Spring conference takes place this weekend in the town of cake and tea – a spiritual home from home for us all!

I don’t mind admitting that conference has snuck up on me this time. Partly that’s because I’ve been focussed on the Convention of Modern Liberty which only took place last weekend, but pleasantly enough I think it’s also because there’s no party crisis looming for once. This weekend will be much less of a nail-biter than Autumn ’08 (Make It Happen), Spring ’08 (Clegg’s maiden voyage) and Autumn ’07 (Campbell’s swansong).

Heavens, there’s even an outside chance that we could have some meaningful discussions about the education policy package. And if anything could possibly be more exciting than that, dear reader, it’s THIS:

Alex Foster, devastated at having created something so beautiful, is now recovering in a darkened room. I’d say it’s worth coming to conference just to get hold of one of these. They’ll be changing hands on ebay for £250 a pop next week, you mark my words.

Ed Davey is there in his capacity as Chair of Campaigns and Communications, of course, and Dr Mark Pack of this parish and party Head of Innovations needs no introduction from me. Jake Rigg was a researcher for Chris Huhne during the leadership election, but the claim to fame he dines out on the most is having written part of the President’s instantly famous acceptance speech, as delivered to a blubbing world on the night of the election. And from within the heart of Obama’s campaign machine we’re very pleased to have Karin Robinson, who heads up the Americans Abroad for Obama campaign in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia.

A fascinating mix of experiences there, well worth putting off the pub for. Even my chairing cannot deflect its success. See you in Queen’s Suite 6 at 8pm.

Write all about it!

As is traditional, we will be live-blogging, twittering, podcasting and otherwise beaming conference directly into the eager brains of stay-at-home tea-and-cake-eaters, and we would love it if those attending conference would consider contributing an article. An interesting fringe event? A debate that sent you into a fury? An anecdotette to share? Bring it to the Voice! If you can’t wait till you get home, you can even email it to us while you’re there, on [email protected].