On Lib Dem Voice: Reportage | Contribute
On the official party website: Conference home

Well, we did it; our first online Federal Conference!

We had over 3,200 attendees and I am really proud that we managed to offer the full experience usually on offer in the Conference Centre. The agenda ranged from racial justice to the BBC; from COVID-19 to Universal Basic Income and from Europe to the rule of law. We had debates, procedural motions, reports, votes, speeches, and questions – even the (virtual) conference fund raising buckets were passed round – and we were honoured with a visit from the Taoiseach.

There was a live chat in every session. It was lively and interesting throughout. We were able to meet old friends and new in the networking space – which many people said was strangely addictive! We noticed a much higher than usual attendance in our fringes. The training programme was extensive and well-received.

Over the course of our conference, there were in excess of 20,000 individual votes cast in the auditorium: much more than an average physical conference. If the total time spent logged in by our attendees was aggregated, it would come to in excess of five years. We are delighted that, for the first time, people the length and breadth of the country, and further afield, could join us.

This was the first time we had run a virtual conference and, of course, there were some parts that were a bit rough around the edges. We were grateful for all the goodwill that there was towards us as we navigated the challenges of moving an event as complex as our conference online. We know that there were some technical hitches in some of the fringes and training events. We were also a little disappointed at the footfall in the exhibition and did our best to improve that as conference went on. We will address both in the future.

Nevertheless, back in March, when Spring Conference was cancelled and the country was yet to go into lockdown, I would never have thought that a conference like that was even possible – let alone that we would be running it within six months.

There are so many people to thank for making the event happen. The staff at Headquarters were magnificent, as were the technical teams at Vivid Productions and Qwerk. Special mention must go to the Conference Office – Susie Murray, Wilma Robinson, Isabelle Pucher and Hannah Bacchus. And I must also thank every member of the Federal Conference Committee, our hard-working stewards, chat moderators and – above all – everyone who attended, spoke, voted and otherwise participated.

But enough from me. We are more interested in what you think. If you attended conference, you will have received a feedback link. Please do complete the survey and send it back to us. What did you think worked well? What do you think we could do better? What else might we do in the future that we did not do this time?

And above all, how do you think conference should look in the future? Online? In person? A mixture perhaps? Please let us know. If you did not attend and therefore did not get a feedback link, do make a comment below. We will consider all of them. Please also consider joining our Facebook group.

We pride ourselves on the democratic nature of our party and our conference. We are proud that we were able to maintain them both through this pandemic.

* Geoff Payne is the Chair of Federal Conference Committee.