The Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mowlam, will share separate platforms on the conference fringe here tomorrow with the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, and Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness.
But while courtesy calls have not been ruled out, the indications are that the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, will maintain the low profile he has adopted since the commencement of the Mitchell review of the Belfast Agreement, and will not use the opportunity to hold substantive talks on Northern Ireland.
With the Mitchell review - and internal discussions within the UUP and Sinn Fein - at a delicate stage, Mr Blair is unlikely to break any new ground in his big conference speech this afternoon.
But it is possible the Prime Minister will use the opportunity to attack the Conservative Party for its breach of the bipartisan policy.
In an interview in the conference edition of the New Statesman, Dr Mowlam fiercely criticises her Conservative opposite number. "Andrew Mackay says he supports the agreement, but he never says anything in support of it. It isn't very helpful the way the Conservatives are behaving . . . Every time the Tories appear to be the anti-agreement party, who does it expose, who does it make life difficult for? David Trimble," she says.
In the same interview Dr Mowlam appears to signal a continuing desire to remain in her Stormont post, despite ongoing speculation that she might feature in a mini-reshuffle built around the imminent departure of the Defence Secretary, George (now Lord) Robertson. Asked if her reasons for wishing in July to remain had been met, Dr Mowlam replies:
"No, they haven't been met. We're in the middle of the Mitchell talks. So I have not finished. Of course there is never a perfect moment to bow out and say the job is completed. But the converse is also true: there are some bad moments in which to bow out. This summer was not a good point to leave."
In an address to the conference yesterday Dr Mowlam insisted, "the process is succeeding," and said Senator Mitchell was working to bridge the "gulf of distrust". She announced the government was giving an extra £1 million to the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund, which is developing education bursary schemes and special help for individual victims and their families.
She also confirmed that the consultation period on the Patten report would finish by the end of November and that an "implementation plan" would be published before Christmas.