This article is a guest submission from McGill student Hilary Lee.
The North American Model UN circuit commences again this winter, with its first conference being McMUN in Montréal. This year, we are seeing a lot of new committee concepts across the continent, as different schools try to redefine what this popular activity means to them. At McMUN, the secretariat and staff are inaugurating a hybrid of Model United Nations and business, which they are calling McMUN Consulting.
Mixing together different components from Model UN and Case Competitions, the McMUN staff wants to create a different type of competitive environment that connects the real world to traditional committees. Delegates will compete to crack a case for a mystery company. The goal, set by the dais, is to develop a strategy proposal that would impress company representatives while working with a real business sponsor. This idea, a self-proclaimed specialized body, is quite different from the usual on the circuit, with International Relations playing the supporting rather than the main role in the committee room.
Noticing the increasing population of business and finance students attending Model UN conferences, Eric Lee, chair of McMUN consulting, believes this could be an interesting way to attract a more diverse skillset to the existing Model UN community. Though traditionally, delegates go on to pursue policy or international relations-related careers, the dais and other staffers hope to show that Model UN skills can be applied to a more diverse net of interests. The committee is also working with a corporate sponsor, which reflects different ways in which Model United Nations conferences can integrate sponsorships while keeping true to the integrity of MUN as an educational tool.
Christopher Balian, Secretary General of McMUN 2019 wishes to “empower delegates and to give them the opportunity to have real life impact.” Students who choose to participate will definitely have a unique experience in the committee room, as everyone, from chair to undersecretary-general to delegate, will be experiencing this style for the first time. McMUN Consulting is one of many growing patterns of creativity to change up the Model United Nations landscape, and it will be interesting to see how this, and other new styles, come to impact the activity.
