Rob Cottingham | Social Signal

For more than a decade, Rob Cottingham has helped organizations make the most of digital technologies to achieve their goals. From online strategies for national election campaigns to websites for small non-profit organizations, Rob works with clients to integrate new communications technologies with their traditional communication and organizing strategies.

That's because Rob is also a seasoned communications strategist, working at senior strategic levels of government, labour and advocacy organizations for 18 years. He is an accomplished speechwriter, helping civic, labour and business leaders deliver compelling, engaging messages that move audiences and make headlines. And his powerful copy and concepts for ads and collateral have won international awards and, more importantly, deliver effective messages that make a difference.

Pioneering in the online arena comes naturally to Rob, whose digital history dates back to the days of BBSes and 300-baud modems and who launched his first web site in 1995. He built one of the earliest party leadership candidate web sites in Canada, launched the country's first online political game, and oversaw the creation of an ambitious anti-tobacco website targeted to youth years before similar efforts became ubiquitous. More recently, he has:

• designed election web sites for federal and provincial sections of the New Democratic Party,
• directed a province-wide web campaign for a provincial labour union reaching out to stakeholders, and
  
• charted an online development roadmap for a Canadian non-profit organization wanting to take its web presence to the next level.
  

Rob believes strongly in sharing his skills and knowledge. Teaching everything from basic Internet skills to online advocacy, and from public relations fundamentals to speechwriting, Rob has provided training and facilitiation to government departments, senior labour communications specialists, political parties and conferences.

Rob maintains a long-running blog on technology and public affairs, has been a regular freelance contributor to CBC Radio, and draws the insanely popular Noise to Signal web comic.