The new strategic leadership and professional global events series aims to close the communications gap in the global digital economy and digital transformation…

Washington, DC, Dec. 13, 2022 – International Data Center Authority (IDCA) announces its worldwide launch of DigitalUniverse (DUx) line of in-person and virtual livestream symposia and related live in-person and virtual events.

“The digital transformation as a movement and the digital infrastructure as an industry is the greatest monument ever created by humankind in terms of value creation and impact throughout global economies and societies”, said IDCA Founder and Chairman, Mehdi Paryavi. “This industry now must come together, fully within its own diverse and specialized ranks, and, of critical importance, with non-technical public and private sector leaders and policymakers for the kind of conversations that will, quite literally, touch, move, improve and inspire everyone’s lives with positive effects for all stakeholders and spark true and effective innovation.

“We must embrace digital transformational change that is both ethical and feasible at the speed and scale now necessary; and that is increasingly more sustainable, secure and resilient across all economic, environmental, societal and governance (ESG) pursuits of concern to all people everywhere.

“We know that one size does not fit all, and have therefore planned effective, diverse programs delivered in all cross-media ways for all dimensions of the DUx industry, and how we can most effectively interact with the non-technical world-at-large to help make this effort great because of our collective, collaborative efforts. That’s the job we set before DUx, to break down barriers to digital transformation solutions.”

Well-known IT and data center industry watcher, Bruce Armstrong Taylor, Head of the new IDCA DUx Media Unit, said that DUx faces a unique paradox of the metaverse era.

“On the one hand, there’s a very large and vocal group of folks who believe that the answer to climate change, etc. is to either slow or stop all economic development and growth in order to take on the many social and environmental challenges of our time,” he said.

“At the same moment, DUx leaders, professional technologists and engineers are racing to meet the growing demands of the rapidly evolving 4th Industrial Revolution, that, by World Bank projections, closes this year at well over 60% of global GDP, and will add another $8Trillion to the world’s economy by 2030 – but not without a digital infrastructure industry the enables, empowers and supports it. And that is our common conundrum.

“What makes this work so fascinating is that, as yet, so little is generally understood about how the economic transformation of value wealth from the change of atoms, baked into all goods and materials, to the bits of data, information and knowledge that is frequently exponentially greater in value while at the same time creating, very likely, reduced the carbon and GHG footprint on the Earth.

“We see the work of the several DUx event types and formats as creating cooperative, collaborative, holistic ways to help all parties to connect the dots. While at the same time, it is incumbent on us all to make every effort to decarbonize to net-zero every layer of the technology and site facilities stack, and to further action for faster clean energy development.”

Widely respected Web3, AI, blockchain, AR/VR and metaverse subject-matter expert and investor, Winston Ma, an IDCA Board Member, says that as all the technologies and their combinations that he watches globally move increasingly into the mainstream global economy the demand for digital infrastructure capacity will grow ever-faster, notwithstanding a slowing global economy.

“This seeming paradox presents great challenges across every layer of the data center and related infrastructure value stack as well as the responses to it from the capital markets, developers, and owner/operators.”

DUx Events will focus on the scale, and speed of the global digital economy and society transformation and its demand impact on cloud infrastructure capacity as the primary determinant of the success of technology innovation.

IDCA begins rolling out all DUx Event types and formats in January. The first offering will be a full line of virtual offerings with Digital Studio Sessions (podcasts and webinars).

DUx also includes both in-person and livestream deep-dive Design Charrette workshops and Executive Boardrooms inclusive of every major regional internet exchange hub globally.

The capstone event of the DUx Events is the large-scale Annual World Symposium which happens only once a year. This unique mega industry conference and expo, is inclusive of all-sector stakeholders from across the globe, participating in 5 days of a highly diverse, “work and play” agenda.

The first Annual DUx World Symposium and Expo is set for April 15-19, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Each year, DUx World will be hosted in a highly desirable travel destination, either city or a sought-after resort location.

Two one-day-only Regional DUx Hub Symposia are planned for 2023 and will begin an every-month roll-out inclusive of all major internet exchange and digital economy hub markets.

Regional DUx Symposia are presented both as local in-person delegates and faculty participation in the DUx Hub, as well as global fully interactive virtual livestream participation. The first Regional DUx Symposium will be in the Toronto Hub of North America at the Design Exchange, June 21. The second such event will be in DUx Hub of NEOM, Saudi Arabia serving the Middle-East North Africa Region, on November 2.

Beginning January 2024, either a DUx Hub Symposia or Executive Boardroom is scheduled every month in a different IDCA service region.

DUx Studio Sessions include a consistent flow of effective Podcasts and Webinars every month. Highly informative and knowledge-sharing-effective sessions aimed to tackle key industry issues always featuring influential, subject-matter-expert guests.

Executive Boardrooms, Design Charrettes, and IDCA Exclusives are topic-focused events hosted for select groups of business and finance executives; science, technology, and engineering professionals, and IDCA Community Members. These will be hosted globally, across all major regions and digital hubs.

All work and no play… DUx is about life balance and the emotional intelligence necessary for all industry professionals. This is IDCA’s DUx At-Play: organized gatherings intended to generate and deepen professional relationships. Suit-and-tie not permitted. Hosted entirely for fun in the shared experience of play, healthy competition, and teamwork among both strangers and colleagues, engendering cooperative and collaborative experience.

At-Play events range from full-on intramural soccer leagues, touch football, golfing, tennis, and pickleball events for all levels from “never played” to “expert”, museum tours, theater concerts/plays, museum or area tours (such as helicopter tours over the Grand Canyon), happy-hour karaoke, horseback trail-riding, off-roading, archery, pool, skiing, hot-air ballooning… Whatever sparks healthy entertainment, recreation, and fun teamwork, can happen At-Play events.

“I could not be more thrilled that the first of the DUx Symposia is in my home region,” said North American Region Director Kurtis Friesen, “We’ve all been awaiting this kind of unique and expansive knowledge-sharing and demand-generating event offering for a very long time.”

For more information on DigitalUniverse, visit: https://idc-a.org/digital-universe