The COVID-19 pandemic continues to completely upend traditional Model UN conferences as we know them. Borders are closed, we’re encouraged to stay home, all in order to protect ourselves, friends and family; an essential sacrifice that we must upkeep. However, in the halls of power and over the modems of government, politics, and diplomacy; international relations are not taking a break and instead are shifting hosting status to the online world. World Leaders continue to meet and discuss over online platforms, and all don their headsets and virtual backgrounds in order to promote their country’s best interests.
Why should Model UN be any different? While adapting to the online format is a challenge, setting up a MUN conference has never been easier. While in the midst of it, why not make the most out of it? No more does one need to book hotel spaces, buses, or flights All we need now is an online meeting account on a platform such as Zoom and a bit of advertising to get our very own Model UN conferences going.
For those looking to adapt to the new online format, this easy preparation guide will guide you in ensuring your online conference is a hit. For those who have never hosted an online conference before and are looking to get started, this guide will help to guide you along in creating an essentials checklist for what a premier conference should have.
Pre Conference
Prior to the conference starting, you will need to create a Zoom account. This account will be essential to host your conference and create breakout rooms for those exciting unmoderated caucuses.
You will then need to hire your staff, making sure you’ve got staff-members covering every angle of your conference from Media, Committee Affairs, Delegate Relations, and Equity. These individuals will be the backbone of your successful online conference. Next you will need to advertise to ensure that social media is blanketed with your posts.
each out to fellow delegates, presidents of clubs, and head delegates in advertising your conference. Ensure that you have exciting and well-managed committees all headed up by passionate dais members and you will be well on your way to creating an effective and inspirational online MUN conference.
Consider also creating a training document that outlines the rules of procedure within a committee, you can have multiple versions tailored to be more General Assembly and Crisis specific. Ensure that you conduct regular training sessions with the entire conference, make sure that every person from the staffers to those in charge of Committee Affairs are well-versed in how to conduct themselves professionally at a conference and that they can easily flow within Rules of Procedure.
Generally speaking, for every GA committee there is one Chair and one Vice-Chair, and for a Crisis Committee of a size of about 30 delegates, there should be a Chair, Vice Chair, Crisis Director, Assistant Crisis Director, and multiple staffers (generally about five to six) per committee.
This means that a conference of about three GA committees and three Crisis committees could have a staff roster of 30 for just those committees. It is important to keep this in consideration and not to skimp on staffing, as a lack of timeliness is the main complaint during Model UN conferences.
Focus on immersion. Immersing delegates into the world of debate will go a long way in creating a high quality experience. This can be done through integrating media pieces such as trailers describing committees, a set standard for background guides, and training for all of your staff so that they are up to the task of managing a Zoom room full of delegates.
It is also important to set the structure of your Model UN conference, will it only be a day or an entire weekend? How many committee sessions will there be? How are you going to organize opening and closing ceremonies? Will there be awards and if so how will you be able to send them out? Who is your target audience and do your committees focus on them? These are all important questions that need to be answered before you declare your MUN conference open for registration.
Conference
During the conference, make sure to rotate through the rooms, make notes of any feedback and act on them quickly. The conference should be a culmination of the work you have put in and so it is advisable that a conference is planned approximately 4-6 months before you intend to host in order to allow for ample time to work out any staffing and organizational issues. The conference will show off your team’s skill and dedication to MUN and delegates will cheer as you move from session to session inspiring heated debate.
Post-conference
Ensure to conduct a post-mortem with your team, write up reports on what went right and what failed and what can be done in the future to prevent issues and what should be maintained. The goal of the post-mortem is to create easily accessible information into the struggles you have faced and to create a sustainable future and legacy for the effort you have put into creating a Model UN conference.
While moving online has brought challenges and the pandemic has wreaked havoc on our daily lives, it’s important to see the silver lining that certain events can bring to us. In the Model UN community, the shift towards online has given power to smaller and lower cost conferences to thrive among the behemoths that often dominate the industry, enabling for more niche and a wider range of options for delegates around the world.
