I blogged about the Green:Net 09 conference over the weekend on GreenerComputing, and realized that not also putting something out there for GreenBiz readers was a symptom of a problem that plagues the world of green IT (and most conferences that address it).

One of the big trends that I flagged in my year-end roundup of stories on GreenerComputing is that IT has dual promise in addressing green issues: not only because it can make companies' internal operations more efficient, but because it can also be put to use as a , whether that's through advanced climate modeling, smart grid networks, water management, or any of dozens of other applications that we cover every day.

But green IT as a concept is somewhat slow to take off, for a couple reasons: first and foremost because IT professionals don't think of the cost-saving, space-saving, and energy-saving practices that make up "green IT" as such; they're concerned with what works, and getting the most performance for the least cost from their computer infrastructure.

But the other reason is that it seems like people outside of the IT world have not yet really grasped this potential that IT has for addressing larger issues. Cleantech and the smart are two areas of definite high interest, but the dots are rarely connected between the technology needed to make the most of these innovations.

Which brings me to the point of this post; Earth2Tech's Green:Net 09, happening March 24th in San Francisco.
It's a day-long event created by GigaOm that covers some of the staples of green IT gatherings, like energy efficient data centers, power management software and others; but it also goes in-depth on topics that are tech-intensive but are often left off the agenda at IT conferences (and which IT professionals also generally miss): how the smart grid will affect everything from data centers to vehicle fleets, putting those same software tools to work on managing more than just your power bills, and how to use social networking for the greater good (and the bottom line).

Instead of just being another IT conference to touch on green IT, Green:Net seems like the face of Silicon Valley's future: still high-tech, but now high-tech with a focus on the green economy. The speaker list includes the biggest names in Silicon Valley: Yahoo, Cisco, Google, and many more, but also brings together cleantech innovators (and their funders), government officials, researchers and nonprofits working on next-generation green technologies.

Green:Net looks promising as a model for a new kind of green conference, and we're proud to be media sponsors of the event. As a result, we're able to offer GreenBiz readers a 15 percent discount on attendance: go to GreenNetConf.com and use "GREENBIZ" as your discount code to get the 15 percent off.

Hope to see you there!