This Is How It All Started

SocialWest anniversary pricing, creator economy history, and what AI actually means for your work today.

April 21, 2026

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Ten years is a long time in marketing. Long enough to watch blogs turn into creator programs and AI go from buzzword to something that is genuinely changing how people find and buy. This week we have Mike Morrison on what a decade of SocialWest actually looked like, Cam Gordon on where the creator economy really started, and a full recap of what the AI sessions at SocialNext Toronto were actually saying. Plus two certifications worth knowing about if Q2 has you thinking about where to go deeper.

Coming up

Mike Morrison on 10 Years of SocialWest

Without a doubt, the question I get asked the most is how did this all get started?

The “this” being everything. SocialNext, the events, the job board, the newsletter, the community, all of it.

And the answer is actually pretty simple. It started with one workshop. Then two, then three, then a conference. And then, somehow, all of this.

That first event, SocialWest, turns ten this year. It is still the biggest thing we do, and honestly, it is still the one that means the most to me.

It has been the wildest ten years of my life.

The hardest part, without question, was the pandemic. At that point we had events in Calgary and Halifax, and I kept thinking about how to do more, even though the math was not exactly working. Then the pandemic hit, and whatever version of the math I was trying to figure out really stopped making sense.

But it also forced a different kind of clarity.

When we realized we had to cancel everything, I knew right away we would offer full refunds. At the time, a lot of companies were offering credits or alternatives, but that never felt right to me. It felt pretty simple. Do what is right and hope the rest works out.

We offered 600 people their money back, knowing that if everyone took it, there was a real chance we would not be able to continue.

Only about ten percent did.

And I do not blame anyone who asked. Every dollar mattered then. What stuck with me were the messages that came with those requests. The apologies, which were not necessary, and this underlying feeling that people from all over the country did not just want events to come back, they needed something like this to exist.

That was the moment things shifted for me.

It stopped being just about events and became about the community around them.

Since then, we have grown into Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and soon Montreal. But more importantly, we have built something that connects people whether they are in the room or not. There is a bridge now between the people who attend and the people who hope to one day, and I think that is where we have always been at our best.

Because most of us are not working with massive budgets or big teams. We are figuring things out as we go, trying to be creative, trying to connect, trying to make something work.

That is the common ground. And that is what this has always been about.

SocialWest will always feel a little different though, because it is where it all started. Every year I walk into that room and think about the fact that people chose to be there. They gave their time, their money, and their energy to something we built.

That is not something I have ever taken for granted.

One of my favourite parts over the years has been watching people grow into it. From volunteer to speaker, from attendee to sponsor, through career changes, promotions, and sometimes the harder moments in between.

Through all of that, I think what we have built is something that is always there now.

And this year, as SocialWest turns ten, we wanted to make it a little easier for more people to be part of it.

10 Year Anniversary Sale

Until April 24, we are offering anniversary pricing.

You can use 10YEARS100 to take 100 dollars off a Standard ticket.

Or ULTIMATE150 to take 150 dollars off an Ultimate ticket.

If you have been before, you already know what it is.

If you have not, this is a pretty good year to start.

You can grab your tickets at SocialWest.ca

Winning, on-brand ads—without endless prompting

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Refining copy, adjusting layouts, or nudging a CTA into place shouldn’t require rewriting prompts over and over. It slows teams down and breaks the creative process.

With Hightouch Ad Studio, AI gets you 90% of the way there. For the final 10%, use a built-in editor to quickly refine copy and design, or export directly to Figma for seamless collaboration with your design team.

Move faster without losing control. Every ad, exactly how you want it.

Across the Industry

Industry news, research, leadership perspectives, and campaign spotlights driving Canadian marketing forward.

Cam Gordon spent two decades in Canadian communications, from PR agencies to Twitter, and his new book Track Changes traces exactly how we got here. It starts with fan mailing lists in 1993 and ends somewhere near the first wave of blogger outreach. If you want to understand why creator marketing works the way it does today, the answer is probably somewhere in that 20-year window.

What does AI actually mean for the way you work, today? 

Not the theoretical version. The sessions at SocialNext: Toronto got into the specifics: where search intent is actually moving, what it means to build a website that AI agents can act on, and why the brands using AI to fake emotional resonance are losing trust fast. June Findlay was on the ground for MNC across both days. Her full recap of the AI sessions is worth the read before Q2 planning wraps up.

Order confirmations, password resets, shipping notifications. Transactional emails have some of the highest open rates of anything a brand sends, and most SMBs are managing them with infrastructure that was never built for the job. Cyberimpact just launched an SMTP service to change that. Straightforward to integrate, built for deliverability, and designed for teams that do not have a developer on speed dial. Learn more.

The Two Skills Most Canadian Marketers Want to Build Right Now

Growth marketing and AI strategy are the two skills Canadian marketers say they most want to build this year. Growclass built a certification for each one.

Both programs are hands-on, practical, and designed for marketers who are already doing the work and want to go deeper. Use SOCIALNEXT20 at checkout for 20% off either program.

Growth Marketing Certification, starts April 27 — Explore Growth Marketing

AI Marketing Strategy Certification, starts May 25 — Explore AI Marketing Strategy

Watch & Learn

Upcoming live webinars, interviews and conversations in the SocialNext Marketing Alliance. Every Wednesday at 10 AM Mountain Time / 12 PM Eastern Time.

April 22: Campaigns That Convert: Connecting Platforms With Cohesive Storytelling
Brand and performance marketing are still being run as separate efforts at most organizations. Gina Michnowicz has built integrated campaigns for Cisco, Disney, and Microsoft. She is coming to show you what it looks like when they actually work together.

April 29: Your Customers Are Your Best Marketers: How to Leverage Their Stories
You are probably sitting on your most powerful marketing asset and not using it. Afton Brazzoni, founder of Scribe National, is coming to show you what to do with it.

May 6: Why Cultural Intelligence Is Your Next Growth Lever 
Multicultural consumers represent trillions in buying power and most marketing strategies are barely touching it. Joycelyn David, CEO of AV Communications and author of The Multicultural Mindset, will show you why cultural intelligence is your next performance driver.

Coast-to-Coast Job Opportunities

The marketing job market in Canada is more difficult than ever. To help those on the hunt, here's a snapshot of what's open right now across the country.

Helcim is looking for a senior growth leader to own and scale their acquisition engine across paid, lifecycle, SEO and CRO. This is a player-coach role with real budget, a real team, and a mandate to build something.

  • Own performance marketing, the website, and lifecycle across Canada and the US

  • Lead AI strategy for the growth team at a company scaling aggressively in 2026

  • CA$140,000 to $170,000 annually, hybrid in Calgary

And 3 quick hits for West, Central & East.

Follow us on LinkedIn for job openings across every province and territory in Canada every Friday.

Thanks for being part of our community. See you next week!

Marketing News Canada

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