Exclusive Interview with Richard Cole, Chairman at Social Media in the Defence Sector

SMi Group caught up with the conference chairman for the 8th annual Social Media in the Defence & Military Sector, Richard Cole, Director at I3 Gen, who has exclusively shared his interview with you prior to the conference.

Richard Cole is a Strategic Communications Consultant specialising in the Prevention and Countering of Violent Extremism (P/CVE) and Defence Engagement. With 23 years of military experience, including a decade in Public Affairs and Information Operations, he has served on operational tours in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

More recently, Richard was employed as the Special Advisor to the Federal Government of Somalia. Advising the offices of the President and Prime Minister on Strategic Communications and working with the Minister of Information on the National P/CVE Strategy and P/CVE Action Plans with the Regional Administrations and Government Ministries, alongside international agencies and donor nations.

Richard Cole, Director for I3 Gen, exclusive interview, to get an insight on his expert point of view on #milsocialmedia:

Tell us about you - what is your role in the defence / military social media environment and what perspective do you bring to the conference?
"My name is Ric Cole and I work as a Communications Consultant, specialising in Preventing & Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) and military Information Operations.
I served 3 years in the Royal Marines and nine the Army as an infantry officer and joined the Army Reserve in 2007 as an Info Ops specialist, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.
I think I bring to the conference both a military perspective, with considerable experience of operations, defence engagement and doctrine development, and a civilian viewpoint having worked overseas on P/CVE and political communications. In many ways, I see myself as an interpreter between two communities who are often quite suspicious of one another".
What current projects have you been working on?
"Last year I worked as a Special Advisor to the Ministry of Information in Mogadishu, supporting their Minister, assisting with the implementation of their national P/CVE strategy and conducting counterpropaganda against al-Shabab, which I spoke about at last year’s conference.
This year I have been undertaking a project in Nigeria for an international investment company and a P/CVE project for a UN agency in Uganda.
To continue reading this interesting interview in full, please click here to visit the website and download the interview from the 'download centre' tab.

Richard will be is chairing the two-day conference, taking place on 28 and 29 November 2018 at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum in London.

This is the only social media event of its kind, SMi's #MilSocialMedia series has proven to be an engaged conference attracting key marketing experts from the defence and military sector.

To view the full speaker line-up and agenda – visit: http://www.militarysocialmedia.com/openPR3

If you are 9interested in attending the conference, you can register your place online here: http://www.militarysocialmedia.com/armsconPR3, and also save £200, early bird offer expires end of September.

Should you wish to join us to showcase your products to key decision makers within the industry, contact Sadia Malick, Director on +44 (0)207 827 6748 or email: smalick@smi-online.co.uk to hear more about our packages which we can tailor to best suit your needs.

For media enquiries, contact Simi Sapal on +44 (0) 20 7827 60002 or ssapal@smi-online.co.uk

SMi’s 8th Annual Social Media in the Defence & Military Sector
Conference: 28th & 29th November 2018
Workshops: 27th November 2018
Holiday Inn Kensington Forum, London, UK
http://www.militarysocialmedia.com/openPR3

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About SMi Group: Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the world’s most forward-thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found at http://www.smi-online.co.uk

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This release was published on openPR.