What to put on your business agenda in December and January

Things to do and read this month to nourish the corporate mind and soul

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Social Media Strategy Fundamentals
Social media offers endless possibilities to scale a business and reach new audiences, but not all platforms are right for everyone. This one-day course at BrainStation aims to help you narrow down the right channels for your target audience through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. The course will cover social media strategy development, goal setting, content creation and creating ads on different platforms.
BrainStation Vancouver; December 3, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. $300

INVEST

Vancouver Resource & Investment Conference
Cambridge House International Inc., a producer of investment conferences in North America, and Katusa Research, a natural resource investment research firm, present the world’s largest resource exploration investment conference. Corporate presentations include SilverCrest Metals Inc., Nautilus Minerals Inc. and the Western Alaska Copper and Gold Company.
Vancouver Convention Centre West; January 22-23 Register online for free admission or pay $20 at the door

NETWORK

SOHO Victoria
For small and home business owners looking for help managing their business, SOHO Victoria—which stands for Small Office Home Office—is offering a smorgasbord of experts, advice and roundtable discussions all in one day at the Victoria Conference Centre. This year’s conference keynote features Canadian small business leaders like branding expert Isabelle Mercier-Turcotte of LeapZone Strategies. There will be opportunities for one-on-one coaching in areas from accounting, SEO and public speaking to IT, human resources, legal issues and more.
Victoria Conference Centre; January 27 $199 for an all-access package to $299 for a VIP package

READ

The Attention Merchants
What do you call companies like Facebook and Google with a business model that captures human attention on a massive scale for resale to advertisers? According to Tim Wu, a Columbia Law School professor who coined the term “net neutrality,” they are the attention merchants of our time. Wu’s book illustrates traces the basic business model of attention merchants from the early 19th century when Benjamin Day got rich selling newspapers for a penny to today’s power brands like Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump.
Penguin Random House $38 (hardcover)