SocialNext Arrive à Montréal

Photo by Mathieu Higgins-Savidant

Most marketing conferences in Canada are built for one audience and translated for the other. SocialNext: Montréal was built for both from the start.

The inaugural edition of Canada's only bilingual marketing conference landed at the Palais des congrès de Montréal on June 10 and 11, bringing together marketers from across Quebec and beyond for two days of sessions delivered in French, in English, and in the kind of bilingual back-and-forth that actually reflects how a lot of this country's marketing professionals think and work. Attendees came from Montreal and Gatineau, from Shawinigan and Drummondville, from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa. The room was not an English-language conference with French subtitles bolted on. It was designed as a bilingual event, and people noticed.

SocialNext has been building regional marketing conferences and growing a community of Canadian marketers for years, from Calgary to Halifax. Montréal is a different market entirely, and SocialNext knew it. Quebec's marketing community has its own ecosystem, its own practitioners, its own conversations — and getting into that room required building something that belonged there. The bilingual format was not a feature. It was the foundation. Sessions were delivered in French, in English, and some in both. AI translation tool Wordly handled the rest, with closed captions running on screen, in the app, and through live AI audio translation so no one had to choose which version of the conversation they were part of.

Here’s what the audience had to say:

Florence Carrier on stage - Photo by Mathieu Higgins-Savidant

The Sessions

Skipping the Theory

The sessions that landed hardest were the ones that got straight to the doing. Rather than talk about AI in the abstract, Marie-Hélène Laporte showed tools live and demonstrated them in real time. Attendees called it the best session of their day and more than one asked if she could come present at their company. The paid media side of the room had a similar moment with Florence Carrier's breakdown of how top brands actually scale their advertising. Concrete, current, and ready to act on Monday. Stéphanie Bédard and Alexandra Clouette tackled the problem every marketing team hits eventually, connecting day-to-day marketing activity to real revenue impact, and the room recognized itself in the challenge immediately.

The Bigger Picture

Where is AI actually landing in the Canadian digital landscape? Paul Briggs had the data, and attendees were already planning to share it with clients before they had left the building. Reddit was not top of mind for a lot of the room walking in, but Taren Byrne changed that. Her session on the platform's growing role in AI search reshaped how people think about paid and organic working together, and drew some of the most thoughtful written feedback of the day. One attendee put it simply: hearing that community and humanity are still at the core of how people find information, even as AI rewires search, gave them genuine hope. Geoffrey Blanc and Nihal Mandanna CP rounded things out with a clear-eyed look at what it actually takes to stay visible and trusted in inboxes as AI changes both how email is written and how it gets filtered.

The Human Side of the Room

Two sessions pushed back against the numbers-first mentality in ways that clearly needed to be said out loud. Kevin Parent was the only speaker who went straight at the human cost of the job, talking about marketer wellbeing and the responsibility organizations carry toward the people doing this work. The feedback was personal in a way that most session comments are not. And Joe Teo came at it from a different angle, making the case that community-led marketing builds something reach-chasing never can. His session was called too short. That tends to be the right problem to have.

Photo by Mathieu Higgins-Savidant

Year One

First-year conferences are not supposed to feel like this. They are supposed to feel like a good idea that still needs another iteration, sessions that almost landed, logistics that mostly held together. SocialNext Montréal did not feel like that.

The sessions that worked did not work because they were polished. They worked because they were honest and useful and talked to the actual people in the room. That is harder to pull off than it sounds, especially in a market that has its own standards and its own way of calling out when something is not quite right. Attendees left with notes they were already turning into plans. Most said they would be back.

That is what year one is supposed to do.

“It's been such a great experience. The different conferences were all interesting and all of the speakers were super approachable after their presentation. Will go back again next year for sure."

“Attending SocialNext Montréal over the last two days has been an incredible experience. As an agency owner, one of the most valuable investments you can make is in continuous learning, and this event delivered exactly that. The opportunity to be in the same room as some of the brightest marketing minds in the industry was truly inspiring. What amazed me most was how much knowledge, practical advice, and fresh thinking could be packed into just two days. I'm leaving with pages of notes, new ideas, and valuable new connections that I'll be bringing back to both my business and my clients."

“SocialNext is the perfect place for marketers in Canada wanting to expand their knowledge and meet new people."

SocialNext Montréal is one of six SocialNext conferences held across Canada, alongside SocialWest, SocialNext: Ottawa, SocialNext: Toronto, SocialEast, and SocialPacific.