Delegates were given graphic portrayals of life in Belfast's loyalist heartlands by two community workers who addressed the conference.
Sammy Douglas, who is originally from Sandy Row and now works in east Belfast, and Baroness May Blood who has been deeply involved in community work in the greater Shankill area for 40 years, illustrated the difficulties faced by working-class Protestants.
Mr Douglas, a contributor to two reports - Community Development in Protestant Areas and Poverty Amongst Plenty - said that what loyalist communities needed from their Catholic neighbours was "time and space".
He suggested loyalists felt under siege and that Catholic areas that are growing in confidence should be aware of that.
He praised the SDLP for its participation in new policing arrangements, particularly at community level in the local District Policing Partnerships.
May Blood said the greater Shankill area was in a state of greater need now than it was 10 years ago. In 1995, she said, the Shankill was "on the up".
Progress was being made on housing, education and the environment while links were being forged across the Protestant community and with the Catholic community in the neighbouring Falls area.
Now, however, people are "absolutely demoralised" and "had convinced themselves that they were on their knees".
She said young people had a poor skills base, had underachieved in education and had lost the certainty of employment enjoyed by previous generations.
Citing September's riots, she said many Protestants said there were three reasons for the trouble which flared across Belfast for more than a week.
The re-routing of the Whiterock Orange parade, funding for Catholic areas and low educational attainment by Protestants were all to blame.
Of all these, she said, only the last reason was valid.
The Whiterock parade decision was over-hyped, she said, and the issue of public funding for Catholics was really more an issue of the failure of Protestants "who have not got the capacity to turn funding into real outcomes".
Loyalist areas had two principal components, she said, "good people and so-called loyalist paramilitaries".
They were blighted by "a lack of confidence, a lack of political leadership, bad press and the growth of paramilitaries".
She told the conference that it seemed to many Protestants that for Catholics the "enemy" appeared to be just the British. "For Shankill Protestants, there's a bogey man around every corner these days." Progress could not be made until others knew and understood what Protestant communities were enduring.
Replying for the SDLP, North Belfast Assembly member Alban Maginness said SDLP supporters everywhere wanted to enter a cross-community dialogue that would help address such issues.
"That is the clear message from this conference to the entire loyalist community."