By the time you read this, I will, fingers crossed and LNER permitting, be cosied up in my hotel in York. After 3 and a half years, I am ridiculously excited to see my friends. I may talk to a lot of them every day thanks to the wonders of social media, but it’s not the same thing as being in the room with them.

This Conference is going to be very different for me. Long Covid means that the usual whirlwind from breakfast fringes to late night drinking is just not possible for me this time. I’m treating it as more of a holiday with a bit of Conference thrown in. I will need to rest a lot and pace myself very carefully and curb my instincts to just push through because I am having fun because I will definitely pay for it later.

Given the the havoc that this virus has wreaked within my body, I am in no rush to come into contact with it again or to expose my family to it. I am still wearing masks in supermarkets and crowded spaces to try and minimise my exposure. When I went to Scottish Conference, I wore a mask in the hall, and when I was sitting anywhere else for a long time and not eating or drinking. But, entirely inconsistently, I found it impossible to resist in the moment when friends offered a hug. That balance between living life the way you want to and protecting yourself is tricky and everyone needs to make their own decisions about what is ok for them.

I have revamped my Guide to the Craziness of Conference for this year. Enjoy. And if you have any questions, ask away in the comments.

Federal Conference is probably the best fun that you will ever have in your life. You will thoroughly enjoy every exhausting moment. If you’re new, it can be a bit overwhelming until you get used to the sensory overload. I had a long break from going to them and when I returned, in 2011, I spent the first day wandering round in a state of wide-eyed amazement,  like a child in a toy shop. Spring Conference is smaller than Autumn, but a look at the agenda tells me that there are at least two things going on that I want to go to at all times.

So, with that in mind, I thought I’d throw together a fairly random list of tips and hints for getting the best out of the annual cornucopia of Liberal Democracy. If you have any other Conference survival tips, let me know.

1. Plan your days

The Conference day has a huge variety of things to do. As well as the debates in the hall,  there’s a comprehensive training programme.  There are spokespeople Q & As. There are competing fringe choices to be made.  You can guarantee that you will never be bored and that several things you want to see will be on at the same time.

Be aware as well that you can eat quite well for free by choosing the right fringe meetings – look for the refreshments symbol in the directory.

Believe me, it’s much easier if you sort out your diary in advance. The best laid plans will always be subject to a better offer or meeting someone you haven’t seen for years randomly in a corridor, but it’s best to at least try to get some order into the proceedings. The Conference App is a real help for this. You can download it from whichever App store you use on your phone (search for Lib Dem Conf). It allows you to add events to your schedule and has all the papers loaded on to it.

2. Make time to do the Exhibition properly

Organisations pay the party a small fortune to have a stall in the exhibition. It’s therefore only polite for us all to take time to visit their stalls. But it’s not just about manners. They are actually really interesting. You have a mix of companies trying to sell you things, voluntary organisations wanting to tell you things and book stalls that are just far too tempting. It’s a good opportunity to sign up for some of the many Party groups – the Lib Dem Disability Association, or ALDC, or the Lib Dem Campaign for Racial Equality  or LGBT+ Lib Dems or Lib Dem Women to name but a few. It’s your chance also to sign up for things like Liberator or the Journal of Liberal History.

If you’re going to do it properly, it’ll take you a while, probably a good couple of hours, but it’s really worth it. You learn loads, meet lovely people and pick up some good freebies.

I find that I’m not used to carrying cash these days. While some stalls will have card readers, it’s worth making sure you have some cash with you.

4. To Glee or not to Glee?

You either love or hate The Glee Club, the raucous end of Conference singathon. I’m firmly in the love it camp. Singing the traditional, funny or downright rude songs that make up the Liberator Song Book is a great way to end Conference on a high. The day after the event one day during the Coalition years, there was a very funny interview with Alistair Carmichael on the World at One where Martha Kearney played a recording of us singing “The 12 days of Coalition.” He talked his way out of it admirably. I thoroughly recommend that you give this madness a go. It is unique and nobody laughs at ourselves like we do.

5. Don’t assume you’ll bump into your friends by accident

There have been conferences where some of my best friends were there and I never saw them. Conference is a big place. If you want to make sure you catch up with people, organise in advance.

If you’re there on your own for the first time, we are a pretty friendly bunch, so don’t be shy. Speak to the person next to you in the coffee queue whether it’s a parliamentarian or another activist. I have met some long-standing friends that way.

6. LDV at Conference

We don’t have a fringe this time but Mark Valladares and I will be around. Come and say hello!  And do email us with any Conference stories on [email protected].

7. Fancy speaking?

The Agenda and Directory has details of everything that’s going on and the text of the motions.  Conference Extra has last minute changes, amendments and questions to Committees. You need to submit a speaker’s card which you can do here. Be sure to include a summary of what you are going to say, all your contact details and any reasons why you should be called. The latter can make the difference to a session chair if they are going through loads of cards and see one where the person has loads of relevant expertise.

8. Try and get out and see some of York

In Bournemouth one year, I skived off a policy session to go to the beach and eat ice cream with my friends. It was such a gorgeous, hot day and well worth it. I have yet to see much of York, despite spending numerous weekends there in the last decade or so. This time is unlikely to be any different, though I’m hoping staying till Monday will give me a bit more scope.

If you possibly can, go to Betty’s which has to be one of the world’s best tea rooms.

9. Join online?

If you can’t get to York, you can still watch the proceedings online here. Party members can pay £15 for an online pass so that they can vote on motions.

Have a fantastic conference and enjoy your stay in York if you are there.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings