Lara Kretler’s blog

A good social media conference is like the most beautiful box of chocolates you’ve ever unwrapped: it’s hard to choose where to begin, and you just want to cram it all in at once.

Blogs and books are great, but sometimes you really need to get away from the daily routine and immerse yourself in learning. With that in mind, here’s my ultimate wish list of social media conferences for communicators this year. I’ve researched and detailed the costs, key speakers and location for each so that you can make smart decisions in these tough economic times.

1. Online Media Boot Camp – April 9 in King of Prussia, PA – $349 plus hotel/travel (1 day). This conference has a lot packed into just one day so it’s reasonably priced, easy to get to and won’t take a lot of time – basically, there’s no reason not to go. Plus, Mack Collier is speaking and he has a cool social media contest going right now so you can win a free ticket. Hey, you never know. Go for it! And either way, follow the brilliance using the #OMBC hashtag here.
2. Inbound Marketing Summit (formerly New Marketing Summit) – either San Franciso in April, Dallas in May or Boston in September – $695 plus hotel/travel (2 days). This is a Chris Brogan joint, so it’s pretty much The One Social Media Event to Rule Them All. Even the conference website is cool, detailing the big names behind the summit and listing their blogs and Twitter info so you can follow them. Wish I could go, but I’m following them all (blogs and Twitter) so I’ll be able to catch some of the flow.
3. Social Media for Communicators – Las Vegas in March – $995 plus hotel/travel (3 days). This is the annual Ragan Communications event and it’s in Vegas, baby, Vegas. Peter Shankman, Forrester’s Josh Bernoff and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh are all speaking. Can’t swing the pricetag or time commitment for this one? Follow all the speakers on Twitter and read their blogs – you’ll still get great content without the neon-and-cigarette-smoke induced headaches of Vegas. Also, watch the live #socmedlv Twitter stream here.
4. New Communications Forum – co-located with the San Francisco Inbound Marketing Summit in April (remember what I said above about “The One Event”?!) - $795 plus hotel/travel (2 days). This event features an incredible line-up and is extremely well respected in the industry. I’ll be watching for the #NCF hashtag on Twitter and doing my best to follow along.
5. Digital Impact Conference - April in NYC – $799 plus hotel/travel (2 days). This is PRSA’s event and the one event on this list I’ll actually be attending live and in person. I’m looking forward to hearing Brian Solis speak again, as well as PR rockstar Sarah Evans and SEO guru Lee Odden. I will blog and tweet from the conference so you’ll feel like you got to go too. And, it’s my birthday weekend so not a bad time to be back in my old stomping ground, the Big Apple.

What do you think – is this your social media event wishlist too, or are there others you’d rather attend? Will you be attending any social media conferences in 2009?