Stamina is an oft disregarded virtue of a Pensions UK Conference. Delegates were to be found at 8 am in jogging clothes or business suits awaiting a run or a walk. I chose a wonder walk around the Hacienda, the Bridgewater and other cultural landmarks of a very young town. Manchester really talks from the late 18th Century. I could have walked to see a side of Manchester today, the houseless on the streets, the distress that is visible as I walked to Salford late at night and early in the morning. Walks and a run reminding us that 45% of the adult population are not so much as in a pension scheme but finding ways to get by. That is a different kind of stamina.

The Midland Hotel sits at the end of what was the northern line, its station is now the auditoriums and exhibition halls for Pension UK 25. Unlike last week where a falling political party could not fill its rooms, yesterday’s plenaries and break-out meetings were all packed and many had standing room only at the back.  The first plenary was at 9 am and the last at 5pm, the first a heated debate between Jo Cumbo and Will Hutton (refereed by Gregg McClymont, the last a self-congratulatory meeting of FCA, DWP and TPR’s head honchos, chaired by John Chilman (former head of Railpen). There was a 15 minute speech by the Pension Minister followed by a raucous Q&A for 45 minutes . And always break out meetings with delegates plugged into headphones or scooting between “Exchange Auditoriums” and a packed Exhibition.

As if this was not enough, there was a compulsory Gala Dinner (if you hadn’t opted out) with a comedian after that left me getting home at 11pm (having set off at 7.30 am).

This is not a game for those who have no stamina or to use a word plucked out of yesterday’s dictionary by Torsten Bell – “vocation”.

I carried out a little book to record the names of the people I had had conversations, the odd statements and flashes of wit in the break-outs and the big moments in the plenaries.

Not only do you need to have stamina, you need to be organised as the amount of information floating about is hard to accommodate, the range and depth of meetings you have, difficult to assimilate.

I had sent messages to as many people as I could using the app, people who did not know me came up and greeted me as if they did, those who knew me , seemed to feel relaxed enough to talk. It is important that an event like this goes off without rancour and this one seems to be doing so.

I will write again about what has been said in the plenaries and break-outs, but – for those who are reading this who are not used to these great events I would finish by pointing out the differences

1. First and very importantly, the food available to all (delegates and stand holders) is outstanding, much better than in previous events
2. The numbers at this event are much up, there is patient queueing to get from one part of the conference site to another
3. The numbers in the press room appear to be down, the televisions to watch events elsewhere turned off

These may seem unimportant but they are signs to me of a success where it is people’s rather than artificial intelligence that is taking the lead. There has been a lot of talk about Chat GPT taking over the dissemination of answers, but it has been clear that people at this event regard the spontaneity of dialogue with each other as valuable. At one session , Joe Craig of Quietroom delivered some word by way of a recording only to march into the session denying it was him who had delivered the video we’d just seen. It may have been a little contrived but I doubt that many of us left that session doubting the authenticity of the real Joe Craig and the danger we put ourselves in if we rely on digital reports like this.

We should all want to be getting out and meeting each  other , a life on Zoom is only half a life and a life with no spontaneity is no life at all.

A vocation progressed by three days in Manchester, that’s what Pension UK 25 is giving us – a good conference. Stamina it demands and stamina it gets, but it’s worth it.