Assessing Social and Political Risk Before a Data Center Development Goes Public: Know Before You Go

A data center site can clear every technical test — land, power, connectivity, a credible path to build — and still fail at a county board meeting. No siting or energy dataset captures that risk. It lives in meeting minutes, voting records, local news, social media, and the memory of every project a community has already approved or fought. In this session, Flypower and iMiller Public Relations walk through how to read that layer before a project goes public, and what to do with what you find. What this session covers: Identifying political, regulatory and reputational risk early Telling a viable site apart from a community that will actually support you Turning a risk framework into a permitting, messaging and stakeholder plan Building an early community engagement and listening strategy Spotting opposition and misinformation before it defines the project This isn't about eliminating opposition. It's about knowing the ground early enough to make better calls and engage first, before local sentiment sets the narrative. SPEAKERS Navdeep Martin, Chief Executive Officer, Flypower Ilissa Miller, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, iMiller Public Relations ABOUT FLYPOWER Flypower produces siting risk intelligence for renewable energy and data center developers, answering two questions: should we build here, and what is the path to approval. Our reports read the social and political layer that no GIS dataset covers. https://flypower.io ABOUT iMILLER PUBLIC RELATIONS iMPR is a strategic communications, community engagement advisory and public relations firm serving the global digital infrastructure industry, including data centers, telecommunications, subsea, connectivity and AI infrastructure companies, with community engagement delivered through its proprietary Groundswell™ methodology. https://www.imillerpr.com Recorded September 24, 2026.