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Now that it's coming to an end, I was honestly really impressed with virtual conference.
FCC must have put an insane amount of work in to pull it off so big thank you to all of them
The question now is what possibilities for the future does it open up.
FCC must have put an insane amount of work in to pull it off so big thank you to all of them
The question now is what possibilities for the future does it open up.
Apparently ~3% of members registered for conference which is a lot at this stage in the electoral cycle, and given how much cheaper it was to attend I'd expect those numbers to skew younger and poorer than the normal attendance. That's GREAT for making good policy.
That said, it will have been inaccessible for different people and it wasn't the same without running into people in the bar. Its not going to replace in person conf. But I'd love to see us do hybrid in future, and see what 'going digital' allows us to do.
We've had a problem in the party for ages where we get clogged up with policy - everything needing to be debated at conf means there isn't always enough time available to get through the policy we need and end up with outdated policy.
That's especially problematic when we just need a small change to policy, which is rarely accepted by FCC because they (reasonably) don't see it as a priority when time is scarce, or when it's a niche/unsexy topic (foreign affairs issues are hard to get on the agenda)
Meanwhile we end up paying ÂŁÂŁÂŁ for a big fancy auditorium so that 10 members and a dog can spend 40 mins debating F47 Support To Motherhood And Apple Pie. Which is a terrible use of scarce resources.
Are there ways we can use this approach to solve some of those problems?
E.g.: run motherhood and apple pie debates online-only overlapping with setpiece Hall events like spokesperson Q&As
Or more frequent 'conferences' online-only through the year to get through more policy
E.g.: run motherhood and apple pie debates online-only overlapping with setpiece Hall events like spokesperson Q&As
Or more frequent 'conferences' online-only through the year to get through more policy
Long term, could we drop the (loss making) spring conf/take it online-only? Given that autumn is south coast and spring is north, that would have regional implications - but can they be overcome? If we're not making a loss on spring, does that give us more leeway in autum?
Exciting* times all round. But I'm a happy Lib Dem this week and I feel like there are possibilities ahead.
* for some values of 'exciting'
* for some values of 'exciting'
