Battery Insiders Reflection - BatteryDAY Insights

0:00Transcript

0:00Welcome to Battery Insiders, your podcast providing you insights and the fascinating world of batteries. Hosted by Bhavya Jha and Simon Engelke. And we're back. Welcome back, Simon, and to all of our listeners. We're just coming off of a really, really fun, exciting, busy week here in Battery Land. We just had our Battery Day, also the celebration of our one-year anniversary as an organization, as Battery Associates. So congratulations, Simon. That's a huge milestone and one that I think we celebrated with a lot of excitement as we celebrated Battery Day. What did you think? I feel like we had a really great program and great turnout and lots of engagement. What surprised you? What went well? Give us your thoughts. Thanks, Bhavya. And also thanks for being part of this, right? I mean, the thanks good out to everyone who's been part of Battery Associates for the past year. As you said, it kind of started at the past Battery Day one year ago and has been quite the right since then.

1:16And lots of people, ambassadors and advisors like yourself have been coming from the last Battery Day. So that's why it's been great. And yeah, I mean, I loved it. You know, there's been maybe just a bit of a quick history on the last Battery Day. So last Battery Day we did in response to the Tesla Battery Day, which happened one day before our Battery Day. So essentially, we just thought, okay, you know, there will be lots of interest in batteries. And also because of Tesla Battery Day, we thought it'd be nice to actually translate some of these announcements to the general public, but also everyone interested. So every battery enthusiast, how we call ourselves. And so last time I was really a bit piggybacking on Tesla Battery Day. And of course, we also had some deep dives on different topics such as recycling and battery data and things like that. So this was one year ago. It was like a few hours, I think three hours or so.

2:05It was a healthy amount of networking, but now or so. And yeah, so now this time we didn't have a Tesla Battery Day, but that was fine. We're still very excited for updates. And there were some coming out on the, so there's some coming out, of course, piece by bit, but essentially a bit by bit, but essentially this year was designed to have this, you know, year and batteries, like a nice summary of the entire year, which is, I think, very much connected to what we're doing here as well as Battery Insiders podcast. And Catherine Kan and myself from the Revolution have been doing that. And we speak thanks to people like Barath and Mariano and Tara who've been working on this timeline for quite a while. And essentially, I was just summarizing that. And then we had four main panels, you know, from how to maximize the value of batteries with really exciting, you know, speakers from companies such as Circulor, SYSTEMIQ, but also Northworld, Umicore, and Pulsar.

3:04And I think this was super exciting to kind of dive into topics such as the battery passport and things like that, which we already had spoken about also before on the Battery Podcast here, Battery Insiders podcast. But then we also had a session on battery data, which was super exciting, you know, having the four co-founders of four of the leading battery data companies. I guess it's still startups in some way, but also companies. I mean, they've been around some of them for longer. We had Voltaic, Acure, Twice, and Voltaic Diagnostics with us. Then also the CEO of Octopus EV, a leasing company together with Octopus Energy, who actually have a nice link to Tesla because they provide the energy tariff in Southern Germany. But, which we know maybe from the session with Tillman a while ago. But this was really fun. And then we had lots of deep dives on battery data and different topics and sustainability of the batteries. And then we had two other panels on one panel on solid-state, as well as battery chemistry materials with the CEO of Polestar, the CEO of Storedot, and the head of automotive from Weiman, as well as a PhD researcher from UCR.

4:21I love that session as well. So insights in there. And then the final session on diversity and training, which is, of course, something very close to our heart with battery associates as well. Here we had four fantastic people, one from Avenza's partners, from ABB, Virginia Tech, and our own battery source, it was Amandine. And yeah, this was, I think, also closing another few deep dives on projects such as the battery cycler, EBR ethical battery rating. Yeah, that was really cool. I liked that we got to do a deep dive into the battery rating topic. And of course, you know, the conversations about the passport, some of those things really stuck out to me. And then I think it was great that we had a diversity and inclusion training. This is a very important sector that requires, I think, all voices to be a part of it. I mean, as many sectors do, of course. But I think when you're talking about batteries and specific or like more like an energy transition at large, you're talking about very different contexts globally.

5:28And then to have to be mindful that you're thinking about that when you're making decisions or thinking about how batteries should be scaled and executed and, you know, installed in different parts of the world, that is super important to keep in mind. It's a really important lens to have. So I'll just put it out there. I love that about Battery Associates. I think you do a great job, Simon, making sure that we stick to our mission on that part. Thank you. And I mean, also, again, you know, massive team effort. But yeah, I think it was a really important session we had there as well. And yeah, just super excited. Maybe just one quick thing is the entire event was free. Thanks to our amazing sponsors. We mentioned also in period sessions. But actually, people want to have the recordings. If they booked a pro or VIP ticket, they receive the recordings after the event. But people who want to watch the recordings, you're probably going to put them online for free in about half a year.

6:24So just a bit of a, you know, make sure that our pro and VIP ticket holders get a sponsor, et cetera, get a special, you know, advanced view, essentially. And then we're probably going to make it all accessible in half a year. If you want to get access to it before, just reach out to us. You know, you can also upgrade to a pro or so ticket. No problem whatsoever. But yeah, big, big day. And, you know, maybe just one thing to reach out already. We already started out planning the next one. So, 23rd of September, it's a Friday this time in September 2022. I'm going to be the next one. We already started planning. We already invited some people. So, yeah, it should be a big one. Might be a bit of hybrid as well, but we're figuring this out. So we go closer to the date. But yeah, if you're interested to get involved, just reach out to us. Same with Battery Associates and become an ambassador or a member there.

7:13Just go on the website, battery.associates. Literally, that's how we met many of the people involved in Battery Associates through the last two battery days. So don't be shy. Reach out and hopefully to hear from you soon. Great. All right. Well, I'll see you next week. And I'll definitely see you next year at this point. See you then. Bye-bye. Bye.