Tonight Forest and the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association are hosting a reception at Nuvo, a glitzy cocktail bar a short walk from the International Conference Centre in Birmingham.
Guest speakers are LBC Radio presenter and publisher Iain Dale (right) and Paul Scully MP.
Iain and I go back a bit. He used to run Politicos Bookshop in Westminster and wearing my journalist's hat I approached him about producing a magazine that would combine reviews of the latest political books and special features including interviews with various authors.
Iain liked the idea and became the publisher. I was the editor and we called it The Politico. Together we produced a number of issues before it dawned on us that it wasn't going to make any money so we knocked it on the head.
Since then I've watched with ill-concealed envy as Iain's career has gone from strength to strength in publishing and broadcasting.
Paul Scully was elected as an MP only last year but I remember him coming to a Forest event at the 2011 Conservative conference in Manchester when we hosted Stand Up For Liberty! at The Comedy Store.
After the event, which featured three acts from the professional comedy circuit (one of whom pushed the 'libertarian' theme almost to its limit), Paul tweeted:
Forest fringe at the comedy store is possibly the best ever in my 14 years at conference. Smokers showing antis how to do #nudge. #cpc11.
— Paul Scully MP (@scullyp) 4 October 2011
Anyway, ten years ago in Bournemouth Forest hosted a reception that was attended by almost 400 people. People who were there still remember it because it featured a mock police raid that included blue flashing lights and sirens.
The speaker was 'arrested' for "inciting guests to enjoy themselves" and the whole thing finished with everyone singing 'Always Look On The Bright Side of Life'. Surreal but magical.
Tonight's reception is significantly less ambitious (unless you count the dry ice cocktails) but as of last night over 500 people had registered to attend – a record for an event organised by Forest.
One small problem. When I last spoke to the nice folk at Nuvo I predicted we'd get 200 ...
