – which leads to the private LinkedIn Group for CRE's Commercial Real Estate Data Center Networking Group (CapRate Events, LLC).
While the LinkedIn Group for CapRate Events does have over 1,500 members and affords the conference organizers the ability to email the group once a week, just like any other LinkedIn Group, this approach keeps all conversations behind the curtain.
This shrouding has its pros and cons. On the positive aside, attendees have more assurances that their conversations are only being heard by those either at a particular event, or at a previous event.
The flip side however is that the private nature of this LinkedIn Group makes it a lot less likely that attendees, speakers, or sponsors will be able to spread their takeaways and event evangelism to their reach.
While LinkedIn does seem to be the dominant mainstream social media channel preferred by data center professionals, Twitter is a close second. And by sidestepping Twitter, CapRate Events may be missing out on a very low-cost way to grow the reach of its events.
Data Center World (AFCOM)
- Twitter profile – @DataCenterWorld
- Twitter hashtag – #DataCenterWorld
While Data Center World is in fact active on Twitter, you wouldn’t know it from a quick glance of its conference home page and a few of the sub-pages.
Why’s that? As the world’s largest data center industry show (listed on their Twitter profile), Data Center World has its own private social network for the conference: Data Center World CONNECT.
From the CONNECT platform, attendees can search for and send messages to other Data Center World conference attendees – both for networking purposes and scheduling onsite meetings.
The Data Center World Twitter profile (@DataCenterWorld) also has a lots of activity from attendees, sponsors, and speakers. For organizing conversations, there’s an identically named #DataCenterWorld hashtag.
Gartner Data Center, Infrastructure & Operations Management Conference
- Twitter profile – @Gartner_inc
- Twitter hashtag – #GartnerDC
For the Gartner Data Center Conference, you’ll find a Twitter icon in the footer of each page leading to main Gartner Twitter profile (@Gartner_inc).
Probably due to sheer luck, I was able to find that the most recent status update posted on @Gartner_inc was actually promoting the Gartner Data Center Conference – and found the #hashtag #GartnerDC
When I searched for that #hashtag, there was a pretty active stream – mostly takeaways and promotional Tweets for upcoming Gartner Data Center Conferences in different parts of the world.
Nevertheless, this does provide a basic way for attendees, speakers, and exhibitors to interact before, during, and after the conference. It also makes it easy for these same stakeholders to do some relatively straightforward evangelizing for the event with very little effort on their part.
The Bottom Line on Data Center Conferences That Tweet
Among these six data center conferences, there are conference organizers who’ve basically opted out of Twitter: 7×24 Exchange and CapRate Events.
The other four – DatacenterDynamics, IMN, Data Center World (AFCOM), and Gartner – do have active Twitter profiles and event-focused #hashtags
On the surface, it appears that the #DataCenterWorld conversation is the most active. However Data Center World is also the largest footprint of these conferences.
Which data center conferences do you attend? And do you use Twitter to network with attendees, speakers, and sponsors? Share your take in the Comments box below.
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