Tim Farron had a number of different, and difficult, jobs to do in his first speech as party leader.

At the most basic level he had to try to introduce himself to the country.

Lib Dem activists may know the northern cheeky chappie they elected this summer – but hardly anyone else does.

Mr Farron also had to continue to appeal to the left of his party, which helped him defeat the former minister Norman Lamb in the leadership election.

But he also has had to soften that wing up to the idea of going back into coalition government – potentially with the Conservatives.

Some Lib Dem activists, whether they opposed the last government from day one or grew more disillusioned with time, are aghast at the idea of doing another deal with the Tories.

But they heard this week a prediction from former cabinet minister Vince Cable that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was “completely unelectable”.

Under that argument the Tories could be the only game in town for any potential future coalitions in 2020.

Which takes us to another pressing issue in Mr Farron''s in-tray.

He also had to offer hope to the thousands of new members who surged to join the party in the wake of its General Election annihilation.

Not for nothing was the slogan of the conference "Lib Dem fightback".

And so his address tried to combine all this and more.

This was not a sombre speech of a would-be deputy prime minister in waiting.

That may come in later years.

There were stories about his teenage rock band (“we were rubbish”) and his background growing up with a single mum.

There was genuine passion in an emotional appeal for the UK to do more to help ease the migrant refugee crisis.

And there was an appeal to his party that winning elections was not "grubby".

His speech appeared to calm the nerves of some in the hall as to whether or not they had picked the right man to lead them.

Now he just needs to pull off a similar trick with ordinary voters.