Alliance chose Bangor, Northern Ireland's capital of political apathy, for its 29th annual conference. It seems almost a badge of local pride that election after election, Bangor and the greater North Down constituency return the lowest turnouts.
Annual political conferences have several purposes: to fend off the kind of political apathy for which Bangor is famous, to stir the blood of the faithful, to sharpen members for the political battles ahead.
In these days of great political uncertainty none of that can be easy for the party of the centre ground. Alliance's new leader, Sean Neeson, is aware of the hurdles ahead. He knows it will be a difficult task galvanising the party and its supporters as politics slowly moves into the next millennium.
It was oh, so different, twelve months ago. Last year Alliance met in Belfast just over a week short of the signing of the Belfast Agreement. The party's leader, Lord Alderdice, was able to excite the delegates with the possible prize that lay ahead, if only a deal could be done at Castle Buildings, Stormont.
For too many years there was an unspoken political philosophy in Northern Ireland - as there was a spoken political philosophy about the Irish Labour Party earlier this century - that "Alliance must wait". With an all-encompassing political solution, the theory was that the centre ground would strengthen and Alliance would win the support it had striven for over its 29-year history.
There was hope and expectation that with real peace and political stability people would gradually shed their nationalist or unionist identities, and Alliance would reap the benefits. The days of vainly playing the moderate card would be over.
And a deal was done at Castle Buildings. But for reasons chiefly to do with paramilitary weapons and the formation of an Assembly cabinet, it has not been fully implemented. Elsewhere, a week may be a long time in politics but in Northern Ireland political time passes at a more sedate and frustrating pace.
Alliance delegates in Bangor last Friday and Saturday still carried the hope and expectation of the party finally making serious headway. But the current political uncertainty, and the political setbacks of the past 12 months, have somewhat dimmed that aspiration.
Alliance has to surmount the lingering disappointment of winning only six seats in last summer's Assembly election. The centre ground did make gains with the Belfast Agreement, but the chief beneficiaries were the Women's Coalition and, rather paradoxically, the Progressive Unionist Party which, despite paramilitary connections, exuded a moderate image.
The task of Alliance and its new leader is to regain that shifting centre ground. He has a hard act to follow in Lord Alderdice, who as an orator of the first order could control and enliven party conferences with flair, wit, bite and gravitas.
Both Lord Alderdice and Mr Neeson are politicians of substance, but there is a great difference in style.
Mr Neeson certainly has the gravitas, but needs to find better ways of expressing his undoubted capacity for flair, wit and bite. All party members, even political centrists, like to have their passions aroused.
Mr Neeson was rather nervous in delivering his maiden leader's speech on Saturday, but he needn't have been. His address was strong on content.
He dealt convincingly with the worries over decommissioning, the creation of an executive, policing, how Drumcree is already casting a pall of gloom over the North, socio-economic matters, and all the other issues that concern politics and people.
He had a few digs at the usual Alliance Aunt Sallies - the DUP and Robert McCartney chiefly - which raised a few laughs. But occasionally his timing was off and there was a general lack of the "oomph" factor.
However, these at least are failings that can be easily remedied with a little tuition.
What was important for Alliance is that the new leader recognises that hard work and new ideas are needed if the party is to hold on to its position as the main party of the centre. He told the conference that he plans to restructure and modernise the party organisation for the challenges ahead.
The first will be the European Parliament elections in June. The party candidate is expected to be announced this week. That candidate will need drive and courage to win attention and votes against the big players such as Ian Paisley and John Hume.
Mr Neeson knows the difficulties ahead, but at least in Bangor at the weekend he won his party's backing for his goal of developing the broad centre in the North, and reaching out to the potential Alliance voters in the apathetic camp.