 Aloha and welcome back to JSA TV live the newsroom for tech telecom and data center professionals Buffy Harakitas and we are live from PTC 23 biggest PTC annual conference to date here in sunny Honolulu Hawaii and joining me today is Gary Connolly of host in Ireland hello Buffy how are you so nice to see you welcome to JSA TV here PTC thank you and I absolutely love your jacket oh thank you it's Kelly Green it's right on point we're going to get on really well yes we are so not only green for Ireland but also green for greener data our movement here at JSA our sustainability movement so we just launched in case you did it already know our greener data directory yesterday so congratulations it's great I saw it thank you so much so how has PTC been for you this year Gary well I'm a total newbie here oh yeah so it took me maybe a day and a half just to get to know the coordinates of where everything is and where everything isn't and when you're used to going to an event that's a single venue you don't know that there's great vibes going on everywhere everywhere and often the most activity is not in the main venue so it's been great and you know you can't complain when you've come from snow to go to nice weather but yeah it's been good so far thank you so much for asking yeah well I'm glad that you are having a great show here I mean we saw you not that long ago back in November now yeah where we supported your first international difference day so we were honored to be a part of that yeah why don't you tell viewers a little bit more about that initiative and all the wonderful things that you're doing so what we realized as hosting Ireland is if we're anything we're a community right and we're trying to get different aspects of that community to the fore and often it's about the people not about the data not about the centers not about whether you've got a great title or not about whether you're changing the world or not so we found that if we brought people together all over some sort of purpose of common interest we could get people actually really excited and that's why three years ago now we actually launched the world's first data center specific pollinator plan okay but what's that well actually it's just 40 to 45 things that data or digital infrastructure people people can do to help the little bees whether that's just not cut your grass or put a little a bee box in your courtyard so that was fantastic and that was all great got lots of PR but then we said imagine if we could bring that community together by doing something tangible and that's why we have different states right so our first different stay you're absolutely right was in north Virginia it was with a community farm and we laid out I think we ended up with 37 raised beds of which you and your colleagues were out there with your shovels and it was a your let's say it on this show we shifted a lot of shit a lot we put them in raised beds and I have a little memento for you thank you so much and it's a it's it's just to acknowledge the difference day as I say the 37 raised beds they reckon we'll pollinate fruit which will then help the bee survive so well done on that and your part it was our honor it was an honor and a pleasure to be a part of that you know the JSA family we are really big on supporting anything and everything that helps the environment and just to make the world a better place so and I guess a case of point is I remember absolutely nothing about the DCD connect event that was on at the same time but I remember nearly the first names the second names the people that turned up there was a hundred and twenty people right from all of the community from the data center people to the energy people to the telecoms people and you know when you find a purpose of common interest right you can study you don't say what do you buy and what do you sell right you say you hold that book it I'm gonna put this in and don't miss and then carry it over there you get to know people yes and that's the fun it is and so thank you for joining us and most important thanks for telling people yes because there's a lot of great people even here who do great things and they're not told their stories aren't told it's usually the guy with the biggest budget and the loudest voice so thank you you're welcome it was an honor and a pleasure to support that to get the word out there obviously you know JSA 18 years in the business we are true at heart storytellers so it was a no we have a new story yes all right well moving along from that I mean you know you have your own LinkedIn live show unsustainability tell us a little bit more about that and what you're optimistic about coming in the future I the LinkedIn show is called bits bites and banter right so I think it's more of the banter bit because again what we like to bring on like you guys to be fair is bringing people have good stories right good back stories and then we'll get to the digital infrastructure stuff because we can learn so much can't we from retail hotels and all these other industries that have gone before us that help us actually oh maybe I won't make that mistake with this because when you get new innovative young vibrant people you know they think they've invented music they haven't we all think we invent music when we're 17 but we're just playing the same 12 notes over and over so that's what the show is about and then we bring out what's good because it's hard isn't it this sustainability story and this whole technical challenge of reducing carbon emissions is so vast so huge that we have to distill it down into smaller silos where people can understand because when we try and say well you need to do this and you need to do that it can be hard because it can be out of your control how can I control the carbon emissions of this right very hard they need a microphone but then I can go and do other things that are within my control and I think that's what's more coming out in our stories is that people now understand there's a challenge right so ignorance is no defense key thing we can't use ignorance as a defense anymore we made we made question why the climate is changing but it is it is it definitely is and it's it's so critical that we do come together as an industry to do everything that we can yeah to save the planet so where can viewers go if they want to learn more about that show just linked in my Gary Conley hosting Ireland is our initiative and we show that every second week on a Thursday I think yeah we're gonna have to check that out and host in Ireland just announced its largest membership initiative to date I want to each today congratulations thank you tell viewers a little bit more about that so the name actually might be a bit misleading now because really what we are is over the last eight years since we launched it is it's about Ireland and the Irish it's the influence the Irish people have on the design the build the operation of the digital global infrastructure space so I'm sure many of you know Donna Roach from stack and all these all these Irish people so really now what we're promoting the Irish the essence of being Ireland and Ireland to bring it all together and the 54 partners we have now are not just hosting companies they're design companies they're renewable energy companies there are people who are actually in the middle of doing power purchase agreements they're people who are running the wires because our sense is is that if we just concentrate on the end piece like the the router on the end of a fiber and not talking about the fiber and the data center we're only getting very narrow and very deep right in one aspect of what is the digital infrastructure space so we've all sorts of partners now of engineers to suppliers to data center operators and I think that allows itself for a much more open and interesting discussion because if we bring ten of the same together well you're a green one of what I'm a blue one and you're a yellow one and you get a bit sparks don't you all my blue one is much better than your yellow one where you have the supply chain in there like yourself if you look at your partner listing it's the full breadth of the ecosystem right and that helps you then actually make connection points stories to tell stories rather than just one element of it so the 54 from all parts of the ecosystem and that's what I'm excited about this year we have our first legal firm oh yeah one of them and they're coming in and they're basically they'll help us with understanding data privacy data protection data security data compliance another very important hot topic right for sure we have all this data can we keep it secure right so what they are coming in as partner in a safe environment behind the firewall is aware they can teach us so we're happy 54 and we probably could have more but to be honest you have to know what blend of partners you want to satisfy a coherent message because if you expand it too broad then you you don't tell the message at all so what we try and do is we try and get people like-minded people irrespective of your brand like-minded people doesn't matter about your brand let's find the area of common interest and most people at the moment I think post COVID realize we're human we're more human than we like to believe they never before oh I think digital infrastructure saved our lives zoom and all that on demand and schools at home and all the rest but even introverts realize God I love now meeting an old pal or I love going out into a peer meeting and just talking stuff so that's what we think Austin Ireland can create it's a it's a community of like-minded people that really firstly want to actually share experiences and that's I guess how DC's for bees came out because the kids of those people said we need to go home and actually say we're not saving the world we're doing this right to save the world yeah little tangible things and it's in your book we were delighted to participate in the book thank you so much for being a part of our book and the greener data movement so we're so honored to be speaking with you today thank you again for the little difference day DC's for bees our plaque here for participating in the first international difference day we will put it on our display our trophy display that just keeps getting bigger and bigger but we are honored to be a part of this and congrats on this big announcement that you had today such an honor to speak with you where can viewers go if they want to learn more hosted Ireland.com hosted Ireland.com well thanks again viewers for tuning in to another fabulous episode of JSA TV live from PTC 23 happy networking