Thoughts on politics and life from a liberal perspective

Monday 21 September 2009

Conference Day 3 - So much to blog, so little time! #LDConf

I am on my third day of Lib Dem conference and am still really enjoying myself. Here are a few highlights from the last couple of days:

  • Very good fringe session on "Moats, Mortgages and Mayhem" yesterday lunch time which included Guido Fawkes and Greg Dyke (former DG of the BBC). I also spent some time afterwards having a few drinks with Guido, Mark Littlewood, Nick Cohen of the Observer, Lynne Featherstone and various other Lib Dem bloggers. I certainly learnt a few things I didn't know before...
  • Excellent training course on "How to build your personal brand". It sounds like it could be rubbish but I actually learnt some very useful stuff, usually quite simple techniques to help with interpersonal interaction. The training courses have actually been a revelation to me here.
  • Fascinating fringe event last night on drugs policy which very much underlined to me that I am far from the only person in the party who thinks that the current leglislative approach is not working.
  • The Lib Dem Blog of the Year awards last night were a great experience too. I was honoured to win the award for the Best New Lib Dem Blog. Congratulations to all the other winners, James Graham, Jo Swinson, Brian Robson, Slugger O'Toole and Costigan Quist. It was nice to be able to meet all the people in the flesh that I have read so much from!
  • Attending the Victoria Derbyshire debate on 5 Live this morning. There were a lot of people wanting to get in to talk but they did plonk me near the front and I managed to get in with a few points about MPs expenses and electoral reform. I also had an interesting chat with someone there which could lead to something else but more of that later...
Right, I'm off for more conferencing!

2 comments:

Matt Wardman said...

"plonk me near the front"

You knew *that* before your training course.

Mark Thompson said...

Ha! Of course I did, it's my specialty but they told you where to sit this time.