Explore the Agenda
7:00 am Registration, Morning Refreshments & Networking
7:45 am Advancing Data Centers Opening Remarks
7:50 am Chairs Opening Remarks
Unlocking Smarter, Faster Data Center Growth
8:00 am Fireside Chat: Pinpointing Texas’ Next Growth Markets to Stay Ahead of Demand
- Identifying where hyperscalers and colocators are actively deploying new capacity across Texas today and which markets are absorbing demand fastest
- Forecasting how power availability, grid investment and policy dynamics are shifting future growth
- Understanding why Texas continues to capture outsized data center investment compared to other regions and how this shapes long-term market strategy
8:30 am Driving Innovation & Performance from Foundation to Rooftop: Delivering AI-Ready Infrastructure at Scale
- Evaluating AI-optimized concrete solutions to improve structural performance, durability, and construction efficiency
- Understanding how high-performance specifications compound across foundations, structure, and roofing to enhance long-term facility performance
- Sharing lessons learned from delivering integrated building envelope solutions that improve speed to market, sustainability, and lifecycle value
9:00 am Hyperscaler & Colocator Panel: Defining What to Expect from Your Project Partners & How They Can Deliver
- Defining what owners look for in Texas project partners beyond technical capability
- Explaining project partner expectations throughout planning and delivery: how can teams better align with decision-making criteria, contracting approach, and communication practices?
- Clarifying what it takes for project partners to support speed without increasing risk: the importance of early commitments, realistic scheduling and accountability
9:30 am Speed Networking
Kickstart your conference experience with a burst of energy and connection! In this fast-paced session, you’ll connect with peers from your region through quick-fire introductions that spark meaningful conversations that last throughout the conference and beyond.
10:00 am Morning Refreshments
Track 1: Planning & Project Set Up
Optimizing Project Set-up to Accelerate Site Selection, Permitting & Approvals
10:30 am When Texas Heat Meets AI Density: Mechanical and Controls Strategies for Resilient Data Center Cooling
Vice President Compute Market Leader, Clayco Construction Company
Vice President - Mission Critical Market Leader, Clayco Construction Company
Associate Principal - Mechanical Engineer, Clayco Construction Company
- Engaging Texas jurisdictions early to clarify permitting requirements, infrastructure capacity, utility constraints and political considerations that affect approval timing
- Coordinating multi-discipline reviews through an integrated permitting strategy, leveraging local GC insight to align design, utilities and reviewers
- Treating permitting as a strategic project risk by using phased approvals, parallel reviews and early design alignment to protect schedule certainty
Session Reserved for LJC
11:00 am Understanding End-to-End Piping Strategies for Data Center Cooling Infrastructure
Vice President of Sales, Milford Companies
- Reducing piping risk across mission-critical data center cooling environments while maintaining reliability and operational continuity
- Integrating fully fused polyethylene piping across buried utility networks and in-building cooling systems to support long-term performance and constructability
- Preparing project teams for retrofits, new builds and future capacity demands through scalable, adaptable piping infrastructure strategies
11:30 am Interactive Discussion: Optimizing Site Selection to Reduce Risk, Improve Connectivity & Secure Power
- Balancing proximity to major metro areas with the advantages of rural and West Texas sites to unlock larger land access, simplified logistics and greater flexibility for scalable data center construction
- Integrating energy strategy into site selection by taking advantage of Texas’s deregulated ERCOT grid to reduce interconnection delays and long-term risk
- Integrating climate, zoning, and permitting risks into site selection decision-making to ensure long-term project viability and regulatory compliance permitting risks into site selection decision-making
12:00 pm Case Study: Building Engagement Strategies that Address Local Concerns Expectations to Manage Community Pushback
Regional Manager, Community Impact & Investment, Turner Construction Company
Corporate & Community Engagement Director, Turner Construction Company
- Engaging local officials, residents and community influencers early to align expectations around infrastructure impacts, construction timelines, and local benefits
- Addressing common ‘Not-in-my-Backyard’ and ‘Not Over There Either’ concerns around power use, water demand, noise and land use through clear, fact-based communication
- Sharing how we adapted engagement strategies to local context across Texas communities, reflecting differences between rural counties, fast-growth suburbs and urban-edge municipalities
12:30 pm Fiber Without the Friction: Keeping Specialized Connectivity Off the Critical Path in Hyperscale Builds
President, FORGE25
- Understanding why fiber technical scope is increasingly specialized and how the right subcontractor partnership protects the GC's schedule, budget, and risk profile.
- Identifying what separates a reliable fiber subcontractor from a schedule liability through rigorous testing, disciplined inspections, comprehensive documentation, and clean handoffs that prevent rework.
- De-risking fiber early through smart scoping, sequencing, coordination, and partner selection to keep hyperscale builds on schedule and off the critical path.
Track 2: Preconstruction & Operations
Track 1: Planning & Project Set Up
Securing Reliable Power Across Texas’ Complex Grid
1:40 pm Fireside Chat: Working with Texas Utilities to Manage Capacity Constraints & Protect Power Delivery Timelines
Principal Program Manager, Microsoft
Data Center / Mission Critical Solutions, Black & Veatch
- Examining the Execution constraints Texas utilities are managing today, including overlapping large-load demand, capital prioritization, transformer availability workforce limits and constrained construction and outage windows
- Aligning your project planning as sumptions with how Texas utilities sequence and execute work, addressing engineering timelines, construction windows and outage coordination before designs and schedules are locked
- Coordinating ERCOT interconnection milestones with utility delivery activities, including inspections, outage planning and energization, to avoid timing gaps that delay power delivery
2:10 pm Roundtable Networking: Understanding ERCOT: Navigating Texas’ Unique Power Grid for Data Center Projects
- Operating within ERCOT’s independant, deregulated grid: how can we enable faster market decisions, flexible power procurement and accelerated data center development
- Navigating ERCOT interconnection processes, approval timelines and outage coordination to reduce energization risk and protect your time to operations
- Forecasting load growth, substation capacity and upgrade requirements to avoid late-stage power constraints
Preconstruction & Operations
2:40 pm Afternoon Refreshment & Networking
Maximizing Expertise in a Complex Market
3:30 pm Strengthening Your Workforce to Build Highly Skilled Teams & Sustain Productivity
- Developing regionalized workforce strategies to keep skilled teams within commuting distance of your project
- Optimizing labor scheduling and resource allocation to balance workload and prevent burnout: how can we maintain aggressive timelines without compromising efficiency or employee well-being?
- Aligning project specific hiring and team deployment strategies to ensure the right mix of craft labor and technical staff are available for each site without overreliance on temporary labor pools
4:00 pm How MEP Fabrication Workflows Are Reshaping Data Center Delivery
- Reshaping Data Center Delivery
- Understanding why data center MEP scopes demand a fundamentally different approach to design sequencing, coordination, and prefabrication readiness than standard commercial work
- Examining how fabrication bottlenecks and coordination breakdowns surface in real projects and what the data reveals about where delivery timelines actually slip
- Showcasing how leading MEP contractors are using survey-backed insights and technology-driven workflows to compress schedules and reduce field execution risk
4:30 pm Interactive Discussion: Driving Productivity Across Every Project Phase & Building System
Break into focused networking groups designed to connect you with peers responsible for the same building systems, project scopes, and delivery challenges. Meet owners, designers, contractors, trade partners, and specialists who share your priorities, exchange practical insights from projects across Texas, and build relationships with the people shaping data center delivery. Whether you're looking to compare approaches, identify new partners, or expand your professional network, these sessions are an opportunity to find your audience and make connections that continue well beyond the event.
4:55 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks
5:00 pm End of Conference Day One
5:00 pm Advancing Data Center Construction Texas Happy Hour Hosted by Velcon
Unwind and connect with peers at our drinks reception, an opportunity to continue the day’s conversations in a relaxed setting. Whether you’re building new partnerships or catching up with familiar faces, this is the perfect place to expand your network over drink!