NAATBatt 2020, the 11th annual meeting and conference of the NAATBatt International organization, concluded on Thursday of this week.  To say that NAATBatt 2020 was NAATBatt’s biggest and best program yet would not be hyperbole:  it is an undeniable fact.

NAATBatt 2020 had almost 300 attendees, nearly 20 exhibitors and over 80 e-minute “flash” presentations by NAATBatt member firms, jury-selected emerging companies and winners of the Department of Energy’s Phase I Battery Recycling Prize competition.

As I warned from the podium in kicking off the meeting, listening to the presentations was a bit like drinking from a fire hose.  Everything important that is happening in advanced battery technology in North America was there for full, if very rapid, consumption.  But what struck most attendees was not the mass of material presented, but the almost shockingly high quality of the presentations themselves.

Thanks to all NAATBatt member firms that participated in the NAATBatt 2020 meetings and to the other invited, non-member speakers.  The effort you put in was amazing and the collective result unprecedented.

For 11 years the NAATBatt annual meeting has been the infant sibling of the large, professional, for-profit trade shows that dominate the battery conference business.  No more.  As of 2020 there is a player in town.  It is not a media company or for-profit entrepreneur.  It is the industry itself.  We have finally coming of age.

2020 is going to be a great year for the battery business in North America.  I am delighted that NAATBatt 2020 got it kicked off right.