The conference heard calls for a proposed review of local government in the North to be radical and effective.
The Finance and Personnel Minister, Mr Mark Durkan, called for any review not to be petty and sterile and not to focus purely on boundary changes. Partnerships needed to be established between local bodies with responsibilities devolved to those bodies. "We need to think of ways in which we can change how we do business," he said.
Mr Desmond Lowry from Limavady pointed out that since 60 per cent of the party's Assembly members were also councillors, this could lead to a conflict of interest as councillors were on the receiving end of legislation passed by the Assembly.
He also called for any review of local government to consider the role of quangos and other service-providers. "I have been very disappointed in working in a local authority that I haven't been able to play a part in health trusts and other local bodies," he said.
In a debate on human rights, the party's junior Minister, Mr Denis Haughey, said the level of Catholic unemployment in the North was still twice that of Protestants. "It is not sectarian to say that is a worrying, destabilising thing for the community to have," he said.
In European and world affairs the conference became the first social democratic party in these to endorse the "Tobin Tax" on international currency speculation.
Ms Carmel Hanna, a south Belfast MLA, said this would help to counteract the "fluff economy" of speculators whereby "there are $15 trillion sloshing around doing no good". This speculation was responsible for, among other things, the unjustified "sinking of the euro," she said.
On the environment, Mr Eamonn Hanafin condemned Sinn Fein for "jumping on the bicycle of a new idea" in calling for the North to be a "zero waste" society. This was, like many of that party's policies, completely unobtainable, he said, calling for realistic waste-management strategies.