Data Center Boom: Explore the exciting growth and the benefits for our megaregion
The Speakers:
Nick Blessing is the director of Public Policy and Economic Development at QTS Data Centers, a leading global provider of data center services and technology infrastructure. QTS owns and operates an Infrastructure and connectivity rich data center campus in the White Oak Technology Park in Henrico County that was the first large data center in the Richmond region that continues to expand its footprint.
Blessing and his team focus on growing the QTS business by partnering with governments, nonprofits, and private sector businesses to implement pro-business policies and secure creative, differentiated sites and economic development tools for QTS and its customers.
During his 7-plus years with QTS, Blessing founded and has grown QTS’s multi-state government affairs practice, economic development division, and has been responsible for the implementation of numerous public-private workforce development programs, pro-industry legislative policies, and the successful entitlement/ acquisition of thousands of acres of data center campus.
Stan Blackwell is director of data center practice for Dominion Energy. Blackwell is responsible for Dominion Energy’s data center practice and the management of data center customers throughout Virginia and North Carolina. He has been with Dominion Energy for 28 years in a variety of leadership roles.
Before joining Dominion Energy, Blackwell spent nine years in the computer industry with AT&T and NCR in various financial roles supporting competitive sales organizations. He currently serves as a board member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council.
Amber Tillman leads public affairs and community development for Google’s data centers in the eastern United States and Canada.
In this role, Tillman is focused on creating inclusive, strategic, and scalable solutions that have authentic and universal impact in markets where Google operates.
She has a background in state and local public policy and stakeholder management from previous roles at Meta and Chevron. Tillman is a graduate of James Madison University and lives in Richmond.
Google has invested more than $3.2 billion into its data center campuses in Loudoun and Prince William counties, and, in April, announced an additional $1 billion investment in Virginia for 2024. Google also owns the Dunant subsea cable that comes ashore in Virginia Beach from France.
On Wednesday June 5 at noon:
The data center industry is seeing rapid growth in the I-64 Innovation Corridor megaregion, with tens of billions of dollars in projects approved or proposed. And more are on the way.
Tune in to a webinar on Wednesday June 5 at noon to learn more about what’s driving the growth and how data centers are reshaping Virginia’s economy. Gain valuable insights from our panel of experts into the pivotal role data centers play in enabling innovation and powering our digital future.
From smart devices in our hands, homes, vehicles, businesses, and factories, the growth of data has been unbelievable. There has been a five-fold increase in internet traffic alone over the past five years. In fact, 90% of all the data in the world has been created in the past two years. The growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now accelerating data growth to unprecedented levels.
The current and expected future growth of data is propelling a surge in the growth of data centers across our megaregion, state, country, and around the world.
Data centers are just one component of modern digital infrastructure. A growing and robust digital infrastructure supports the growth of high-paying IT/Tech jobs of the future and ensures the industries of tomorrow will locate and expand here. In turn, this will help grow our overall GDP, workforce, productivity per worker, wages, and, in turn, economic prosperity for all. Mature digital infrastructure hubs outperform other regions who failed to invest in their digital infrastructure.