This event has ended, but don't worry we have a new forum each week!
Central Ohio is a magnet for data center development, with global tech companies drawn to the region’s strategic location, energy capacity, and growing tech workforce. No one disputes that data centers are critical engines for economic development – big AI needs big data centers. But as the footprint of these massive facilities expands, local communities are grappling with complex questions about land use, infrastructure strain, tax incentives, environmental impact, and energy demand.
At this forum, we’ll welcome experts to help us unpack the broader implications of large-scale data center growth in Central Ohio. What are the true economic benefits? How should energy capacity and environmental concerns be weighed? And who ultimately has the authority when local and state priorities collide? At stake is not just one project, but a model for how Ohio manages innovation, growth, and community impact in the AI era.
Join us for a conversation that brings these questions into focus and helps shape how Central Ohio can navigate data center growth, innovation, and community impact in the years ahead.
Featuring Ryan Augsburger, President, The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association; Dr. Jeffrey Bielicki, Associate Faculty Director of Research, Sustainability Institute, The Ohio State University; Timothy Chadwick, Area Operations Manager for Ohio, Google; Christopher Wyche, Member, Columbus City Council, and Chair, Public Utilities & Sustainability Committee, with moderator Karen Kasler Bureau Chief, Statehouse News Bureau.
If you would like to dive more deeply into this topic, our friends at the Columbus Metropolitan Library suggest checking out The Dark Cloud: the Hidden Costs of the Digital World, by Guillaume Pitron, 2023.
Photographs by: Ian Alexander Photography