The London International Model United Nations Conference was set for three days, from 22nd February to 24th February 2019.
It should be said right away, that we experienced a lot over the next few days. The reason why I participated in this conference was clear. I wanted to meet students from all over the world and see as much as possible of the city of London. The schedule of this conference was broken down into committee sessions from 09:00 am-06:00 pm and socials – organized by the staff – after 08:00 pm.
The first day started with a tour around Westminster introducing us to all historical and otherwise important facts, followed by the opening ceremony at Central Hall Westminster which presented the official start of the LIMUN. Starting point was the famous gavel stroke by the Secretary-General. Due to the fact that this MUN was my first one, I realised early on how big the MUN-community really is and how much potential these kinds of conferences hold.
There were Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced committees and thus they were suitable for delegates with differing levels of knowledge and experience the committee sessions took place at the Kings College. As I was a newcomer to MUN, I chose the Beginner Committee UN Women with the Topic A: “Enhancing sustainable long-term economic development through the empowerment of women” and Topic B: “Developing multilateral solutions to promote female leadership in the public sphere”.
Our first Committee Session was focused on setting the basis for the next two days by getting to know each other as well as presenting the rules and structure of a Committee session. At 08:00 pm the Committee Session was closed and the social began. The “Free Friday Social” presented several options from visiting a night market to pub crawl around the city. The schedule of LIMUN intended the socials to last until 00:00 am, but everyone knew after a few drinks that the night was getting longer and longer, thus the time left to sleep shorter. Little or no sleep marks one of the factors everyone has to deal with during a MUN conference.
As far as debate is concerned, it was very pleasant to be in such a respectful and kind environment during sessions. One could notice that everyone is doing MUN out of their own motivation. As a result, there was not a single situation in which delegates were not motivated even though everyone had little to no sleep at all.
The second social featured a great ball (another tradition at MUN) at the Grand Connaught Rooms. Safe to say, there were a lot of drinks, good music and dancing.
The third day marked the last day of LIMUN 2019. During the last session, it was the goal to pass a resolution. Last put certainly not least, there was the Closing Ceremony during which LIMUN 2019 was officially declared closed by a gavel stroke.
Overall, there is one thing that is certain: I never met so many generous students from all around the world in such a short amount of time. The potential of networking with students from around the globe is unreal. This fact marks my biggest reason to do this all over again.
Report by Vincent Luca Hellbusch