The excellent Liz Strauss is making SOBCon happening again in 2009. If previous years are anything to go by, this year will feature big names and lots of interesting discussions, so it’ll be a big event for the blogosphere for sure.

I caught up with Liz for a quick email interview. This is what she had to say.

First of all, give us the details! When, where, why is SOBCon09?

SOBCon09 is May 1, 2, 3, 2009 in Chicago. Hope you’re coming! It’s going to be so cool this year! You can find a complete list of speakers at sobevent.com/details/. But the difference is that we’ve extended it by a day. Friday starts with how-to that will go through everything about business online from building trust economies and creative communites to the essentials of business and multimedia social network enteriprise online.

Saturday is our signature Models and Masterminds format in which speakers offer actionable up to the minute content to attended in mastermind teams. The mastermind teams get huge chunks of time to apply what the speakers have just said to their own blogs or businesses. You can’t work together at a small conference table with five people without developing deep networking relationships that go far beyond exchanging business cards.

Sunday is what I’m most looking forward to. We’re offering sponsors a small window to bring a product or problem to the attendee audience to work on. Say, Company A has a new BluRay laptop they want to offer to Mommy Bloggers. Company A will get a short time to present that problem. Then then of attendees will work on how they would build a social media plan to offer that product to the market most efficiently. Can’t wait to see the ideas fly.

Who’s attending this year, and what is planned?

The names on the list include Chris Brogan, Julien Smith, Brian Clark , Liz Strauss, Brian Solis, Kali Evans-Raoul, KD Paine, Geoff Nelson, Chris Aarons, Denise Wakeman, Chris Cree, Wendy Piersall, David Bullock, Stephen Smith, Michael Martine, Lorelle VanFossen, Melissa Pierce, Saul Colt, Terry Starbucker, Glenda Watson Hyatt, Karen Putz, Stephen Hopson. Tony Berkman, Geoff Livingston, Jason Falls, Shashi Bellamkonda, Char Polanosky, and more folks are signing up everyday. Julie Roads from Writing Roads just signed up this morning. (We’re running a discount that ends when 2008 is over.)

Chris and Julien promise to introduce their new book “Trust Economies.” Brian Clark has said he’ll bringing something totally new. Melissa Pierce is bring some video from Life in Perpetual Beta and the party on Friday is in the room that was Batman”s apartment in the move “The Dark Knight.” Chicago is so Beautiful in May. I’m going to share a bit of what I know about intellectual property and strategy and KD Paine is going to talk about the ROI of Relationships in a social media world.

What is your goal with SOBCon?

Ah Thord, what a lovely question. SOBCon. For SOBCon, it has been to have an event in which people experience the joy of learning in a high trust environment. We only have room for 150 people which means that huge egos and people who can’t relate sort themselves out. The group who comes is something quite spectacular.

Image getting to spend quality time with the folks on that speaker list because they want to be there. That’s how it is. It’s my goal to have the Cirque du soliel of conferences … the little conference that can’t quite be describe by any other but when everyone leaves they say, “AWESOME.”

Thanks for answering my questions, Liz!

If you’re interested in SOBCon09, be sure to check out the presenters, the program, the blog, and the sponsors. All in all, you should check out the SOBCon site, and register before it is too late.