November 5, 2021: The International Lead Association this week announced that the next European Lead Acid Battery conference will be held in Lyon, France between September 6-9 next year.

The venue is the Palais des Congrès de Lyon in part of the Cité Internationale and about 2km from the heart of the old town.

Separately the announcement created furore in parts of the lead battery market. The Batteries International challenge — where will ELBC next be held? — caused a flurry of suggestions.

The range of guesses was impressive if quirky. Why pick Helsinki just because nobody ever goes there? Or Athens because you’ve always wanted to see the Parthenon?

But there could only be one winner for our prize of $20 in used bills. Steve Barnes, who correctly guessed Vienna four years ago, came the closest geographically, a mere 900km away.

“Austria has always been a great capital city for me,” says the Barnes. “The best strategy is always stick with a winner. I knew it’d come up again.”