“If its conceivable, its possible” Colin Cowell

Back in 2015 after  286 projects in 17 countries decided life was too short to sit in a Canberra office so decided to move to Coffs Harbour .

Working out of the Coffs Harbour Innovation Hub I was very fortunate in 2020 to meet Mervyn Fernando a young Dunghutti and Kamilaroi entrepreneur and marketing professional CEO of 100 % Aboriginal owned Claystone Marketing and Indigenous Medical Supplies 

Acting as a consultant / mentor we have attracted new clients throughout Australia for the following range of services

So who is Colin Cowell and what are the skills ?

Over the years I have developed vast communications and project management experience consulting to government and private enterprise both nationally & internationally producing multi-award winning campaigns and strategies

Specifically my expertise is in the areas of Indigenous communications, stakeholder engagement ,integrated social media, project management, marketing, public relations, media, health promotion, Internet development/management and media training.

1. Communication strategies I can develop marketing and communication strategies to achieve your organisations corporate vision, policy or program’s objectives.
2. Media and public relations campaigns I can develop and implement media and social media campaigns to achieve your organisations corporate vision, policy or program objectives.
3. Social media policy for organisations  I can assist you developing a document that will establish a process by which your official social media interactions can be managed with the best interests of your brand and reputation in mind.
4. Social media Training Our Social Media course covers the basics from best practices on Facebook and Twitter; understanding the elements of a robust social media strategy, building an audience, engaging with the audience, sharing content, paid advertising, risks and strategy.
5. Communications and media audit Our communications audit is a systematic research method, which will identify the strengths and weaknesses of your current internal and external communications.
6. Social Media Crisis Plan While you can’t control everything that happens on social media, you can control your response. The best way to handle a crisis is to have your response plan in place.

Media clients include: Federal Government (Department of Health, Department of Indigenous Affairs-now PMMC), National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health services in Victoria, Queensland, Northern Territory and New South Wales

Media Industry recognition

Radio National’s Twitterati of the Week,

Power to Persuade: How a national Aboriginal health authority used social media to bridge the divide and Close the Gap

NACCHO creates a health-promoting Twitter storm: “Isn’t it about time we took health advice from the fast food industry?”

Microsoft Launch USA/Windows 98 unique websites

Yahoo/Top 20 unique world internet sites

Summary of communication skills.

•Well-developed communication, organizational, interpersonal, presentation, research, writing, marketing, planning/budgets, implementation, and evaluation skills;

•Ability to establish and maintain relationships with management, team members and stakeholders to achieve through effective marketing common goals, visions and outcomes

My Indigenous community, government and business experience has been focussing on the strategic development and implementation of award winning Indigenous tourism, media, education, training, health, music, art and cultural products.

These awards include:

TOURISM AWARDS:

• 1994 Queensland Tourism Award – Indigenous Tourism
• 1997 Northern Territory Brolga Award – Indigenous Tourism
• 1997 Australian Tourism Award
• 1998 TO DO World Tourism Award
• 1999 Frommers USA/Top 10 Australian Experiences
• 1999 Northern Territory Brolga Award-Indigenous tourism
• 2004 Northern Territory Brolga award-Alice Springs Holidays

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AWARDS:

• 1998 Microsoft Launch / USA/ Windows 98
• 1999 Yahoo / Top 20 Unique World Sites

ART /PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AWARDS:

• 1994 Australian Gift of the Year – Souvenirs
• 2003 Walkabout NT – Telstra Business Award / Export Award

CULTURE MARKETING-INTERNATIONAL EXPORT:

• 2000 RED CENTRE DREAMING International face for Olympic broadcast
• 2003 Walkabout -NT Export Award

TOURISM RESTAURANT/ DANCE PERFORMANCE:

• 2003 Aurora Red Centre Dreaming NT Brolga Award Best Tourism Restaurant Award

Other highlights included

Picture above: With my mentor Dr Charlie Perkins  opening Australia’s first National Indigenous Business Economic Conference NIBEC 1993 Alice Springs : Project Manager  6 months

As highlighted below in a brief overview I find each new project requires creativity, innovation and sound business acumen for which the challenge is “both exciting and rewarding

Pictures above: Highlight of my career has been  “Captain Chaos” project managing Aboriginal Male Health Projects

National Male Health Summits of Aboriginal males since 2008:

Features the historic Apology to Aboriginal Women-Inteyerrkwe Statement

And the 2010 Stop the Violence Campaign Alice Springs

So, why ‘Spin Doctoz ‘?

For the derivation of that we need to go back to yarn.

We know that sailors and other storytellers have a reputation for spinning yarns.

Given a phrase in the language like ‘spin a yarn’, we might expect to assume that a yarn was a tall tale and that the tellers spun it out.

That’s not quite right though. Until the phrase was coined, yarn was just thread.

The phrase was coined as an entity, just meaning ‘tell a tale’. spin.”

From there it is a small step for the people employed to weave reports of factual events into palatable stories to be called ‘spin doctors’.