In this episode, we sit down with Mike Morrison — the founder behind SocialNext, Canada's grassroots marketing conference, for a conversation about building something from nothing, surviving a global pandemic, and why Calgary will always feel like home.Mike shares the origin story of Social West, from his early days running "Mike's Bloggity Blog" and teaching small businesses how to use Twitter and Facebook ads, to growing a national conference series now spanning six cities across Canada — Calgary, Halifax, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal.We dig into:

• How Social West became a 10-year overnight success
• The hardest business decision of the pandemic: offering full refunds when competitors folded
• Why Mike pivoted to virtual events and sent care packages to attendees across the country
• What makes Social West different — no ego, no pretension, just real marketers learning from each other

• How the Calgary Marketing Association and Social West are partnering for a special CMA member experience

= The acquisition of Marketing News Canada and the vision of becoming the home for Canadian marketers