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As local government converges on Harrogate for the LGA annual conference, we offer some helpful hints on how to look frugal during a recession. Put to one side – because you're going to anyway – the idea that attending conferences might be a questionable use of resources in the midst of a downturn. The issue is simple: How to convey austerity when conferences may be seen as little more than ‘swanning for senior people'. Here are some tips: * Remember that every expense claim may be pored over at some point. The rule is – small things can look very big on the front page of the local press. Keep in mind at all times that quirky expenditure will grab attention. Betty's [tea room] is lovely. Pay for it yourself. * Set out your objectives before you go – and communicate them widely. Take along issues on which you need advice. Make sure you wittingly go to the conference with clear business outcomes in mind. You could discuss these with your management team – and with executive members. Publish them before setting off, and review your success against them when you get back. * Take copious notes during attendance. Look to extract value from every minute. Think yourself into the role of researcher, and imagine that every nugget of information has value. When you get back, write a report and share it widely within the organisation, encouraging staff to look at ways of implementing your findings as a way of tackling local challenges. * Look at the exhibitors' list and think about what advice you might get for free. Clearly, exhibitors will be there to sell you things. Fine. But with a bit planning – and knowing that you are speaking to experts – you should be able to liberate hundreds of pounds worth of expertise without having to commit to a presentation to the full cabinet. * Don't put in claims for every thing. Yes, it's appropriate to claim for all meals when you're away from home, but you would have had to eat if you'd stayed at home anyway. Only claim for the difference between you would have spent and what you had to spend. Make that amount small by eating cheaply – consuming sandwiches in one of Harrogate's lovely green spaces will save pounds. Or go fast-food. * Don't travel first class. The argument that you need privacy, space or an opportunity for a key meeting simply won't wash. Share a car. Or better still, go by bus. Don't put in claims for drinks. In austere times, drink tap water. Or fund alcohol out of your own pocket. * Make all of your conference freebies available to staff by auction – with the money raised going to a local charity. * Don't twitter from the event. You may feel like a super-blogger, but your twitterings or tweets will remind people that a) you're not missed; and b) you're clearly wasting valuable time and resources as well; and c) it's better that you're out of the building. * Avoid photographs, particularly those where you are snapped in the presence of beautiful people. It will look like swanning, no matter what you say. * Eschew the final conference dinner and make your places available to deserving staff – people who have been able to show the impact that their work has had on the local economy. This can be achieved easily through managers' recommendations, thus, once again, showing that you put staff first. * Look miserable when you are there. Convey the impression that you are only in Harrogate under sufferance, and that you are being dragged away from business-critical work in the council. Move around the event at speed showing that if you must be there, you will seek to get it over with as soon as possible. * Dress for business. It's not a holiday, so you shouldn't look like you're on one. The same rule should apply in the evenings. Remember, it's work not pleasure. * Don't rack up mobile phone or data card bills. Do your delegating before you go. If you truly are indispensable, don't go – otherwise the world will fall apart when you are out of the city. If you are not, leave your phone at home. You can always give your staff your bed and breakfast contact details – you can call back at lunchtime or in the morning from a payphone. * Remember, waste not, want not. So don't waste words. If you are tempted to ask one of those long, circuitous and ultimately, pointless questions in a plenary session, designed to show off your verbosity and ingenuity to the gathered throng, don't. Just look smarmy and clever in the coffee queue instead. * Don't take your golf clubs. Do your networking in conference sessions. And if you are ‘networking' rather than just catching up with friends, share the contact details with colleagues when you get back, making it clear the value that they will have in terms of helping the council achieve it's objectives.

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WHITEHALL

Conferencing in an age of austerity

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