About five metres further back in the line to PRWeek's representative - that's about 30 minutes in queue-time - was old-school lobbyist Derek Draper.
PRWeek endured a 90-minute wait, only to be greeted by chaos at the front desk and the revelation that the press-pass had yet to be produced because the printer had 'broken down'.
But Diary got off comparatively lightly. Stories from the conference abound of public affairs and PR folk with nightmares to relate - one H&K consultant had an eight-hour wait.
It has since emerged that Labour is axing a fifth of its staff to try and reduce its huge debt. Many of the staff on duty in Manchester are expected to apply for voluntary redundancy. Labour really isn't working.
