ONLINE SPRING 2021 CONFERENCE 19-21 MARCH DIRECTORY CONFERENCE DIRECTORY 1 Contents Welcome to the Liberal Democrat online Spring 2021 Conference Feature: 2–3 Directory. Welcome to our online Spring Conference Please note that the Conference from Ed Davey and Mark Pack Directory is available online only and not in hard copy format. Conference information: 5–8 Updates to the Conference Directory will be issued periodically up until conference and published online at: Exhibition: 9–14 www.libdems.org.uk/s21-directory Fringe & training: 15–38 For details of the main auditorium Friday 19 March 17 sessions, see the separate Conference Saturday 20 March 22 Agenda, available at: Sunday 21 March 30 www.libdems.org.uk/s21-agenda If you have any questions whilst at conference, please email: [email protected] Conference will take place through our virtual conference venue Hopin. Access to all conference events requires a valid conference Further information, registration registration and registered attendees and conference will be emailed details of how to log publications (including on to the Hopin platform a few days plain text and clear before conference – see page 5. print versions) are available at: To register, please go to: www.libdems.org.uk/conference www.libdems.org.uk/conference Spring 2021 Directory vsn 4 Published by The Conference Office, Liberal Democrats, 8–10 Great George Street, London SW1P 3AE. Design and layout by Mike Cooper, [email protected]. Photographs © Liberal Democrats unless stated. CONFERENCE DIRECTORY 2 Welcome to our online Spring Conference from Ed Davey MP Welcome to the Liberal Democrats’ lives, prevent loneliness and stand up Spring 2021 conference. Our Party will for the most vulnerable. be meeting virtually for the second time – a feat I couldn’t imagine one At the time of writing, we’re still year ago. expecting Holyrood and Senedd elections in Scotland and Wales and This past year has been immensely local elections across most of England tough. With the Covid-19 situation in May – not to mention Mayoral, changing so rapidly, it’s difficult to Police & Crime Commissioner and predict where we’ll be in a few many local by-elections on the same months – but some observations still day. It has never been more ring true. important for Liberal Democrats to keep in close contact with their local We owe so much to frontline workers. communities. From NHS staff and posties, to teachers and supermarket workers, I look forward to joining you on the we couldn’t have got through this year campaign trail – even if it looks without their hard work. They have different this year. shown courage and resilience, where Boris Johnson has shown only dither and delay. Ed Davey MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Because time and again, this crisis has exposed Boris Johnson’s Conservatives for their cruelty and incompetence. With countless u-turns, delays and the Prime Minister’s failure to lead, it’s clear that our Party’s strong, liberal voice is needed now more than ever. I’m proud of the essential service Liberal Democrat councillors and volunteers have provided to support their communities, working hard to save FEATURE CONFERENCE DIRECTORY 3 Welcome to our online Spring Conference from Mark Pack I confess to being a conference addict. that is for all parts of the party. However you’re involved, we all need It was necessary but sad for us to to be relentlessly thinking about how have to cancel last year’s spring we can change and improve what we conference. But it is a great tribute to do. the hard work and willingness to innovate of our conference staff and Some of that will come up in the volunteers, ably coordinated by the different reports and proposals being Federal Conference Committee (FCC), put to this conference. I am looking that we have taken our federal forward to those discussions and conferences online. debates, and always happy to hear views direct on: We have already seen how this means [email protected]. far more people can take part in them. That’s important to ensure we’re not only a democratic, member- led party in theory but also in practice. Mark Pack, We must continue to find ways to President of the Liberal Democrats involve more of us, through expanding the success of online conferences and, when coronavirus finally fades, finding ways of marrying that with the many features we love and miss about offline events. This is one part of a much wider set of improvements we are making. The Thornhill Review into the 2019 general election has set out a frank and challenging agenda for change. Less than a year in, much has already changed. But it’s a long-term challenge we must keep at, and one FEATURE CONFERENCE DIRECTORY 4 Meeting the needs of people within the boundaries of our living planet Green Liberal Democrats with Kate Raworth & Wera Hobhouse MP Saturday – 17.40-18.45 Campaigning on the Environment Bill LGA Liberal Democrat Group & Green Liberal Democrats inc Cllr Pippa Heylings, South Cambridgeshire, & Cllr Liz Green, Kingston upon Thames Sunday – 13.00-14.15 www.greenlibdems.org.uk/join • [email protected] CONFERENCE DIRECTORY 5 Conference information Any questions? Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browsers are recommended. To If you have any questions prior to or access Hopin via an iOS mobile device, during conference, please email: Safari is the best mobile browser to use; and for an Android device, please [email protected] use Google Chrome. If you have any tech queries, please Ensure you turn off your ad blockers go to the tech helpdesk in the and don’t have any other programs exhibition area of the online open. If something goes wrong, try conference (see page 8). refreshing your browser! If you wish to communicate with the There is a short video on how Hopin chair, submit a procedural motion or works on our website, in the FAQs: ask for a separate vote, please use the following link: www.libdems.org.uk/conference. www.libdems.org.uk/ After the conference, the auditorium procedural-motions sessions will be available on YouTube. If you have a question with regards to Hopin navigation the session you are in, please use the conference chat function; do not use On the Hopin platform, the menu bar chat to communicate with the chair of appears on the left. a session. See guidance on page 6. Home Attending Conference View the agenda, fringe & training events and exhibition stands (one for Hopin: our virtual each entity in the exhibition area). conference venue Auditorium All registered attendees will be emailed details of how to login to Watch the debates and speeches. Hopin, our virtual conference venue, Members can vote on motions via just prior to the conference starting. polls (within Hopin). There will be BSL signers during auditorium sessions. For the best experience of conference when using a computer or laptop, INFORMATION CONFERENCE DIRECTORY 6 Conference information Fringe & Training voting will be used and registered members will be emailed a link prior Fringe is available for all to view. to conference to vote in the ballot. Fringe events happen outside auditorium hours. Conference Chat Training is only for party members to In each auditorium session there will view and is run simultaneously be a chat feature enabled, which alongside the auditorium sessions. allows attendees to post their views and comments about events in the See page 15 onwards for details. auditorium. Exhibition The chat is public and visible to everybody: bear this in mind when You can enter this area to view the posting. All comments in the chat exhibition stands throughout must be respectful, lawful, and in conference, view exhibitor’s videos, keeping with the Members’ Code of ask questions in the chat function and Conduct, accessible here: connect to their websites. See page 9 for details. www.libdems.org.uk/ code-of-conduct Networking The chat will be moderated, and if Chat with a randomly selected your post does not meet the required participant and share common standards of behaviour, sanctions interests. If you wish to contact a start with post deletion, and more particular individual to chat with them serious breaches may lead to you or have a live video link, please click having your conference access onto ‘people’ next to the ‘chat’ revoked and/or disciplinary action function on the top right and find the within the party. person you wish to connect with. Please do not use the chat to attempt Voting to communicate with members of the FCC or the chairs and aides of Only registered members can vote at debates. To raise a query with the conference. Voting will be available chairs and aides use this link: through Hopin and the polling www.libdems.org.uk/ function in the auditorium. For the procedural-motions emergency motions ballot, mi-voice INFORMATION CONFERENCE DIRECTORY 7 Conference information Some Q&A sessions may use the chat For details see: to solicit questions. Questions to reports should the submitted as www.libdems.org.uk/access-fund described in the Conference Agenda; in addition, questions may be submitted using the chat during the Conference Extra and session and they may be selected by Conference Daily the chair, but that is not guaranteed. Conference Extra will be published in The chat is there to facilitate an online update to the Conference interactivity in our virtual conference, Agenda ahead of conference; and but it can only do this if everyone in it Conference Daily will be published in behaves responsibly and with further online updates to the courtesy and respect towards each Conference Agenda each day of other and the moderators.