Slot conference's rarely result in anything concrete for airports and airlines, they just help the rumour factory go into overtime. If an airline is looking seriously at starting a route, they don't need to attend a conference to decide whether to go ahead. Still, I suppose they allow a jolly in a nice city on expenses.
I accept I am probably in the minority here but I despair at the the thought of EZ or FR heading over to MAN on any sort of scale. The more the airport becomes an LCC hub the more you can wave goodbye to getting much more top class long haul airline activity here.