Have you downloaded your Spring Conference app yet?

The new Liberal Democrat conference app is now available on both Google Play and Apple’s app store. The instructions for downloading it in the Conference agenda are not ever so clear as they don’t tell you what its called –  Lib Dem Spring Conf 2014.

If you have a Blackberry or a Windows phone, you need to go here.

I downloaded mine this morning with more than a little apprehension. You see, it’s never worked for me before. I have always had problems getting the “My Schedule” part of it to work. To me, that part is the whole point. There are so many demands on time at Conference that I need something to help me make sense of it all. Sadly, though, there were some things, like Nick Clegg’s speech, that you can’t add to the schedule. Most of the fringes and some of the debates are fine, but the omissions are slightly irritating.

The good news is that, this time, it’s working for me. The bad news is that it can’t sort out timetabling clashes. The problem with Conference is that there are always too many interesting things happening at the same time. An app that does what Hermione’s Time Turner did in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabahn would be much more useful. I feel the party’s digital team need to get on with developing it.

It is good that you have the entire  Agenda and Directory to hand so you can check on the wording of motions. It might be a bit fiddly once amendments come into play, but they’ll be putting the Conference Daily up, too. The only thing I found tough was that you can’t, as far as I can make out,  zoom in to make the text larger.

It’s handy to have all of Conference easily accessible on your phone, and to be able to view the agenda without that ghastly photograph of Nigel Farage. The app also includes maps so you know where you’re going, and links to the Liberal Democrats’ Twitter. You can even donate to the party. It would certainly be worth all users donating, say, £1 or £2 for something that takes a lot of faffing out of Conference.

Update 15:25: I’ve had an email from the lovely people at LDHQ’s Conference Office. Apparently the developers are still working on this so we will be able to add everything to My Schedule. Also, there will be an email going out later giving full instructions on how to download it. Thanks to them for taking time out of their frenetically busy day to update us.

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

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16 Comments

  • Simon Oliver 3rd Mar '14 - 1:29pm

    links to the google things please 🙂

  • Simon Oliver 3rd Mar '14 - 1:37pm

    Do you think there’s a reason you can only add one item to your schedule, or is it just that the app is completely untested again?

  • Caron Lindsay Caron Lindsay 3rd Mar '14 - 1:52pm

    I’ve got loads added, Simon, including some for the same time.

  • A Social Liberal 3rd Mar '14 - 1:59pm

    Why bother with an app?

    I’ve simply downloaded the agenda onto my Kindle and will highlight the sessions I want to be at

  • Tony Greaves 3rd Mar '14 - 4:59pm

    Happy playthings…

  • Alisdair McGregor 3rd Mar '14 - 6:33pm

    I really don’t want or need a specific app for a twice-yearly event taking up space on my phone storage. Instead I want a calendar set up with the relevant information on it, shared by a cloud service. Ian Elioart does exactly that.

    I gave the app a chance the past few years. This time I’m not even doing that, sorry.

    The Party should save the effort (and money!) and just publish an official cloud calendar.

  • Jenny Barnes 4th Mar '14 - 9:00am

    No fringe? No training? How do you get a clash, then?

  • Jenny Barnes 4th Mar '14 - 9:01am

    ” It would certainly be worth all users donating, say, £1 or £2 for something that takes a lot of faffing out of Conference.”

    I already paid for the paper. Which works with no faffing.

  • Daniel Henry 4th Mar '14 - 12:07pm

    I quite like the app, but as George said, it would have made more sense to update the existing app rather than create a new one each time.

  • Debby Hallett 4th Mar '14 - 6:34pm

    I also would appreciate the google calendar. Anyone? Anyone?

  • Caron Lindsay Caron Lindsay 6th Mar '14 - 1:08pm

    Actually, Mr EIloart seems to rather like the app if this tweet is anything to go by. https://twitter.com/ianeiloart/status/441346004072542209

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