DICE: National 2026

The flagship of Bisnow's DICE series, held 12-14 May 2026 at the Bethesda North Marriott in Rockville, Maryland. Three days and 1,080+ attendees make it the largest data center event Bisnow runs, spanning capital markets, site strategy, power integration, AI-first design, cooling, connectivity and workforce. Joe Kava received the Lifetime Achievement Award; Andrea Drasites of Blackstone delivered a keynote.

Programming Focus

Day 1 — market, supply chain and capital:

• State of Northern Virginia and the new global hubs
• Building at the pace of capital: supply chain and procurement
• From dirt to deal: site strategy and permitting
• Beyond the substation: power integration for AI campuses
• Capital at the core: underwriting AI-era campuses
• From market land grab to disciplined growth
• Workforce under pressure: talent shortages and skills gaps

Day 2 — network, power, design and cooling:

• Monetizing latency: AI-ready network and edge architectures
• Power playbooks for the AI era
• AI-first design: rethinking scale and modularity
• Future of cooling design: high density without overbuilding
• Operational excellence 2.0: tools, teams and performance

Day 3 — delivery and community:

• Delivery at scale: turning pipelines into buildable projects
• When data centers come to town: community and sustainability
• Lifetime Achievement keynote: Joe Kava

Featured Speakers

Capital markets and investment:

• Andrea Drasites, Sr. Managing Director, Blackstone (keynote)
• Luke Gilpin, Managing Director, Blue Owl Capital
• Ariana Batori, Principal, Stonepeak
• Michael Borchetta, Sr. MD Co-Head North America Transactions, Harrison Street
• Aaron Kutner, Regional Head Mid-Atlantic Acquisitions, MetLife Investment Management
• Robert DiCostanzo, Senior Director Investments, CVC DIF
• Michael Lee, Managing Director, GI Partners

Operators and developers:

• Chris Curtis, Global Head of Data Centers, Prologis
• Lane Anderson, EVP Development & Strategic Procurement, QTS
• Matt Souders, SVP Data Center Delivery, Oracle
• Christopher Lettiere, VP Data Center Operations, Oracle
• John Sheputis, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Primary Digital Infrastructure
• Mario Calderone, Chief Real Estate Officer, ServerFarm
• Joe Melia, Director Preconstruction, CloudHQ
• Matt Brown, COO, Core Scientific
• Terry Rodgers, VP Design & Engineering, T5 Data Centers

Hyperscale and enterprise engineering:

• Jasmeet Singh, Senior DC Design Manager, Amazon Web Services
• Pavan Kundurthi, Manager Field Engineering, Amazon Web Services
• Adebisi Ogunsanmi, Manager Critical Environment Operations, Microsoft
• Akshay Viradiya, Sr. Staff Data Center Engineer, LinkedIn
• Neila Wilson, Director Data Center Engineering & Operations East, Visa
• Sahid Jaffa, Infrastructure Engineering Technical Leader, Geico
• Yuval Bachar, CEO, EdgeCloudLink

Power and energy:

• Patrick Hughes, Senior VP, NEMA
• Brian Best, EVP, WTG Energy
• Michael Mindell, Senior National Account Executive, CPower Energy Management
• Scott Worley, Sr. Director, Stabilis Solutions

Connectivity:

• Phillip Koblence, Co-Founder & COO, NYI
• Vinay Nagpal, CEO/Executive Director, IG Group & IEIC
• Dagi Berhane, Founder & CEO, Tlarity

Legal and advisory:

• Jeff Moerdler, Partner & Chair Data Center & Digital Infrastructure, Haynes and Boone
• Josh Rudin, Member & Co-Chair Digital Infrastructure Practice, Mintz
• James Grice, Chair Data Centers & Digital Infrastructure Practice, Akerman
• Joshua B. Forman, Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig
• Gary Germeroth, Partner, PA Consulting Group

Sponsors

Presenting: Metromont, Watts Water

Who Should Attend

• Data center investors, lenders and capital allocators
• Developers, owners and operators
• Real estate and site selection professionals
• Engineers, architects and construction leaders
• Power, utility and infrastructure stakeholders

Logistics

Three-day format. Attendance 1,080+. Prior editions: 1,125+ in 2025, 800+ in 2024 (sold out).