MPs, MSPs, councillors, party activists and the media's political correspondents leave their traditional habitats of Westminster, Holyrood and the council chambers to go off to an exotic location for a weekend of intense politicking.

The first one is the Scottish Liberal Democrats, so this weekend it's Aviemore and the Macdonald Highland Hotel.

This year BBC Scotland is introducing changes to the way we cover these events.

For decades we've broadcast them much the same way. Big live chunks of debate, some edited reports anchored by a presenter on site and broadcast live on BBC Two Scotland.

We've provided news inserts in our radio and television bulletins with packaged reports and live interviews on radio and TV programmes like Good Morning Scotland, Newsdrive, Reporting Scotland and Newsnight Scotland.

Live leaders' speeches and some debates have found their way onto News 24 and Radio Five Live and in recent times we've introduced stories and analysis on the BBC Scotland news website.

This year we've decided to ring the changes. In an effort to make our coverage more accessible to a wider public audience we're putting more of the conferences online, and changing our television offering. Our radio programming remains much the same.

At the beginning of each conference there'll be a live online question and answer session hosted by our political editor Brian Taylor with each Scottish party leader.

So, on Friday at 1100 GMT you can watch Nicol Stephen, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, answering questions supplied by our online audience.

We'll also be streaming up to six hours of each conference on the web, picking up key debates and speeches from the agenda.

The televised offering will bring live coverage of the Scottish party leader’s speech in a special programme, this weekend from 1430 GMT on BBC Two Scotland.

A highlights programme will also be broadcast at the end of the proceedings, on Sunday night, with the best bits from the three-day event.

It should mean our conference programmes will reach more people - viewers, listeners and users. Have a good look and tell us what you think.