The Great and the Good at BCI 123

The123rdAnnualBatteryCouncilInternationalConventioneruptedwithahugeburstof enthusiasmasthefirstwaveofdelegatesdescendedonthedrinks,canapés—andBourbon —attheSundaypre-conferencereception.

“This is the annual prom night for the battery industry across North America,” said one Michigan delegate determinedly clinging on to his couple of drinks and Kentucky-styled fried chicken. “And I’m looking forward to a lively and fun program.”

For the second time many of the presentations will spill over on to the third morning — traditionally held by a less than solemn gathering of the Quarter Century Club celebrating breakfast in true midWest style (always start at dawn before milking the dairy.)

Certainly, the range of presentations looks a formidable one.

Behind the scenes BCI head Roger Miksad and industry veterans Tim Ellis and John Howes as well as others helped compile a very original range of industry and technical presentations.

“I like it,” one conference delegate told Battery Street Journal when reviewing the diary for the following days. “This is very different from what you get from regular lead conferences — some of the presentations we’ll see over the next three days are very lateral in the approach taken.”

There was also a feeling that the choice of keynote speakers was an interesting one. Robert Bryce, for example, could have been controversial given his belief that the much-hailed energy transition was mostly hype and impossible to achieve. (In the event the following morning his talk was recognised as being one of the best in BCI history.)