To begin, DatacenterDynamics included six tracks, including 39 sessions. I got to one.

They had 1600 attendees. Did I speak to as many as 100? Probably not.

They had 80 booths. I think I visited 10.

Was the trip worthwhile? Absolutely. And with some luck and follow up on my part, you will get to read some great stories about data center successes in the industry.

In addition to stretching the boundaries of my energy and the conference space, DatacenterDynamics also broke its one-day limit, allowing pre-event gatherings, hosted by Schneider and Synapsense (and perhaps others) and allowing another exhibitor DataGryd to bring invited guests to its facilities at 60 Hudson Street.

I attended all these events, at least briefly, and learned quite a bit. TheDataGryd facility, for instance, will be a welcome addition to the New York City data center market because of its energy-efficiency and clean operation. In addition to making available 240,000 square feet of data center space, DataGryd plans to use a natural-gas cogeneration system as prime power, with utility and diesel gen back ups.

“We’ve invested in the most innovative energy technologies on the market today – engineering a state of the art cogeneration plant onsite and planning the very first enterprise IT application of AMSC’s superconductor cables, which is something that sets DataGryd apart from any other urban data center. I’m looking forward to building out the white space with customers, and seeing the cogen plant in operation,” said DataGryd CEO and co-founder, Peter Feldman, who has over 20 years of experience with implementing energy-efficient technologies in collocation models.

Feldman took the time to tell me about the building’s other innovative features, including the use of supercomputing cable, which enables DataGryd to bring adequate power to the white space.

On a related topic, I also spoke toIO’s Rich Nisivoccia and Jason Ferrara, who are equally enthusiastic about the their 850,000 sq ft facility in Edison, NJ. It serves a market, they say, that shows no signs of cooling off soon with a facility that has adequate power and cooling to meet much of that demand for quite some time.

Synapsense’s Patricia Nealon was nice enough to introduce me to James Kennedy, director of Critical Facility Engineering for RagingWire. RagingWire’s customers include some of the biggest names in the business, but we talked not so much about the customers but about the trends driving their industries. Kennedy and I laughed about the misadventures that people can have on the internet, but my main impression was that I was talking to a person who made it his business to understand his customer’s needs and business. There will be more to come on all these stories in Mission Critical.

In this same vein, Steve Manos, newly minted head of Norland’s U.S. operations and Paul Savill-King, a managing director of the U.K.-based company briefed me on their plans to capture a very large share of the operations market. Steve credited Norland’s company culture with the parent company’s success and with being decisive in his move from Lee Technologies. The challenge, he says, is replicating that culture here in the U.S.

At least one prominent, data center figure thinks that Steve’s task is not possible, given the differences between American and British workers, but Steve and Paul both argue that a corporate culture in which workers are paid well, trained to the tasks at hand, supported, and valued will succeed anywhere.

And Paul recounted Norland’s values, as established by its founder, which placed price and sales far down the company’s priorities.

I’m grateful to the DatacenterDynamics folks for a quality event, but I have one challenge for them before I will be completely satisfied: Clone me!