FOR the thousands of members who normally attend the SNP’s conferences it’s always a very social affair.

They see people they’ve not seen in a year, they catch up, they gossip, they maybe go for a drink, they maybe argue, they maybe sing Power Of Love by Huey Lewis and the News at the YSI karaoke.

But with the pandemic forcing everything to move online, it’s a very different beast this year.

Debates, votes, speeches, fringe events and even the karaoke are all happening online.

There’s one big stage, but nobody appears there in real life.

Instead massive screens show off the nappers of party convenor Kirsten Oswald, and National Secretary Angus MacLeod.

Speakers beam in from their living rooms, or in Keith Brown’s case, from in front of what looked like a thicket of palm trees.

One of the SNP’s logistical problems in recent years is that since 2014 it has so many members that it needs to hold two yearly conferences in one of the country’s large exhibition centres.

This weekend’s event allows for a much wider geographical spread.

At one event, Kate Forbes thanked the conference for “travelling to Dingwall”.

The SNP has tried to keep some of the social side alive.

On the conference webpage, members can opt for a “blether.”

You click connect and the internet throws you into a five-minute conversation with a random activist, or even a high ranking Scottish Government minister.

It’s somewhere between speed dating and lobbying.

“The Blether function on the #SNP20 platform is fantastic.

“I have had the pleasure of talking to Iris from Montrose, Sandy from Kinross-shire, Jane from Gosport & Murray from Livingston,” tweeted Housing Minister Kevin Stewart.

“The ‘Blether’ function at #SNP20 is brilliant! Just chatting to Jane in Gosport. Born in Ayrshire but delighted to join us from almost as far south as you can get in the UK,” said the party’s depute leader Keith Brown.

“Blether function is fab,” said local government minister, Aileen Campbell. “Bumped into Osama from #Paisley who has been a volunteer and cares passionately about refugee rights.

“He told me how @GeorgeAdam inspired him to get active & how @MhairiBlack helped him celebrate his 21st birthday!!”

It’s not clear how many of the 3000 people attending conference were trying a blether out yesterday.

When I tried to talk to party members, the first person I met was Ruby Zajac, a journalist with pro-independence site, Skotia.

The second person I met was my National colleague Laura Webster, also on the hunt for party members to talk to.

There was a third person, but they weren’t there when the chat connected. The camera just pointed to an empty couch.

I waited. They didn’t turn up.

Maybe I was just there at the wrong time, or maybe the algorithm behind the matching mechanism is keeping hacks away from members – though the party assure me this isn’t the case.

We’ll be back today, so if you’re about please come click Blether and maybe we’ll bump into you.