European conferences that focus on the role of social media in public relations aren’t terribly common and those that are scheduled tend to be pricey. The Social Media World Forum is coming up next month in London, but its focus is broader than public relations and a ticket for the entire event will set you back US $920. There’s a marketing-focused conference, M2C, in Hamburg next month; admission is over US $2,500.

If you’re based in Europe and work in PR or organizational communications, your best bet is likely to be the 2012 International Social Media & PR Summit, scheduled for April 11-12 at ING House—a pretty amazing looking building—in Amsterdam:

It’s one of the several conferences presented each year by Lawrence Ragan Communications, with whom I have a very close relationship: I produce some content for Ragan, they are the lead sponsor of the podcast I co-host (For Immediate Release), and I speak at many of their conferences, including this one. So yes, I’m biased, without question. But the facts speak for themselves.

First, there’s the speaker lineup, which includes Norbert Cappetti, the communications manager for Heineken in the Netherlands; Nick Jue, ING’s CEO; Edelman‘s EMEA Managing Director Marshall Manson; Jeramie McPeek, VP of Digital for NBA basketball’s Phoenix Suns; Allan Schoenberg, corporate communications director for CME Group; Imger Paus, area PR lead for Microsoft in Western Europe; Dell‘s PR and corporate communications director in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Simone Versteeg; NASA‘s social media director, Stephanie Schierholz; and Carla Buzasi, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post UK.

I’ve heard Stephanie and Marshall speak at previous conferences; they are not to be missed.

And there’s my podcast co-host, Neville Hobson, with whom I’ll be presenting a joint session on (what else?) podcasting.

Neville has also written about the conference.

Then there are the topics, which target issues important to PR practitioners: new opportunities for social media and PR to improve your reputation, using social media to drive business functions, social media and crisis communications, and case study after case study from communicators who have been in the trenches doing the work day-to-day.

The price? US $995, with one-day passes available for $545 each.

Despite my conflict of interest in promoting this conference, I genuinely believe it’s the most PR-focused social media conference in Europe this year, with the most relevant lineup of speakers, at the most affordable price for what you’ll get.

More speakers are due to be added, and you can learn about them by following the conference hashtag, #SMPR2012.

I’m looking forward to seeing you there!