"I get knocked down... but I get up again!"

About three months ago I was feeling a little sorry for myself. I'm sure we all get like it occasionally but, sooner or later, the dark clouds lifted and there were blue skies and sunshine again, well, almost. During the gloom I found a documentary on Prime about a band called Chumbawamba, an anarcho-punk outfit who, I think, were/are based on the South Coast of England. The song was a huge success and even found its way into a movie starring Woody Harrelson. The lyrics of the song, which, incidentally, was called Tubthumping, have resonated with me over the years for a range of reasons, but were brought sharply into focus recently when I discovered that the Future Steel Forum, Steel Times International's futurist conference, had secured a new venue, the Intercontinental Hotel in Barcelona (don't forget these dates: 25, 26, 27 June and remember that the last day is a Friday so there's a great opportunity to have a weekend in Barcelona).

Originally, the event was scheduled to take place in Bilbao, home of the Guggenheim museum, but alas it was not to be. We were all geared up for Northern Spain but were told all bets were off and through no fault of our own. I'll leave it there, but there was a little bit of a panic when we realised we needed to secure a new venue pronto. Fortunately, Quartz's excellent ops department got to work and now we're back in the game.

If I'm honest, I wasn't really happy with running the Forum in an exhibition centre, but I was prepared to roll with it. I believe hotels are far more suitable for an event like the Forum, a little more intimate, perhaps, a bit more exclusive even, why break with tradition? So, perhaps things do happen for a reason. All Future Steel Forums have been held in hotels since the inaugural event in June 2017 and the last thing we wanted to do was run the event later in the year, which was on the cards. The Forum only runs later in the year (September) during METEC years.

Looking back, our first two events took place at the Sheraton, Warsaw, then we found ourselves in the Sofitel in Budapest, followed by the Grandior Hotel in Prague, the Hilton in Vienna and, last year, the Hilton in Stockholm, all worthy establishments offering our delegates fantastic hospitality and somewhere to hunker down.

So, here we are, 2025. It's hard to believe that the Future Steel Forum has been going for eight years. Eight years! And that's all down to a great programme – nobody pays to speak at the Forum – and some amazing speakers, sponsors and exhibitors, not to forget a global delegate base and Quartz's own dedicated army of support staff that tackle any problem that might arise.

Fortunately, there are no problems... except for this year when suddenly we didn't have a venue, albeit temporarily, but that, as I explained earlier, has been rectified and now we're all set for the Intercontinental Hotel, Barcelona, 25-27 June 2025 and I find myself walking along the street, a skip in my step, singing, "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down!"

And here's a clip from the movie in which the song features. https://www.google.com/search?q=i+get+knocked+down+lyrics&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB1004GB1004&oq=&aqs=chrome.0.69i59i450l8.2563956j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:867370e2,vid:X6nQy7ccqKQ,st:46

Or if you want to hear the song in its entirety, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5uWRjFsGc