I arrived at Conference on Monday morning along with the TRG Deputy Chairman Victoria Roberts and Student TRG Chair Iain Martin. We made our way to the TRG Apartment about half a mile from the Manchester Central and Midland Hotel where this year’s Party Conference was to be held. Some of the TRG Board had arrived on the Sunday night and were ready to greet us. My predecessor as Chairman Tim Barnes was of course on hand ready to lend a hand where needed as well as newly appointed Dave Fazakerley and Cllr Gareth Compton. The TRG was scheduled to hold five large events over the course of 3 days. This was an ambitious programme but I was confident that as a team we would be able to put on a real show! This was to be the fifth TRG Conference programme that I had been responsible for but my first as the TRG Chairman! So the pressure was on.
Having spent the afternoon meeting with TRG members at the Midland Hotel, Victoria and I scouted out the rooms where our events were to be held. Our first event was the TRG Mainstream Reception at 6pm in the Fairclough Suite at the Midland Hotel. From experience of conferences past I knew that this meant that our first guests would begin arriving at around 5.15pm! The difficulty with being TRG Chairman at these events is spending the right amount of time talking to members, MPs and Candidates about the TRG as well as concentrating on the running of the event itself. As a former Events Board member the temptation for me is just to consume myself in the organising. But Victoria and Iain were certainly not going to let me do that. They along with the Midland staff had the room looking ship shape in no time. Copies of Reformer, TRG flyers and adverts for upcoming events were littered around the room. The doors were kept firmly locked until 5.50pm.
The event format was to be a wine and refreshments reception – a sort of welcome to Conference for our members. I never know how many TRG members go to the Conference but of the 14,000 delegates in Manchester I had a feeling a good many would be TRG members or prospective members and so it is important for us to have a real presence. This reception was the opportunity to announce our programme and to show that the home of One Nation Progressive Conservatism is alive and prospering. Damian Green MP, the TRG Vice-President is one of our strongest assets as a group. He has been hugely welcoming to me since I took up the post of Chairman and an invaluable source of advice. Damian hosts this reception every year and he and his wife Alicia were prompt and immediately began chatting to TRG members. Chloe Smith , the newly elected MP for Norwich North is a good friend to the TRG and sure to be an excellent Parliamentarian. Chloe had kindly agreed to address the group and was gracious in her thanks for TRG’s work in Norwich earlier in 2009.
The reception was a great success. TRG members from across the country popped in and the room was soon enough jammed. Alistair Burt MP, another TRG Vice-President, observed to me that the room was just the right size as the atmosphere was excellent. Over a 100 attendees at our first event! The reception was also a great moment for the TRG Board at Conference to meet up. Our excellent Board Member Nigel Huddleston is the Parliamentary Candidate in Luton South where he is facing Ester Ranson. I lost no time in announcing that TRG’s next Action Day would be in Luton. I have long been confused by Esther Ranson’s sudden desire to be the MP for Luton especially as the awful Margaret Moran is standing down and given that she appears to have no local connections!
Following the reception, the TRG Board went off their separate ways to attend as many fringe events as possible. It is vital for us as an organisation to speak to as many groups and delegates as we can. It was some hours later that we all met up again in the bar of the Midland Hotel. Conference is in many ways like a meeting place for old friends – Party members from across the country meet up every year and it is fascinating to know how campaigns are going in different parts of the country. I chatted over the course of the night to what felt like hundreds of delegates and was really struck by the interest in the TRG and by how many had heard of the work we had been doing.
The atmosphere at Conference on Day 1 was electric – a really powerful feeling that we, as a Party, are ready to take power, ready to change our country for the better and that we have the real ideas needed. Chatting to TRG Patron Nick Bourne AM I was delighted to hear that the One Nation message was proving effective in Wales and that we stood a real chance of gaining a number of previously unthinkable seats. Re-energising TRG Wales was a commitment that I had made some time ago and over the later part of 2009 and 2010 I am determined to ensure that we provide more for TRG in Wales.
As I headed back to the TRG Apartment that evening it was with a real feeling of elation and excitement.
Day Two will appear tomorrow……………..
