Chester LibDems broke new ground by inviting the Liberal Democrat leadership candidates - Tim Farron and Norman Lamb to join them and other LibDem members to the first online leadership husting on Wednesday 1st of July. Taking an hour and a half, party members were able to login from home in Chester and throughout the UK to hear each candidate deliver his vision for the future of the Liberal Democrats. Meanwhile, both candidates were able to join the online husting from their respective offices in and around Whitehall.

"We believe this is the first time that a major British political party has conducted a leadership event online and is an example of the commitment to both using technology and also our desire to reach out to liberals from across the nation" said Neil Lewis.

Neil Christian added "we wanted to create an event where the ability to afford transport or issues with the lack of time didn't prevent people from meeting and listening to the candidates deliver their vision and answering probing questions."

Chair of the Chester party, Mark Williams, said "as a party based on people and determined to empower people, we believe that technology will play a key part in our ability to rapidly rebuild and spread our liberal message to more people. We were excited to be able to provide the platform for this first new technology step."