The order of the party conferences

There is an interesting posting on Skipper. Bill Jones asks how the order in which the party conferences is decided. As he points out, the sequence in which they take place can be important:

This point was made to me by a perceptive member of my current affairs discussion group whom I meet every Wednesday at the university ... His point is that by always convening last, the Conservatives benefit most from any 'conference bounce' produced.

If Labour had 'conferenced' after the Conservatives, Bernard suggests there would have been a completely different outcome. Brown and Darling could have 'trumped' the aces deployed by Cameron and Osborne and would Cameron have risked his 'Bring it on' challenge not knowing what Brown was going to say the following week?