Sales/Trainer/TV/Radio presenter.
Colin Hughes was one of the top male guest presenters on QVC the TV shopping channel. Colin first presented on QVC in October 2001. During this time Colin has sold hundreds of thousands of pounds of IT software and hardware on the channel.
Colin is now Chair of the local police panel, member of Langley Park Residents Ass and on the committee of Beckenham Business Association.
Some of the landmarks have been:
Selling over 100,000 copies of PC Booster on QVC UK and QVC Germany, Colin was one of the first guest presenters from the UK to start presenting software on QVC Germany.
Colin launched the first USB turntable on QVC UK with sales of over 1000 units in the first show and followed this with the launch of the first USB Turntable on ‘Today’s Special Value’ with over 5000 units sold in 24 hours.
Colin was privileged to be asked to launch Sony on QVC UK. Colin was given Sony’s new Giga Juke Multi-room Music Centre and a pair of Bluetooth headphones to launch the brand. The Giga Juke sold for over £700: Sony and QVC were very happy with the results.
Following the success of this technology Colin successfully introduced green energy saving products to QVC, including Bye Bye Standby and The Owl.
In 2004 Colin started presenting his own radio show (www.strawberryjazz.com) and has subsequently interviewed well-known musicians such as Paul Hardcastle and The Average White Band, among many others.
Colin’s unique experience in the IT industry, his enthusiasm, drive, experience of live TV and radio and his sales history, all make him an ideal candidate for technology shows, product endorsements, exhibition reporting, interviews, training and product demonstrations.
Access to many of Colin’s shows are available online by request.
Colin Hughes - History:
Colin Hughes was first introduced to the IT industry in 1980 when he was given a Sinclair ZX81, and after a short period of time launched his first business software, Accounting and Stock Control on a Sinclair computer.
During the 1980’s Colin worked with Sinclair and Psion to develop software on a number of computers including the Psion Organiser. He quickly developed an interest in database programming and created and produced a number of applications that synchronized data between the Psion organizer and the PC.
Many of these applications were taken up by companies such as Colman’s Mustard, Sharp Manufacturing and major fork-lift truck companies. The Sharp Manufacturing project used a database application written by Colin’s company to manage their multi-million pound warehouse inventory.
During the late 90’s Colin was introduced to LapLink and was invited to work with them to build their corporate sales. Having worked with corporate sales customers such as Sharp and Colman’s this was a perfect match and Colin was responsible for the largest ever corporate licenses for LapLink products. As LapLink wound down their own operation in Europe they invited Colin’s company to manage the European operations on their behalf, including customer services and multi-lingual technical support. When they eventually closed their European office, Colin’s company was contracted to be LapLink’s European office.
During this time Colin’s company become the European support centre for Virtual PC, a program that allows you to run windows on a Mac computer. This company was subsequently bought by Microsoft; they continued to employ Colin and his team as one of their support centres for another two years until they moved their technical support to Asia.
At the same time as Microsoft were moving their support centre Colin resigned from the LapLink project as he felt their new owners were focusing on centralizing their operations.
TV Presenter
In 2001 Colin launched his first product on QVC UK TV shopping channel having discovered the power of TV shopping. Colin worked closely with QVC’s buyers to source new products. Selling over 100,000 copies of PC Booster on QVC UK and QVC Germany, Colin was one of the first guest presenters from the UK to start presenting software on QVC Germany.
Colin launched the first USB turntable on QVC UK with sales of over 1000 units in the first show and followed this with the launch of the first USB Turntable on ‘Today’s Special Value’ with over 5000 units sold in 24 hours.
Colin was privileged to be asked to launch Sony on QVC UK. Colin was given Sony’s new Giga Juke Multi-room Music Centre and a pair of Bluetooth headphones to launch the brand. The Giga Juke sold for over £700: Sony and QVC were very happy with the results.
Following the success of this technology Colin successfully introduced green energy saving products to QVC, including Bye Bye Standby and The Owl.
Strawberry Jazz
Colin has been playing and listening to music since the early days of the Rolling Stones when they played the blues. His interest increased when he joined a band playing the drums. His hero has always been DJ Robbie Vincent, who often played bands such as Level 42 on his radio show. He remembers the time when level 42 waited outside BBC Radio London just to see if they could give Robbie a tape to play to launch their latest album. Along with many other jazz/funk followers, Colin frequented most of the jazz clubs in London and the South East, including Crackers and the Witch Doctor.
As bands came to the UK to perform, such as Grand Master Funk and The Commodores, Colin made sure he was in the forefront of all their concerts. When George Benson arrived at the Hammersmith Odeon (a concert Colin will never forget), he remembers with admiration George’s rendition of Nat King Cole's Nature Boy; ‘how so much love can come from 6 guitar strings was astonishing’.
In the 80's when Jazz funk started to move into Smooth Jazz Colin started listening to guys like Dave Koz, Chick Loeb, David Beniot and David Sanborn.
In 2004 we were invited to bring our style of smooth jazz to Solar Radio (www.solarradio.com). Our show goes out every Wednesday from 20:00 - 22:00, repeated on Sundays from 02:00 - 04:00.
The show contains great smooth jazz with artists such as David Sanborn, Dave Coz, Acoustic Alchemy, Incognito and Michael Franks. Big G regularly joins Colin as co-host, who brings a wealth of knowledge of Jazz funk .
The show is well known for its humour; Colin believes that playing the music is fine, but you need a little bit more to make the show interesting. The show is known for its gossip, Christmas in July and great interviews with iconic bands including The Average White Band and Alchemy, Four80East and pianist Roger Smith.
Colin Hughes Mobile Number 07973 662554
Email:colin@strawberryjazz.com
Youth Training
Colin has worked with a number of local schools, doing mock interviews and teaching children how to use their skills to plan, create and execute a QVC presentation.
