Digital events at Brighton Lib Dem Conference
Planning for my six-monthly outing to the Lib Dem Conference typically involves poring over the conference directory looking for relevant training and interesting fringe events, adding them all to my Google Calendar even though I can't be in three places at once and I'm very unlikely to actually go to Glee Club unless somebody gets me very drunk first.*
Which is how I know this month in (hopefully) sunny Brighton boasts a remarkably strong selection of tech and digital events and I guess I might be away from our exhibition stand somewhat more than usual. But you'll always be able to find some of the team at stand H1 in the first floor exhibition hall between 9am and 6pm daily, so please do come say hi to Dalton, Rosa, Gary, Tim or me for a chat about websites, software, local restaurants, statistics or Pokémon.†
* I say this every year. Yet I often turn up and sing Bollocks To Brexit with gusto.
† Other members of Prater Raines Staff may prefer a different selection of topics.
My training and fringe suggestions
The winning online strand in the Consort Room at the Grand Hotel opens with Winning with Ads (09:15 Saturday) with a short break before Winning Visuals (10:30 Saturday). If you're up early you can catch Winning on Social (09:15 Sunday, repeated 09:30 Tuesday at the Brighton Centre Meeting Room 1C) then the afternoon session covers Your Next Campaign (15:15 Sunday) and What Works? (16:30 Sunday). On Monday there's a morning break so you can recover from Communioke before Winning Funds (15:15 Monday). I'd also recommend Future of Digital Campaigning (10:30 Sunday at the Grand Hotel Consort Room and 11:00 Tuesday in the Brighton Centre Meeting Room 1C).
AI is covered, of course. In the Grand Hotel Charlotte Room you'll find Introduction to Using AI to Campaign (15:15 Saturday) and Using AI to Campaign - The Next Steps (16:30 Saturday). LibSTEMM's evening fringe Who Holds the Power? AI, Data and Democracy (20:15 Saturday) in the Grand Hotel Regent Room explores the protection of individual rights and reduction of foreign dependence to secure a resilient digital future. Sadly I will have to miss it as I will be watching a long-form improvised comedy show in the style of a Jane Austen novel. ALDC training at the DoubleTree Buckingham Room covers Using AI as a Councillor (09:15 Sunday). The Social Market Foundation will discuss Bridging the UK's AI Skills Gap (12:15 Monday) in a fringe at the Brighton Harbour's Marine Room, while later in the day the Tony Blair Institute cover Liberalism and AI in an Age of Disruption at the Grand Hotel Charlotte Room (18:15 Monday), and you can finish the day off with Technology, AI and Access to Justice with Rights-Liberties-Justice at the DoubleTree Gloucester Room (19:45 Monday).
For social media you'll want to start with Setting your Social Media Strategy (09:15 Saturday) then follow it up with Social Media - Winning with Videos (10:30 Sunday), both in the Grand Hotel Charlotte Room.
Organising Media Visits and Visuals (10:30 Monday) in Meeting Room 1C at the Brighton Centre should prove useful but you'll have to choose between Introduction to Meta Advertising in the Grand Hotel Consort Room and Social Media that Actually Appeals to Young People at the Brighton Centre Meeting Room 1B (both 16:30 Monday). The Big Brother Watch fringe How do Liberals Reconcile Free Speech with the Era of Algorithms? (18:15 Monday) in the DoubleTree Balmoral Room should be interesting.
Data is covered with Data Protection Essentials: Keeping on the right side of the law (10:30 Saturday) in the Brighton Centre Meeting Room 1A and Using Data to Campaign (15:15 Monday) in The Pavilion at the Grand Hotel.
And for more of the social policy side of things at the Brighton Centre you've got LGA Lib Dems and ALDC's fringe Bridging the Digital Divide & Reconnecting Britain (13:00 Saturday) in Meeting Room 1C, the Education Policy Institute and AQA's Digital Literacy as a Core Skill: Empowering Young People for Modern Life (12:15 Monday) in Meeting Room 1A, and Demos's Take Back Public Control: Why the Lib Dems should Defend our Information Environment (13:45 Monday) in the Grand Hotel Consort Room.
My food suggestions
Preston Street really is your friend. Right next to the conference centre with a bunch of good casual options. Etci Kitchen won the British Kebab Awards best newcomer when it opened in 2021 and I've never had a bad meal. Whenever I go to Shaanxi for some reason I always seem to buy the same noodle soup even though I know it's too spicy for my delicate sensibilities and also somehow spill much of it down my shirt, but it really is tasty nevertheless. Sushi Garden and Bincho Yakitori are great and China Garden does a brilliant if chaotic afternoon dim sum service. No Catch on the seafront does sometimes amazing if slightly unreliable vegan “fish” and chips.
Further afield I like Cafe Coho for breakfast and Burger Brothers if you're after a quick hit. Quick warning though, the burgers are so good on our first visit Gary and I went back to get more burgers for dessert. The team tells me good things about Ji The Chicken Shop by the train station too. Burnt Orange does a great wood-fired grazing menu if you're after something fancier and I've always had a soft spot for long-standing vegetarian Terre à Terre.
For drinks there are loads of nice pubs and cocktail bars but I'm a particular fan of the slightly inexplicable taproom for Cardiff-based microbrewery Mad Dog on Duke Street.
And don't forget Brighton has a LEGO Store with themed Pokémon GO raids, stamps, stickers, and Pikachu backdrops.