Who Should Attend

* Citizen Bloggers and Writers who write about beer or the beer industry.
* Industry Bloggers who have a blog related to their brewery or other beer industry business.
* New Media Innovators who work in the world of blogging and social media.
* Beer Industry members who would like to learn about new media or interact with bloggers in attendance.

Cost, Payment, Cancellation, and What is Included

The cost of the conference is $95 for citizen beer bloggers (those unaffiliated with a business or organization), $195 for industry beer bloggers (those whose blog is affiliated with a brewery, retail store, or other business or organization), and $295 for non-blogger participants (industry, media relations professionals, friends and family, etc). We are able to offer a lower price to citizen bloggers and beer-industry bloggers because it is for these folks our sponsors underwrite the conference. Payment is required in advance by credit card. The Pre-Conference Excursion in Chicago is an extra $20, which includes dinner, a brewpub crawl, bus transport back to Indianapolis, and lunch en route.

If you must cancel your registration, your payment is 50% refundable through June 13th, 2012 and not refundable after that. Please note you can insure against losing your conference registration fee (and your airplane tickets) by purchasing trip insurance. This is only available for those of you traveling from outside of the conference area and staying overnight.

The conference includes multiple beer tastings, two dinners, and outstanding content. Not included in the conference price are your hotel and transportation to either Chicago or Indianapolis and home from Indianapolis.

The Conference Hotel

The Indianapolis Marriott Downtown is one of the premier hotels in the city and, most importantly for us, is very eager to host the beer bloggers conference. The hotel is perfectly situated, rated four stars, and is a offering us a great rate of $119 per room per night for the weekend. Use the Indianapolis Marriott BBC Online Reservation Link or call 1.800.266.9432 to reserve your room at the conference rate of $119 per night.

Chicago Pre-Conference Excursion

The Chicago Pre-Conference excursion is optional and requires you to arrive in Chicago on Thursday and depart from Indianapolis on Sunday. However, it will be worth it! See below for transportation suggestions. The excursion is open only to registered attendees of the conference and limited to 50 people. The cost is $20 (a nominal amount just to ensure those who register do plan to attend) and includes a Thursday dinner, Thursday evening pub crawl, Friday bus transport from Chicago to Indianapolis, and lunch en route. Please see the Chicago Pre-Conference Excursion blog post for details.

Our recommended hotel in Chicago is the Howard Johnson Downtown at 720 North LaSalle Street, which currently has a rate of $84 on Orbitz.

Arrival and Departure
If you participate in the pre-conference excursion, you should arrive in Chicago in time to take public transportation to the Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub for the 6:00 PM dinner on Thursday, July 12th. If you are staying at the Howard Johnson, a group will depart there at 5:20 PM. If you do not participate in the Chicago excursion, you should arrive to Indianapolis in time to register at the Marriott at 3:00 PM on Friday, July 13th.

The conference will finish at 12:00 noon on Sunday in Indianapolis. If you live outside the area and do the pre-conference excursion, you will fly, bus, or train into Chicago and out of Indianapolis. We will provide bus transport from Chicago to Indianapolis.

If you live in the Chicago area and join the pre-conference excursion, you can join the bus transport to Indianapolis and then take a public bus, Amtrak, or one-way flight back. If you live in the Indianapolis area and join the excursion, you can do the reverse, flying, training, or busing to Chicago and then busing back with the group.