My original intent for this post was simple: Write a post about upcoming conferences, events and other professional development opportunities for those interested in getting smarter about social media marketing.

However, a strange thing happened as I started to research that post: There just that many solid opportunities out there. Especially here in Minneapolis.

In fact, about the only upcoming in-person opportunity I could find was the upcoming Digital Marketing Summit Aug. 18-19 (which I’m speaking at, by the way–shameless plug!).

But really, that was it. I couldn’t find much else.

Not that the previous landscape (pre-pando) was all that impressive. But, we did have fairy regular Social Media Breakfast, MIMA and MN Search events. Now, those are either completely gone, or sparse at best (at least for now).

To be fair, we’re only a number of months removed from the full-blown pandemic, so maybe they do come back…slowly.

However, I can’t help but wonder: What if they don’t? What are we left with?

A monster vacuum, that’s what.

This isn’t necessarily a new topic either. Historically, there has been a big gap when it comes to professional social media marketing education. It’s why Jamie Plesser and I started sparked, a local, in-person social training day, here in Minneapolis a number of years ago.

But it is a topic that comes up a lot in my world. It seems like more and more people are asking me: Where do I go to get smarter (or get my team smarter) about social media marketing.

In many ways, this has been a good thing for me, as it sometimes leads to me heading up trainings on certain topics of general social media education sessions (if you’re interested in something like this, shoot me a note at arik@arikhanson.com).

However, what about everyone else? Where do go to get smarter about social in the years ahead?

I certainly hope some of these events and organizations like Social Media Breakfast and MIMA, come back. For now, I guess I’ll just keep reading my favorite blogs and news sites–but, to be honest, that’s just not cutting it anymore.