Matt,
Wow, at $550 per head (or even $450 if they let you register as an academic) this is a pretty stiff entry fee to hear a bunch of highly-technical talks. To be perfectly honest, as a Ph.D. physicist I had to really pay attention to keep up with all of the chemistry jargon that was thrown around at an investor forum that was supposed to be nontechnical. Unless the person who goes has a very strong chemistry background and some prior familiarity with the field of electrochemistry, I do not know if the money would be well spent.
Having said that, it is important for EV enthusiasts to keep up with the trends in battery technolgy. I hope that whoever goes gives a talk about what they learned at a future meeting!
Gerry Jackson