7X24 EXCHANGE SILICON PRAIRIE CHAPTER
After attending the 2019 Fall Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, Our founding President, Jack Duren, was inspired to bring 7×24 to Nebraska and Iowa. In March of 2021, the Silicon Prairie Chapter was founded with the goal of providing a knowledge exchange for those who design, build, operate, and maintain mission critical facilities. This goal aligned with the mission of the international organization as our board deeply resonated with these principles.
Over the past 10-years, Nebraska and Iowa have been active areas for a variety of data center builds ranging from hyper-scale to the colocation. We found nearly immediate success in attracting end-users and industry partners to support the organization as there was a desire in the community to connect and facilitate communication.
In our first two years as an organization, we attracted over 60 supporting companies, and built a foundation for the future. This includes our blueprint for member education, charity golf outings, STEM outreach, social events, and the Silicon Prairie Scholarship. As of 2023, we have seven students under scholarship.
In the Fall of 2023, our President accepted a new position in Phoenix, Arizona, and we were excited to announce the promotion of John Hoodjer from Treasurer, to fulfill the President role. John was selected to serve as President by the Board of Directors as he has had a tremendous impact on the financial stability and growth of the chapter. We are excited to start our next chapter as an organization under John’s leadership.