by Rob Cottingham | Apr 10, 2008 | Communicating, Politics, Technology
I have a rule in politics that has served me well: never attribute to malice or conspiracy what can be explained just as easily by incompetence. You may remember this story from back in 2006, at the culmination of the bitter primary battle between Ned Lamont and... by Rob Cottingham | Mar 25, 2008 | Media Mix, Politics, Speechwriting
Back in the 1993 federal election, then-Prime Minister Kim Campbell was quoted as saying that elections are no time to discuss serious issues. (If memory serves, her comment was actually much more nuanced, but was dumbed down to that pithy, sensational and damaging... by Rob Cottingham | Feb 20, 2008 | Blogging, Communicating, Conferences and workshops, Online Community, Vancouver
I’ll be speaking about crisis communications and the social web on Saturday at Northern Voice, the kick-ass Vancouver-based blogging conference now in its fourth year: Imagine a situation where all eyes are on you or your organization, and you need to... by Rob Cottingham | Jan 14, 2008 | Speechwriting
Hey, y’all: my speechwriting page on Squidoo has just been named Lens of the Day! Drop by and have a gander – I’ve added a bunch of tips there, including tip#7, “Talk about the squirrel”: I used to work as a tour guide in Ottawa. Busloads... by Rob Cottingham | Nov 28, 2007 | Blogging, Communicating, Speechwriting
In the midst of this great GuideStar piece on writing fundraising letters comes a sentence that galvanized me: Beginning sentences with “and”- one of my favorite connectors that encourages readers to keep reading (actually “listening” because... by Rob Cottingham | Nov 5, 2007 | Communicating
Or at least give him a big, big raise.