Seaborne conference

There was a nice little spoof on Liberal Democrat Voice last week, suggesting that negotiations were under way (sorry!) to hire cruise ships unused in the current pandemic as conference and fringe venues. That brought back memories of early days as a keen young attender of Civil Service Clerical Association annual conference and hearing tales from the old sweats. Apparently, in the straitened times after the war, there were few alternatives to the big conference towns like Blackpool and Brighton which were expensive. (They still are, but at least there is now more competition among towns and cities for conference and convention business.) The bold decision was taken to hold the 1947 conference in a holiday camp at Pwllheli, which would presumably have then completed its summer season. It was a bright idea not repeated - conference delegates presumably missed the more agreeable resort venues - but in many ways it was a great success. Because all the facilities, including the "chalet" accommodation, were concentrated in a relatively small area and there was little incentive to leave the camp area, there was much positive interaction between members from all points of the kingdom who would otherwise hardly meet in a more normal conference venue. This unusual cohesion even led some leading lights of the CSCA seriously to consider an out-of-season liner for a later conference but nothing came of the suggestion.