Emotional triggers. Grinning madly. Then welling up moments later. Giving a crap about something. Excitement. Every minute dripping with glamour. A few laughs.

There’s one show on the telly right now that's nailing all of these.

Important meeting coming up? Nervous? Mouth dry? Wanting to show engagement and value but not comfortable speaking a lot?

Try these 3 techniques.

Lying, relaxing floating on a blissful cloud with an “Oooh” and an “Ahhhhhhh.” Versus, lying with every muscle taught waiting for the moment when there’s pain followed by a series of sharp intakes of breath.

There’s a street in Amsterdam which has a gorgeous, nurturing massage place next door to a waxing shop. I’m not making this up. I’m wondering how that works.

You’re having a meeting in your office. During this, people come in without warning and hand you a piece of paper. You glance at the paper and then look back at the person you’re meeting with. By the end of your meeting you’re surrounded by 11 bits of paper.

Sound weird? Bet it happens to you more than you realise.

Do you write as part of your job? How do you engage with your readers and make sure that you’re meeting their needs?

Read on to discover one simple trick to do to keep your reader upper most in your mind as you write.

What are you doing to meet your audiences’ needs? How would you rate your connection with them? And what happens when you don’t get them and they don’t get you?

The short answer is that you look a bit daft and it teaches you to laugh at yourself. Here are two occasions when I did not do my homework about who was sitting in front of me.

“That was a slow shuffle through hell – let’s do this again” said no-one ever. Are you a facilitator, teacher or trainer? Here’s how to use laughter to look after people’s energy and, equally importantly, your own.

Learning doesn't always have to be so serious. Here's how to get more engagement, more focus, more fun and more oomph into learning programmes and go from yuck to yay.

Spiderman keeps his identity secret in order to protect those he cares about, he learns how to develop his newly found superpowers and he meters out justice with a certain discipline. Spiderman has values.

This is the third and final blog about my reflections on the recent conference I attended, Brave New Learning, in Amsterdam. Here, I explore values and how two young women used peer led projects and community engagement to make a real difference through education.

We are all public speakers. Whether it’s show and tell at school, being put on the spot at work to “just say a few words” or facing a sea of expectant faces from a stage. Here are ten top tips to help you.

It covers a range of topics from storytelling to the power of pauses, and why clarity, editing and learning the needs of your audience are your best friends when you’re preparing what you’re going to say.