Data Center World 2028
About the Event
Data Center World 2028 is AFCOM and Informa's flagship global conference and exhibition for the data center industry, taking place May 1 to May 4, 2028, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. The event marks the conference's return to the nation's capital following its 2027 stop in Nashville, placing the gathering directly adjacent to the Northern Virginia data center market.
Across four days of programming, the event brings together more than 8,000 mission-critical facility professionals, cloud architects, engineering leaders, real estate developers, and digital infrastructure investors alongside an exhibition hall featuring over 450 vendors and solution providers.
Programming Focus
- Advanced power architectures, utility interconnection strategy, and substation integration
- Siting, permitting, and grid capacity bottlenecks across major metropolitan hubs
- Thermal management innovations, including liquid cooling, direct-to-chip, and rear-door heat exchangers
- Modular construction methodologies, offsite prefabrication, and mission-critical supply chain delivery
- AI factory design, rack density scaling, and high-performance computing infrastructure requirements
- Data center sustainability, grid-interactive backup systems, and microgrid deployments
- Public policy, regulatory compliance, zoning constraints, and community engagement frameworks
- Strategic capital allocation, infrastructure fund underwriting, and colocation leasing trends
Who Should Attend
- Data center operations directors and facility engineers
- Mission-critical mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) consulting engineers
- Hyperscale, colocation, and enterprise capacity planning teams
- Cloud architects and digital infrastructure executives
- Electric utility leads and regional grid operators
- General contractors and mission-critical construction project managers
- Infrastructure private equity investors and real estate investment trusts
- Technology vendors providing power, cooling, software, and physical infrastructure
Logistics
The four-day conference and expo will be hosted at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, situated at 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW in Washington, DC. The venue connects directly to the Mount Vernon Square Metro station on the Yellow and Green lines, with direct transit links to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and regional connections to Dulles International Airport (IAD). Registration tiers, exhibition booth sales, and hotel room blocks will open in advance through the official conference platform.