I just read an article about how airlines are increasingly learning how to balance passenger loads throughout the year, with spring, summer, and fall being busy seasons compared to the winter. Through most of the winter, vacation and business travel is down compared to the other seasons, although it hardly seems that way to me.

Nonetheless, as I was preparing the calendar of events for the March/April May issue, I’m struck how the pace of meetings and announcements seems to pick up in early March. The Green Grid, for instance, holds a meeting on March 6; DatacenterDynamics holds its largest U.S. show on March 13; and then AFCOM’s Data Center World takes place the following week. Mission Critical’s online calendar lists a half-dozen events in April, and even more in May. More are announced every day it seems. This is all in addition to local chapter meetings held by the national group chapters.

I’m looking forward to going to many of these meetings, because these groups, like Mission Critical, draw from a group of innovative people who tend to drive the industry’s agenda.

Take a look, for instance, at the agenda for DatacenterDynamics’ New York event

·         Joe Kava, Google, Senior Director, Data Centers

·         Don Beaty, ASHRAE TC 9.9 DLB Associates

·         Roger Schmidt, IBM, Distinguished Engineer, Prior ASHRAE TC

           9.9 Chairman

·         Jack Glass, Citigroup, Senior Vice President, ASHRAE TC 9.9

          Chairman

·         Zahl Limbuwala, BCS Chartered Institute for IT, Chairman,

          Data Centre Specialist Group

·         Barry Novick , BlackRock, Inc., Global Data Center Manager

·         Dean Nelson, eBay. Senior Director, Global Foundational Services,

           eBay

·         Curtis Birnbach, Advanced Fusion Systems LLC, Chief Technology

         Officer

·         John Tuccillo, Vice President of Global Industry and Government

         Alliances, Schneider Electric, Chairman of the Board and President,

          The Green Grid

·         Kathrin Winkler, Vice President of Corporate Sustainability,

          EMC Corporation, Board Member and Secretary, The Green Grid

This is a terrific partial list of speakers for that event, and I know that they will be doing a great job not only in making presentations but also in setting an agenda for the year.