SocialNext: Marketing Conferences in the Pandemic Era

I don’t think anyone that works in events or marketing will ever forget March 13, 2020. That was the day everything changed for me and, two years later, I’m not sure things have stopped changing, but at least now, I’m used to it.

Since 2013, I had been running digital marketing events across the country. What started out as me just wanting to help small businesses master their social media channels, soon grew into Canada’s largest digital marketing conference. Our last pre-pandemic event saw 800+ marketers descend upon Calgary for a three-day event like no other, but then, to quote the Sex and the City reboot, “And just like that…it was gone.”

But I knew I couldn’t give up. Every single entrepreneur that I’ve ever met has had to deal with adversity that would make a regular person crumble, so I knew I could not crumble. I had sold 500+ tickets to my events and I knew I needed to give those people something valuable.

By March 20th, I was hosting my first webinar. 800 people attended “Social Media in a Crisis.” I had never attended a webinar before, let alone hosted one, but there I was – there everyone was!

Not to be too cheesy, but I’m one of those people who think this whole pandemic brought us together, even though we were more apart than ever. When I look back to March 12th, we were all in sixth gear; trying to impress everyone; trying to fool ourselves. Thinking that working 50-60 hours a week was somehow noble, all while sacrificing time with friends, family and ourselves.

And then, on March 14th, that’s all we had. We had to tune everything out and everyone out and take care of ourselves. We had to keep our businesses afloat. We needed to comfort ourselves and customers and do whatever we could to make sure our frontline workers were safe. No one ever taught us how to do that, but within days, we were experts.

Those webinars soon turned into weekly sessions and those weekly sessions soon turned into a conference that was called SocialAtHome, now called SocialNext. Since its inception, we have welcomed more than 2,000 Canadian marketers. We have heard keynotes from guest speakers such as Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Neil Pasricha, Arlene Dickinson, and so many more.

And now we are getting ready to do our fifth virtual conference. SocialNext, on March 3rd and 4th, will welcome marketers from every province and territory in Canada and I couldn’t be more excited. I plan to bring back in-person events, while also balancing virtual events, which is something that I never thought would be possible.

Our virtual events offer you something that our in-person events can’t always. You can connect with people from coast to coast to coast. You can watch presentations over and over, and you can pee during the middle of the presentation and we’ll never know!

I think what has helped SocialNext stand out is that we send a gift box to each of our attendees. The gift box arrives at their front door, and it’s filled with products and surprises that make the conference engaging and interactive. Are there cons to virtual presentations? Sure. But if I can help people connect during the 5th wave of a pandemic, then I’m going to do that.

Like so many entrepreneurs, the pandemic wiped me out: emotionally, financially, mentally and every other -ly. But here I am in 2022. Here we all are. We aren’t alone. We are together. And if entrepreneurs, small businesses, marketers, those that work in the public sector and content creators can survive the pandemic, there’s honestly nothing we can’t handle. But let’s do it from third gear this time. I think we all deserve that.

Marketing News Canada readers can save 20% on their SocialNext ticket by using the code MNC at checkout.

Watch the Trailer for the 2022 SocialNext:

Written by Mike Morrison; host, writer, speaker, podcaster and community builder. Learn more about SociaNext.