Thousand delegates heading to Mullingar for Labour Conference

Posted on March 19, 2009 at 11:53 AM

The Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore TD
addressing the Labour Party conference

The end of the month will see our 64th National Conference in Mullingar on March 27th, 28th and 29th. We are expecting almost 1,000 delegates to this year's conference. We have a very full agenda for the conference with hundreds of motions and the focus will be on the economy, banking crisis and the 21st Century Commission report (the 21st Century Commission report contains proposals for the modernisation of the party's structure).

As we run up to the Local and European elections there will be a particular focus on Local and European elections and they won't be the only elections being talked about over the weekend as delegates will be voting for the 15 positions on the party's National Executive Committee.

While there will certainly be a buzz around elections, one of the big highlights of the weekend is the Leaders' Speech on Saturday night. This will be broadcast live on RTE and will, as in previous years, be broadcast live on the internet along with the full conference.

Speaking of our online activities, we have planned a series of things which will allow you to take part in the conference even if you are not there in person such as making all motions and votes available on our dedicated conference website throughout the weekend. There are many different things for you to follow over the weekend if you cannot make it to Mullingar.

Live streaming of conference
Over the last number of years we have broadcast conference proceedings on Ustream and this year it's no different. Among the highlights of the weekend include the Labour Leader's Saturday night speech as well as well as various key debates. Key speeches will also be uploaded to our You Tube channel.

Flickr
Images from the weekend will be uploaded as we go along to our Flickr account so you can get a feel of the conference from in front of and behind the scenes. You can view them at the following 'conference09' tag (this tag won't be live until the conference).

Twitter
You can follow the Labour Party on Twitter and over the conference we will be updating with extracts from people's contributions, reporting on the NEC elections to all manners of subjects relating to party conference. In order that your conference tweets are included with everyone else's, do include the hashtag #LP09 in your tweet.

Scribble Live

You can also follow 'live blogging' of the party conference on Scribble Live, more details on where to go to follow the conversations will be published closer to the conference (it is due to go live the Thursday before the conference). If you are on Twitter and are tweeting about the conference include the hastag #LP09 to be invited to the Scribble Live live blogging.

Blogging
We will be updating the Labour blog throughout the weekend in our dedicated conference website with various contributions from members with their thoughts on the weekend giving you a flavour of the conference without having to leave your living room.

So remember keep an eye on Labour.ie over the conference weekend.

As with our previous conferences bloggers are welcome to attend our national conference, if you would like to attend please contact press@labour.ie for accreditation including a link to your blog.

Tagged with conference09