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The Top 8 Must-Attend Library Marketing Conferences of 2025

Photo courtesy Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll12?fbclid=IwAR3gV2a2TMW2DFTLlsU0shgVGKzEFtzSJBYpqyAircAHN3eh6wvoE-siipw
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

My coworkers can always tell when I’ve returned from a good conference.

I usually have pages of notes and ideas. I schedule meetings with coworkers to talk through ideas. I write blog posts! I’m brimming over with new information and enthusiasm for this profession.

What topics do you want to see covered at conferences this year?

That’s why, every year, I research and release a list of conferences for my friends who also work in library promotions. I want you to have the chance to learn from experts while not breaking the bank. Here’s what I look for in a conference.

  • The conference has a robust selection of sessions specifically centered around marketing and promotions. Many conferences on this list are not specifically designed for libraries. But if the conference will teach you techniques or new concepts that you can adapt to your library work, I’ve included it.
  • The conferences are budget-friendly. I am keenly aware of budgetary constraints for libraries. That means some really incredible conferences are not on the list because they are just too darn expensive.
  • Some conferences are virtual, and some are in-person. I tried to offer a range for those who wish to travel and for those who are not able to travel.
  • Most of the in-person conferences in this list are all in the United States or Canada. If you know of a great marketing conference with content that applies to library marketing and is located in another country, please add the info to the comments for my international readers.

The 8 Best Conferences in 2025 for Library Marketing and Promotions

American Marketing Association

Full roster of events, virtual and in-person, throughout the year.
Price: Ranging from free to $500

This year, the American Marketing Association’s event schedule makes it worth it to join the organization. Each month, there are several events planned on a whole range of topics from AI to social media to video and working with influencers. Some events are free, others cost up to $500 for non-members.

Digital Marketing Conference Series

62 separate in-person and virtual events happening between March and November 2025 across the globe
Price: Varies by location. You’ll generally pay around $620 for the bottom-tier in-person pass and about $210 for the virtual pass.

This series includes sessions on customer engagement, social media marketing, video marketing, web analytics, email marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization, geo-targeting, and more. Each event has its own website and agenda so you can pick the right session for you.

Digital Summit Series

6 separate in-person events between March and December 2025 across the USA.
Price: $525 for a main conference pass

This conference covers content, social media, email, SEO, analytics, and strategy. The conference offers talking points to use to convince your boss. They have discounts for sending three or more people. And I’ve looked over the schedule: They’ve got top-notch speakers on the list. This is a great way to learn about marketing from some of the top minds in the industry at a very affordable price.

Computers in Libraries 2025

In-person event, March 25-27, 2025, in Arlington, Virginia
Price: Ranges from $299 to $949 depending on how many days you wish to attend and whether you want to participate in workshops.

There is a track each day that is promotions-related. On Day One, it’s called “Engaging Our Communities.” On Day two, it’s “Content Management.” And on the last day, it’s “Making an Impact and Creating Value.” I think the session choices really make it worth your time and money.

Social Next

In-person events across Canada between March and September, 2025 plus a Virtual Summit in December, 2025
Price: Prices start at $199 Canadian

The schedule is robust with topics including content creation, social media, advertising, non-profit marketing, and more. And with events across regions in Canada, plus a very affordable digital event, I think this is a great option for library marketers in Canada.

Special Libraries Association

In-person event, July 7-19 2025 in Pittsburgh, PA
Price: $425 for students to $900 for late registration

This year’s theme is “Creative Transformation,” with programs and activities designed to foster innovative thinking and help you meet the challenges of a quickly changing information landscape. They have an entire track on marketing and competitive intelligence, which makes it valuable for libraries at places like museums, military bases, and law firms. Registration includes continental breakfast, lunch, a welcome reception, and a dance party!

Guru Conference

Virtual event, November 6-7, 2025
Price: Free

A favorite of my team at NoveList, this free virtual event is packed with tips for email marketing and advice for promotions. It’s energetic and usually has celebrity keynotes (last year was Sarah Jessica Parker!). There are no recordings, so you must set aside time to watch the sessions live. Block your calendar now.

Library Marketing and Communications Conference

In-person event, November 12-13 in St. Louis, MO
Price: TBD

If you have to pick one conference to attend this year, make it this one. This is an amazing opportunity to learn so much about marketing, communication, public relations, social media, and outreach in academic, public, and special libraries. The sessions explore issues that are important for this niche of library work. The conference includes time for attendees to network and discuss mutual challenges. Registration opens later this year. Sign up for their mailing list on the website to get more information. Join their Facebook group to start networking right now. I will be there!!!

Want more help?

How One Library Got All the Stock Photos It Needs for Promotions in Just One Day!

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10 Tips to Make The Most of Your Next Library Marketing Conference

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

My phone has a folder just for conference apps. And perhaps this is super nerdy, but I get a sense of thrill from moving an app from the folder to my homepage. It means it’s time to attend a conference!

Conferences, in whatever form they take, give you space to step away from your normal work tasks and learn, network, and get re-energized.  

And for those of us working in library marketing, conference attendance is vital. Promoting your library means you have to balance a number of skills, like creative writing, data analytics, and project management. We need ongoing training and inspiration to do our best possible work. Conferences help you do that!

But, to get the most out of the experience, you’ll need to do more than show up and take notes. Here are my top 10 tips to help you get the most value out of your next conference.

Pick your sessions in advance.

Before you get into the car, train, or plane to travel to the conference, decide on which sessions you’ll attend. Most conferences offer sessions in tracks. Those are a series of related sessions designed to give you an in-depth and multi-layered education about one area of librarianship.

You may be expecting me to recommend that you always attend sessions in the marketing, communications, or outreach track. And I do… but only if your library is sending more than one person to the conference.

If you are traveling solo, choose your sessions based on the needs of your library. Think about the coming year and the kinds of challenges that may lie ahead for your organization. Then pick the sessions that will help you to meet those challenges.

For example, this year at LibLearnX, I attended a session on strategic planning for libraries. I knew that I needed to learn more about the process so that I could encourage libraries to add communication initiatives to their strategic plans.

If you’re on the fence about a session or are having trouble choosing between several speakers running at the same time, do some research on the speakers. Look on YouTube to see if you can find their past presentations. Check their LinkedIn profile, blog, or website. Their presentation style and willingness to share valuable information with their audiences may help you make your final decision.   

Sign up for notifications.

Most conferences will send you notices through email or their app (or both) with helpful info, including places to eat and have fun when you’re not in a conference session. They may also alert you when sessions are added or dropped from the agenda. These can be valuable time savers.

Connect with fellow attendees and speakers on social media before you go.

Start checking the conference hashtag a few weeks before the conference to see who is attending and what they’re excited about. That excitement is contagious!

You might also find Facebook and LinkedIn groups connected to your conference where you can meet attendees in advance. Connecting with conference attendees and speakers ahead of time makes it less intimidating to walk into an event full of strangers.

And while you’re at it, update your LinkedIn profile. You can bet people you meet at the conference will be checking you out.

And you never know… you may find your next boss at the event. I was hired by NoveList in 2019 after meeting my current manager at the Library Marketing and Communications Conference!

Practice how you’ll introduce yourself to new people and have a few conversation starters at the ready.

You’ll be surprised how fast you can freeze up in a room full of strangers. So even though it feels weird, figure out what you’ll say to introduce yourself and then come up with three questions you can ask someone you’ve just met to help get a conversation going.

Can’t think of any good conversation starters? You can steal mine! Of course, they are all library marketing questions.

  • What’s the best way you’ve found to send messages to your community?
  • What social media channels does your library use to communicate with your cardholders? Which one works best for you?
  • How does your library measure your marketing and promotion success?

Get familiar with the venue and pack your conference tote bag.

Try to arrive on the day before the conference so you can go to the venue. Figure out where the exhibit hall, session rooms, food booths, and restrooms are located. Knowing how to get around can help ease your nerves.

If the conference has early check-in, take advantage of it. The registration desk is always busy on the morning of the first day of a conference. You’ll be glad to avoid the lines and get right into your sessions.

The night before the conference, pack a notebook and pens or your laptop, some business cards, a small snack, your water bottle, and a phone charger into a tote bag or backpack. But be sure to leave room for freebies you’ll pick up in the vendor hall.

Take notes in sessions. 

You might be tempted to skip this step, given that many speakers make their slides publicly available after the presentation. But you’ll absorb more of the information if you take notes.

Ask questions of the speakers. 

If you are in the midst of a session and you have a question about the material, write it down. Most conference sessions include a question and answer time at the end of the session.

If you find it too intimidating to ask a question of a speaker, approach them after the session. They’ll be happy to talk with you one on one.

Give yourself a break.

I made one big mistake at my first post-pandemic in-person conference. I went from session to session without any breaks all day long! It was exhausting and I never had a chance to reflect on what I was learning.

So now, I make a commitment to myself to take a lunch break every day of each conference I attend. If I can, I take my food outside of the venue or I visit a nearby restaurant and eat while going over my notes. The breaks help me to regain focus for my afternoon sessions. 

At the end of each day, go through your notes and compile a summary.  

Head back to your hotel and spend about 20 minutes just writing a few paragraphs about what you’ve learned, who you met, and how these ideas can translate into your library marketing work.

The time you spend putting your notes in order will also help to reinforce what you learn. It will also prompt you to start thinking about ways to put those new nuggets of knowledge into practice at your library!

Put what you’ve learned into practice—do not skip this step!  

When you return home, I want you to set aside one hour on your calendar as if it were a meeting. During that time, review your notes and pick two or three things you’ve learned at the conference that you can do at your library.

For example, maybe you learned ten new tips to get more subscribers for your email newsletter. Choose a few of the tips and make a plan to actually try them!

Try to do this within a week of returning, when the material is fresh in your mind and your enthusiasm and energy are high.

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Six Tips to Make the Most of Your Online Experience During Virtual Conference Season

Man walking through the stacks. Photo courtesy The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

In November 2019, a conference changed my life.

I attended the Library Marketing and Communications Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, where I met my future boss, Kathy Lussier of NoveList.

On the first day of the conference, we had breakfast together and started talking. And by the end of the conference, she was texting me a job opening that eventually led to my current position with NoveList.

Conferences can re-frame your professional life. You may find your next new job. You might make a new best friend. You may learn a skill that revolutionizes the way you do your job. At the very least, you’ll hear speakers who inspire, energize, and motivate you.

We’re heading into conference season and this year it’s all virtual. (The Library Advocacy and Funding Conference starts today–if you’re attending, send me a friend request!)

As I learned from attending the American Library Association conference in June, an in-person conference and a virtual conference are not the same.

But you can have a fantastic virtual conference experience with the right preparation. Here are the six things I recommend you do this year before you log on.

Get your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts ready

It’s imperative that you have a LinkedIn and Twitter profile, and that you use them to engage during a virtual conference. Networking is a big part of the conference experience. And since we can’t network in person, these two social media platforms are the easiest and safest way to interact with new friends.

There are several steps you should take to prep your profiles. Once the conference ends, you can always change your profile back!

On LinkedIn, check to make sure that your profile is set to “public.”  To do that, click on your settings and look under “privacy.” This step will make your profile easy to find, especially if you are in the market for a new job opportunity.

Customize your LinkedIn profile URL to include your first and last name. This will make your profile easier to find in search. You can also make this adjustment in settings.

On LinkedIn, ask co-workers, partners, and former colleagues for recommendations. This is especially important if you are job-hunting. You’ll want to give them some time to write their recommendation, so ask as soon as you register for a conference.

Make sure your photo on LinkedIn and Twitter looks as professional as possible and use the same photo for both platforms. LinkedIn says a professional photo will make visitors seven times more likely to visit your profile than picture-free profiles. You can take a great photo yourself! My LinkedIn profile photo is a selfie I took in the backyard at sunset on my iPhone in portrait mode.

Check your header image on both accounts. A meaningful image related to your professional experience can drive home who you are and what you do.

Edit your headlines and your personal details. Include a little about your work and what differentiates you from other people at the conference.

To boost search rankings on Google, include keywords that will appeal to your fellow attendees or the conference hashtag. I’ve also seen people temporarily change their Twitter Profile name to include the conference hashtag for the duration of a conference.

Clear your calendar

My coworkers and I agreed that we made a big mistake when we attended #ALAVirtual20. Most of us accepted meetings during the conference week, even though attending a meeting would interrupt our conference experience.

If you were attending a conference in another city, you would be unavailable for meetings. Adapt that mindset and be intentional about giving yourself the space to focus on your conference experience in a digital setting.

Now, during virtual conferences, I mark myself “out of office” on my Outlook calendar.  And I’m clearing my schedule of other busy work.

Take advantage of pre-recorded sessions

Most virtual conferences offer at least some, if not all, of their sessions on-demand. That can impact which sessions you consume.

For instance, this week’s #LAFCON is completely pre-recorded. In preparation, I went through the sessions and highlighted the ones I want to watch. Then I scheduled them, by name, into my work calendar in one-hour increments. That will help me keep track of my choices, watch sessions in an order that makes sense (I can do all the marketing track sessions back-to-back!) and help me stay focused.

Plan breaks

Of course, you know it’s exhausting to stare at the screen all day. At a real conference, you’d take a break to eat, use the restrooms, get coffee, tour the vendor booths, or maybe just chill for a bit. Try to mimic that self-care routine in a virtual world. Schedule those breaks into your calendar if you must.

Be patient with technology

If there’s one constant with the pandemic, it’s that every online event will experience technical difficulties. Many organizations are using streaming platforms for the first time. There may be bandwidth issues.

Be patient and polite. Before the conference begins, check to see where you can report technical issues or get assistance.

Follow the conference hashtag

This is a great way to get involved and tune in to conversations from your session and from sessions you couldn’t attend. It’s also a networking opportunity. Don’t hesitate to reach out to folks if you liked what they had to say by replying, liking their Tweets, or retweeting them.

Join me at a conference

The event page has returned to the blog. If you’re attending a conference with me, please let me know so we can connect.

You might also find these posts helpful

Experts Reveal the Truth About What Your Library Needs to Do Now to Build Support for the Future

Five Relevant Library Marketing Lessons Learned at the American Library Association Annual Conference (#ALAVirtual20)

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