Meelis Kompus, a former journalist at ERR and current communications chief at Tallink, is serving again this year as the official herald of the president's Independence Day handshaking ceremony — an annual role he has held for a decade now.

"In modern times, a herald is someone who assists a high-ranking government official or an important figure during receptions, for example, by ensuring that the official doesn't have to memorize the names of all the guests themselves," he explained in an appearance on "R2 Hommik!" on Tuesday. "The herald is the one who should be able to match names to faces."

According to the herald, most of the legwork is done already before the ceremony even begins.

"I've read through the guest list inside and out, from front to back and back to front again, and it's generally clear who will be attending the reception," he said. "I've reviewed all titles, job titles and pronunciations several times over."

Kompus also recalled that in the past, he had gone over all the people associated with the diplomatic corps together with Toomas Kahur, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"All members of the diplomatic corps came to Estonia through him," he explained. "He had spoken with all of them and written down the pronunciations of their names. I spent several hours sitting in Toomas' office, taking meticulous notes on pronunciations as he dictated them to me. Everything that can possibly be checked and learned in advance should be done so ahead of time."

A completely new format was introduced last year in which the herald was no longer present in the same room as the receiving line; during the ceremony, he was located in an adjacent room, watching the same broadcast feed as television viewers at home.

"At the same time, all the names were running along the screen, and I was trying to match the names to faces," Kompus recalled. He admitted that he had found it difficult to adjust. "With all due respect, you have to take into account that I may not recognize everyone by face."

He recalled an incident that actually occurred at last year's reception.

"For example, we invite the high school teacher of the year, the elementary school teacher of the year, the basic school teacher of the year and the kindergarten teacher of the year," the announcer explained. "If they come up in very close succession and for some reason have also switched places in line before approaching the president — last year I did in fact mistakenly attribute the title of basic school teacher of the year to the high school teacher of the year. I even had to explain in Kroonika [entertainment magazine] why that happened."

Kompus noted that mistakes like that should be acknowledged honestly. "It's human to make mistakes, and if something really does go very wrong, the simplest thing is always to apologize, which I did," he said.

Estonia's presidential handshaking ceremony uses QR codes to match names to faces as well.

"Estonia is an e-state, and before proceeding to greet the president, each guest scans their code, and then their info appears on my screen," the herald explained. "This is why it's so important that people don't switch places in line, because otherwise that mixes up my order too."

Kompus first became herald of the Independence Day handshaking ceremony at the invitation of President Toomas Hendrik Ilves in 2015.

"The reception was held in Jõhvi that year, and the event is organized by the Office of the President, which contacted me to ask if I'd be willing to take on this assignment," he said. "Of course, I had no reason to say no, but why they chose me, I don't know."

Kompus noted that more than 400 guests have been invited to President Alar Karis' reception this year.

"But they're accompanied by just as many people — all of whom you'll see on Monday," he added.

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