With Thanksgiving just behind us and Christmas, Hannukah, and New Year's celebrations just before, we can all be excused for looking at our calendars and trying to stay close to home. After all, we've been busy all year and year-end reports are due in many industries so there's no extra downtime for gift shopping, making holiday plans, or decorating.

However, DatacenterDynamics hosts not one, but two, events in North America in December, and the quality of these events means that staying home is a mistake. I'll be at the Dallas event on December 7th. Conference organizers have also planned a great event on December 13th in Toronto. Except for a Gartner event to be held Dec. 6-9, these two DatacenterDynamics events have the stage to themselves in December.

As a result of this scheduling and to prepare for writing this blog, I had the programs for both events open side by side and my desktop. This exercise helped me visualize the value of the entire DatacenterDynamics series. In 2010, they held nine events in North America, and each event was different. (Trust me on the geography here. Mischievously, they list the Mexico City event under Latin America.) The same will be true in 2011.

Each of these events has its own speaker lineup. At each event, some speakers will address national issues while others take on local issues. While it is true that many speakers fly in from around the country, it is equally true that conference organizers find local experts who can address national concerns, so it is never a case of seeing the same old pundits.

For instance, while Dennis Cronin of Gilbane will be discussing containers in Dallas, Julius Rachman of from DFW Consulting and the 7x24Exchange Lone Star Chapter has only to drive to the Renaissance Dallas Richardson Hotel. Similarly, the Toronto event features speakers from Canadian companies such as RIM, Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, and Toronto Hydro, all of whom address issues of concern throughout North America.

I'd also like to note that DatacenterDynamics does a terrific job disseminating the presentations. Even one-time attendees can access the full library of presentations from 2010 for events taking place in the 12 prior months, DCDtv Media Player is online video library of event presentations, and  Focus magazine, which presents additional event coverage, and Mission Critical are available at all DatacenterDynamics events.

In a way, the events are also connected. DatacenterDynamics also generates a tremendous body of information based on surveys taken at each event. I know they take these surveys seriously, using them to tailor upcoming events. But they also generate very interesting reports concerning attitudes and practices in data centers.

As always, feel free to look for me at these events. I look forward to talking to you about your data center work.