Are you prepared for Party Conference season 2025?
Written by Hannah Lazell.
Parliament has just risen for recess, and everyone, from staffers to public affairs professionals will be breathing a sigh of relief at the prospect of a quieter few weeks to have a bit of a rest, regroup after a busy few months and do those jobs that just never seem to get done when Parliament is sitting.
Looming over everyone’s minds is party conference season however. Whether you work for an MP who has an inbox full of fringe invites, or a public affairs professional trying to organise conference events with the thought of a reshuffle hanging over your carefully made plans, you’ll want to use recess to party conference all sorted - knowing what meetings and fringes your boss is speaking at, or have the events that you’re organised all but sorted.
Over the last few years, party conference season has got a bit longer for a lot of Westminster based public affairs professionals - some have been heading up to Scotland for the SNP conference, and with the rise of the Greens and Reform, their conferences are attended more and more by public affairs professionals. For the unlucky few, this now means going to 5 or 6 party conferences in short succession - which requires careful planning and a commitment to getting sleep whenever you can!
Whether you are off to just one conference or the full suite of conferences, there are some good pointers to get the most out of the party conference season to make sure you reach your professional goals and come out the other side with your health intact.
Party conferences are a great time for getting meetings in. But how many of these can be done at another time, and elsewhere? Unless there’s a real reason that you have to meet someone at a party conference, do it another time. MPs are in London for half of the week, so you can meet them in Parliament - or arrange a constituency visit if that’s relevant. Metro Mayors and Council Leaders will appreciate it if you go to them to meet them and take the time to understand the local element of the issue you’re discussing. It will free up time at conferences for the often more valuable informal networking, and mean that you get someone’s undivided attention when you meet them outside of a busy and often overwhelming environment.
It may seem like a good idea to plan out a really ambitious conference programme full of fringes and other events for you to deliver - but be realistic about what you can do and how many people from your team or wider organisation can come to the conference (which aren’t cheap by any means). Quality is better than quantity - doing one or two events properly is better than doing ten badly. Some conferences (particularly Labour) are now so busy so you get MPs trying to speak at three fringes at the same time - are you really going to get an insightful discussion in this type of environment? But regardless - make sure you can manage what you are planning to do. Don’t do events for the sake of ticking a box when they won’t give the best outcome for your organisation or campaign.
Leave enough time for informal networking. As a veteran of party conferences, the most valuable bits of conferences have been the introductions through friends and colleagues, the “by chance” conversations and networking. Leave enough time for this - every conversation is a valuable opportunity to exchange knowledge and insight and share stories. I know I’m not the only person to have, in the past, filled my conference diary so that every last minute is accounted for, but then regretted it when it has left me with no time to make the most of the informal opportunities.
To follow on from the last point - be strategic! You might have a particular policy and campaigning issue that you’re interested in, but this doesn’t mean you have to go to every single event on it. They will likely all tell you the same thing, with similar speakers and the audience will have all the same people in it too. So just pick one or two with the most interesting titles or speakers, or that have the best refreshments, then use the rest of your time on other interests or leaving time for that informal networking.
And lastly - the obvious advice about getting enough sleep, not drinking too much and eating plenty of fruit and veg is there for a reason! If you’re someone doing more than one party conference then this is particularly important. Don’t peak too early and look after yourself, as you don’t want to end up with the dreaded conference cold.
Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn here.