Guest speakers have been an anchor of Model UN conferences across the high school and collegiate circuits. Guest speakers often deliver their own personal anecdotes and are able to ground large-scale policy dreams of young delegates back to reality and to show the facets of real-life diplomacy and how MUN skills can translate back to the real world.
The question that plagues the mind of many secretaries is how to create an effective guest speaker session, there are multitudes of tales wherein delegates not paying attention during opening ceremonies and actively disengaging with the content they are receiving. The question then becomes, how do we create engaging content that is fruitful for delegates and respectful for guest speakers who spend their time in a crowded meeting room speaking to young delegates?
I sat down with Secretary-General of McMUN 2021 Natalie Schaller, and Executive Director of NCSC 2021 Mahek Ahmad to discuss what goes into making effective programming.
Timur Saiful: What value do you think guest speakers bring to a conference and should we continue to have them?
Natalie Schaller: There is value, it all depends on how the guest speaker is presented. f they’re just having a one-way conference and there is no back and forth, it might not specifically relate to actionable things in committee. If there are guest speakers that are able to have a two-way dialogue, with another guest speaker that’s invited who has a passion for issues connected to young people, something that young people have more of a stake in, then what we’ve seen is much more engagement from delegates and in terms of value added to a conference experience.
McMUN chose and really wanted to centre its advocacy and sponsorship work on indigenous issues in Canada, and we’ve centred on that through the charities we’ve chosen to support and the guest speaker we invited. Having Mr Natan Obed, the President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, provided a fruitful dialogue for delegates on ongoing issues that indigenous people in Canada face with the justice system.
Mahek Ahmad: There is an inherent value that, hearing people from any field, there is a unique value they can bring to Model UN, especially speaking to that committee’s topic. Someone who has been in a real-life situation and able to speak on that presents a unique perspective and a seriousness for delegates who attend a conference. At NCSC, our focus is on realism, which is why sourcing guest speakers is a process we start by looking at what issues young people today are passionate about.
We then work at finding those experts in the field, and often it’s people who may not be on the media headlines but have played important roles in their field. We’ve made a lot of effort on ensuring that those from marginalized communities and groups are given an opportunity. A lot of the real world sensitivities are put front and centre with the guest speakers. It’s all about how we can bring people back down to Earth and show that policy-building exists beyond just a weekend in a hotel room.
T.S.: What advice do you have for future Secretaries General at conferences when they’re looking to keep the delegates’ attention?
N.S.: Keeping delegates engaged is simple as just asking them and seeing what they want, do they want to be centred on the committee specifically? Do they want opportunities to have breakout sessions? It’s hard for a secretariat to decide if we don’t know what the delegates want, we look at the programming and determine what is important and topical for delegates and then move forward on that in order to start creating the framework for that high-quality content.
Do delegates want more specialized content? What kind of committees and topics are they interested in? It’s important to balance not only the Secretariat’s own input but the delegates who are ultimately our clients and asking them. Overall, it’s important to connect the issues that delegates can apply in their daily lives and provide a forum to share wonderful experiences, insights, and something for their next stage in their lives and practical advice they can use.
M.A.: Be very intentional in the search process and who you are looking for and the kind of speaker you are looking to bring. Finding a guest speaker and building content around that in the opening ceremonies is important and needs to be started early. It’s not a matter of needing a guest speaker but rather how can the guest speaker add value to the overall delegate experience, what insight can they provide on the topics that we are focusing on at the conference?
I’d suggest looking at topics that people of our generation are engaged in and focus on topics people might be passionate about, look at providing a perspective that delegates may have not thought about. Look at perspectives that are unique and engaging, regardless of what you choose, it is important to know how the insights of the speaker would tie into the overall message of the conference you are trying to convey to your delegates.
Speak to delegates on what they feel is important, complementing that will create a highly engaging guest speaker panel. We found that attendees will have really great questions, allowing attendees to engage with the speaker and merging those two voices together, ensures that speakers don’t feel as though they are delivering a lecture and attendees are able to have a dialogue with an expert in a field that they are interested in.
Not all conferences require a guest speaker but those looking to incorporate an expert in order to enhance the delegate experience would need to focus on speakers that can add value to a delegate’s overall experience. Guest speakers are not meant to fill up time but rather provide a unique opportunity for delegates to have a unique window into the issues they will face later on in committee.
