Recommended Reads from SocialEast Day 2

With 15 different presentations and panels featuring some of the industry’s most brilliant marketers, digital strategists, and innovators, there is no shortage of inspiration at the second day of SocialEast. But what inspires these brilliant minds? What are they reading? Today’s recommended reads can help content creators and digital marketers better understand their clients, tap into emerging global trends, and optimize human behaviour.

Arlene Dickinson during a post-keynote book signing at SocialEast - All photography by Mat Higgins-Savidant

You Ask, They Answer by Marcus Sheridan

Want to revolutionize your understanding of inbound sales, content marketing, and today’s digital consumer? Derek Hovinga, founder of The Inbound Lab in Calgary, suggests picking up a copy of Marcus Sheridan’s key tool for business owners around the world, which shaped his own approach to creating unique content and genuine advertising that helps drive revenue by “helping people make informed decisions about their purchases.”

Subscribe to Simon Willison’s Substack Newsletter

Robert Newcombe, the brain behind Halifax’s AI-First Consulting, says that marketers with an interest in AI, LLMs, web engineering, open source, and more should subscribe to Simon Willison’s Substack Newsletter. Willison is the co-creator of the Django Web framework, and a former JSK Journalism Fellow at Standford University, who shares pages and pages of resources and insights on AI agents, LLMs, Chat GPT, and more with over 32k subscribers.

Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Luck, and Chaos by Jim Collins

Even though, as Robert Newcombe suggests, “AI agents are more effective and more efficient” tools to implement for business and marketing optimization, and despite greater available tools to control outcomes, there is still always the unpredictable and the chaotic. That’s why Newcombe recommends the business research classic by Jim Collins that explores in detail why some companies flourish with uncertainty where others fail.

Alchemy by Rory Sutherland and How Brands Grow by Dr. Byron Sharp

Joshua Counsil, this year’s SocialEast co-host, sponsor, and co-founder of Good Robot Brewing, says every marketer must read Rory Sutherland’s brilliant theories on the surprising power of ideas that don’t make sense. “He talks about how humans have become hypo-rationalized, despite being naturally irrational. It’s a lot of fun.” Then, for something that “challenges many of the concepts shared at SocialEast,” read Dr. Byron Sharp’s groundbreaking How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know.

Read more of Josh’s essential reads here.

Reinvention: Changing Your Life, Your Career, Your Future by Arlene Dickinson

As the keynote speaker for SocialEast, and as Canada's top Dragon and marketing legend, Arlene Dickinson's 2019 book is a must-read. By applying business principles to her own life, Arlene's story is one of resilience, success, and of course, reinvention, and highlights how life and business are one in the same.

This piece is part of our ongoing coverage of SocialEast 2025, one of five national conferences produced by SocialNext, with live coverage of this event sponsored by Cyberimpact.

About Cyberimpact:
Cyberimpact is a Canadian email marketing platform built for SMBs and public sector organizations. We make it easy to create professional emails, automate campaigns, and stay fully compliant with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Trusted by thousands of Canadian organizations.