I am, in those odd moments I have to spare, London's Regional Conference Chair. It isn't the most onerous job in the world, especially as I have Flick Rea to do all the tricky administrative jobs. My role is to make decisions for the most part and take a strategic view. I even have a committee to support me, although I'm fairly unused to dealing with such things.
The problem is that there is a danger of falling into 'talking head syndrome', whereby there are lots of sessions whereby someone talks to an audience, leaving little opportunity for interaction. It all gets a bit dull. In my first attempt, in the Spring, I went for something a bit different, with debates and a little humour. People seemed to like it, and I'd like to try something similar this time.
Amongst my ideas are a question and answer session for the Regional Executive, and a session for questioning representatives from both Houses of Parliament, the European Parliament, the London Assembly and London Councils (all at the same time), allowing multiple perspectives on the same topic.
However, I would be interested to hear what might attract you to a Regional Conference, so what do you think?
Not always holding it in the same small area in what feels like a long way away would help.
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