The MediaMaestro award goes jointly this week to two wonderful communicators, both in their 90s, who passed away. Harry Leslie Smith was, in his own words, "Not an academic or a historian. I am just an old man who is a living bridge to your history." He was a tireless campaigner for the NHS, for the poor and vulnerable, against Brexit and Donald Trump, repeatedly on the side of right and good and reason and justice. We also lost Baroness Trumpington, who in World War Two, worked in naval intelligence at Bletchley Park. In a long political career, she was mayor of Cambridge, a Conservative whip and served as a health minister in Margaret Thatcher's government. But she found fame and a place in the nation's heart late in life, flicking a V-sign at a Lord King during a House of Lords debate. What a loss.

The MediaMug Award of the week goes to an Irish football team - BallyBrack FC. They faked a player's death to get a match postponed (I am not making this up). A club official announced the death of Spanish player Fernando Nuno La-Fuente in a traffic accident. Moments of silence were also held before other matches in the Leinster Senior League.The player concerned knew nothing of the scam until he got home from work to find out that he was being commemorated by other teams. He phoned his mother to confirm that he was not in fact dead. An official at the club has resigned, but that may not be the end of the matter!

FIVE THINGS TO DO BEFORE EVERY SPEECH

There are dozens of things you could do before you deliver a speech. Here are five that you must never miss.

1) Check the venue, timing and topic. When I say "check", I also mean "re-check". Always make a call a day or two before you travel to an event to make sure that the details you have are still valid. It can and does happen that an organiser may make some changes at the last minute, and forget to tell a most important person - you.

2) Have several copies of your presentation. If you're using slides, send a copy in advance, upload a copy to the cloud, take a copy on a memory stick, and have a hard copy too. If you're using notes, have hard copy and electronic copies too.

3) Rehearse out loud. Saying the words in your head is not the same as saying them out loud. You need to know how they feel as you say them. Ideally, record your rehearsal in audio and/or video and play it back to check how it looks and sounds.

4) Anticipate delays and plan to arrive early. There are lots of reasons for arriving early, maybe even the day before you speak. You have time to relax, meet the audience, get a feel for the venue and run a technical rehearsal.

5) Meet the introducer. How you are introduced sets the scene for the opening of your speech. Always make sure you speak to the person who will introduce you and hand them a short introduction. Don't let them make it up!

LISTEN WITH YOUR BODY

When you are being interviewed on TV, the camera will often be on you, showing your reaction, while the question is being posed. The viewer will make a judgment about whether you are really listening, whether you are irritated by the question, and whether you know what to say, just from the way that you look. It often tells much more about people than what they actually say.

Of course, you need to listen to the question so that you can answer it in a professional and competent manner. You should also make sure that you look as though you are listening, too. Here are a few tips:

• Fix your eyes on the questioner at all times
• Keep a relaxed pose, leaning slightly forward
• Nod occasionally to show that you understand
• Use a vocal agreement such as "uh-huh" or "mmm"
• Don't fidget or swing around in your chair
• Practice the "steeple" gesture - fingertips together, pointing upwards
• Avoid showing anger or distaste
• Smile occasionally

Stillness and respect is what it's about.

IS TWITTER USEFUL FOR SPEAKERS?

Should you be concerned if your audience is tweeting rather than watching you with rapt attention? I realised the other day that I joined Twitter back in April 2007, eleven and a half years ago, so it's high time to consider how useful it's been for me.

Firstly, I find it a great way of doing research. For me, Twitter is the collective brain of the planet, and I can discover the answer to almost any query in minutes. Yes, I have to verify the answers, but several tweets suggesting a similar solution are generally a good guide.

Secondly, it's a great way of building a reputation. I run regular twitter clinics under the tag #prclinic, answering reputation questions. This demonstrates my expertise, helps people, and also shows me what are the hot topics in reputation management.

Thirdly, there's audience engagement. I ask my audiences to put phones to silent (set phasers to stun for the older Star Trek fans) and simply to tweet about my speech. Of course, I take care to use phrases in my speech that are very tweetable. I also take questions at the end of my speech via Twitter, often from outside the room (often from outside the country) because of the Twitter buzz created.

Groucho Marx was a comic genius, even when hosting a game show, as this wonderful clip shows.

You may need some advice.

The information in this ezine may be freely re-used in any online or offline publication, provided it is accompanied by the following credit line - "This information was written by Alan Stevens, and originally appeared in "The MediaCoach", his free weekly ezine, available at www.mediacoach.co.uk."