Ian;
My paper on the Thomas Edison Nickel Iron batteries IS NOT going to get presented. It ended up being accepted as a STANDBY paper, which means that it will be included in the conference proceedings and will be on their web site after Battcon 2011 is over but i will not be speaking this year. The good part of this is that anyone can go to the Battcon website at some point after the conference and download the paper.
As for people not showing up, it does happen, but i know that they already have a waiting list and no one is getting in now.
It is the best conference for stationary battery users in the US, but it does not seem to do much for off grid applications.
Just wanted to clarify about my paper.