The 7x24Exchange opened today to a record crowd of 711 attendees. The assembly gave Joe Theisman a standing ovation and some good-natured ribbing after his inspirational keynote in which he stressed the need for flexibility and adaptability among his many keys to success.

Theisman, now a football broadcaster with ESPN, retired holding a slew of Washington Redskins team records in passing, after succeeding Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer as Redskins quarterback. At the peak of his career, Theisman led the Redskins to two Superbowls, winning one. He was named league MVP in 1983. Theisman first saw public prominence as a Heisman trophy candidate after playing quarterback at Notre Dame. He began his story by recounting how the The University launched a campaign on his behalf by asking him to change the pronunciation of his last name to rhyme with the name of the trophy.

Thiesman is perhaps best noted for suffering a grisly leg injury while being tackled by the New York Giants Lawrence Taylor, which forced his retirement at age 36. He noted that he also took a pay cut from $1 million annually to $65,000.

This injury and the resulting paycut launched the multiple careers that followed and which he has tailored into a useful set of lessons learned.

Immediately afterward, the conference presented a more conventional panel, which was hosted by FieldView Solutions’ Dave Schirmacher. He guided the panel Update from the Data Center Metrics Coordination through a 75-minute presentation that explored the history, strengths, and weaknesses of PUE.

During the panel Dan Azevedo of Symantec noted that the panel took time to explore development of the PUE and how it should be measured. Paul Mathew of Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory said, “You always want to have a suite of metrics.” Alexandra Sullivan of the EPA and Pitt Turner of the Uptime Institute also provided expertise. Ken Baker then led a session that explored the relationship between server design and data center design and took a look at future developments. The first session of the afternoon examined the use of direct current in a data center at the University of Syracuse. Rudy Kraus of Validus described the economics of the technology. And Syracuse CIO Chris Sedore described the facility with an assist from Dave Sterlace of ABB.

Breakout sessions begin immediately after a networking session, during which Shawn Hills, president Green House Data described the economics of cloud as he encountered them in his Wyoming facility.