Teh Funny

When the hottest thing in Web 2.0 has a name like "Twitter", just how seriously can you take it? Rob Cottingham takes a lightning tour through both the intentionally and accidentally hilarious sides of social media, with a presentation that's half stand-up comedy, half provocative treatise, and half meditation on why he can never get fractions to add up properly.

Cartoonist, standup comic, online strategist and ex-political speechwriter, Rob Cottingham is the president of Social Signal, a Vancouver-based social media strategy agency.

An engaging and entertaining presenter, Rob has spoken to audiences ranging from the Canadian Marketing Association to the Ragan Speechwriter's Conference (not to mention two Northern Voices). He draws on two decades of experience working with senior strategic levels of government, business and advocacy organizations to help them engage with audiences - in both the digital and offline worlds.

Rob's a digital native, from the days of Commodore computers and dial-up BBSes to the rise of social media. He launched his first web site in 1995, 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. He's been blogging since 2001.

Rob's popular Noise to Signal web cartoon has appeared at The Huffington Post, ReadWriteWeb, The Blog Herald, OneDegree.ca and (woo-hoo!) the front page of Digg. He has been a regular freelance contributor to CBC Radio and performs in a variety of venues as a standup comic.