Where will social media be in 2010?

It's true: if you want to be at the forefront of what is happening with social media, you definitely have to come to London. It's the unofficial capital of Twitter, as the site's top city in terms of usage, and also boasts the largest locational network on Facebook. So it's no wonder that most social media conferences take place there. Just two weeks after #media140, the next few are already standing in line.

The first one is Social Media '09 on 12 November, a conference and masterclass for professionals working in the marketing, PR, advertising & corporate communications. The case studies on product launch and campaigning will be about the Wonderbra and the recruitment for the RAF, showing how mainstream social networking has become. Among those offering their experience will be the Channel 4 presenter Sarah Beeny and the social media expert Mat Morrison. In addition, the conference will focus on the important question how to use monitoring tools to track one's brand; user engagement is hard to measure.

The second conference, Monitoring Social Media 09, on 17 November, focuses on the future of social media. It promises nothing less than a marketing revolution, namely that "refined social data changes everything you ever thought about marketing". Besides, the one-day conference plans to take brands on the next step "beyond listening". For that, the likes of Matt Atkinson from one of UK's largest digital agencies, EHS Brann, and Paul Alexander, the CEO of Beyond Analysis, are sharing their thoughts on several interesting questions. What are the growth areas in social media? What techniques are emerging and will data be more open or more closed? It can be tough deciding, so we want to know that, too.

Finally, on 23 November, Silicon Valley is coming not to London, but to Oxford University's Said business school for a debate on the rather abstract question "Social Networks: What Next?". The panel is convincing, however, with exciting experts such as Biz Stone of Twitter, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn and Jim Buckmaster of Craigslist among others for its evening panel discussion.

Stay tuned, we will report.