Shaping the Future of Data Infrastructure: 2027 Data Center Frontier & Microgrid Knowledge Co-Located Event
Data Center Frontier announced today that the fourth annual Data Center Frontier Trends Summit will take place May 5–7, 2027, at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa in Glendale, Arizona, where it will co-locate with Microgrid Knowledge for the first time — bringing the data center and distributed energy communities onto a shared show floor.
The move marks a new city, a new region, and a new time of year for the Summit, all firsts in its history.
The announcement was made on the opening day of the 2026 Trends Summit in Reston, Virginia, where more than 500 data center leaders, operators, developers, engineers, and capital providers gathered to examine what it takes to build, power, and operate the infrastructure the AI era demands.
Co-Locating with Microgrid Knowledge
The 2027 Summit will co-locate with Microgrid Knowledge Conference, the leading voice in distributed energy, and the first time either event has shared a floor with another brand. It is the most significant structural change in the Summit's four-year history, and it reflects where the two audiences have been converging on their own: power.
The two events will share an exhibit floor and select education sessions, giving attendees a single destination for full power conversation: from grid interconnection to behind-the-meter generation and storage. Data center attendees gain direct access to the microgrid, energy, and utility expertise their projects increasingly depend on. Microgrid Knowledge attendees gain access to the largest and fastest-growing load on the grid, and to the operators and developers building it.
Each event will retain its own identity, editorial voice, and conference program. What's shared is the show floor, a portion of the education, and the networking — where the most valuable conversations tend to happen anyway.
The Next Data Center Frontier
The 2027 move follows the industry itself. The Southwest has become one of the fastest-growing data center corridors in North America, with Glendale and the greater Phoenix market drawing record development driven by land availability, transmission access, and an expanding energy
generation mix. Moving the Summit to Arizona puts the conversation where the next wave of capacity is being sited, permitted, powered, and built.
"Data Center Frontier has always followed the frontier — and right now that frontier runs straight through the desert Southwest," said Matt Vincent, Editor in Chief, Data Center Frontier. "Glendale puts us in the middle of one of the most consequential build markets in the country, at a moment when power strategy, site selection, and speed to energization are defining who wins. Moving to spring also lets us catch the industry earlier in its planning and capital cycle, when decisions are still being made rather than reported on. New geography, new timing, new conversations — this is the next data center frontier.”
What's Next
The Data Center Frontier Trends Summit remains what it has always been: a curated, right-sized event built for decision-makers, with focused sessions, peer-to-peer roundtables, open Q&A, and real access to the people shaping the industry,
· Call for Speakers: Opens August 19 and runs through September 30. Industry practitioners, operators, and end users are encouraged to submit session proposals at DCFtrends.com.
· Registration: Opens in September. · Stay Connected: Complete the 2027 interest form to be the first to receive news, pricing, and program updates.
· Exhibit & Sponsor, contact: Tom Larranaga, Associate Publisher [email protected]| 973-460-9476