While we enjoy the August break in the political calendar, party conference season will soon be upon us. Much has been made of whether conferences are still relevant or whether they simply assemble the same Westminster talking heads in their chosen city or seaside resort. All too often, main conference and fringe panel line-ups rely heavily on men, sometimes to the exclusion of women altogether, and don’t come close enough to reflecting the society they claim to represent. Party conferences are the prime opportunity for political parties to live by their values and showcase what kind of society they want to create. To ensure that conferences are a vibrant and democratic forum for political engagement, we are asking political parties, conference organisers, fringe-event organisers and those who attend, to take action on the following.

First, political parties should ensure that they only feature panels with both women and men represented at conference. Our organisations committed to this for our own events some time ago and have not only found it possible to achieve but also a way of making our public debate richer and more democratic. If political thinktanks can commit to this, it should not be beyond political parties and civil society organisations to do the same for events with three or more speakers. The same argument applies to introducing a wider range of voices into debates in terms of ethnicity and background.

Second, parties should require those organising fringe events to ensure panels represent both women and men so that there are no panels with only male speakers included in final conference line-ups. Third, it is up to all of us holding events to ensure that they meet these standards. Where this is not the case, organisers should explain why and attendees should feel free to raise the issue with event or conference organisers.

Nick Pearce and Clare McNeil IPPR,

Neal Lawson and Rosie Rogers Compass,

Andrew Harrop and Jessica Asato Fabian Society,

Stewart Wallis and Anna Coote New Economics Foundation

This article originally appeared in the Guardian August 9th 2013