Reading time: 3 minutes
Today we have the co-organizer of the largest MUN conference in Germany. Lukas from HamMUN will tell us what the term MUN stands for and how an event app can support these conferences. Have fun while reading. ?
LineUpr: Hello Lukas. Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Please introduce yourself.
Lukas: Gladly! My name is Lukas; I am 21 years old and study economics at the University of Hamburg. I started attending Model United Nations conferences during my school years, and have been involved in the organization of HamMUN for the last two years, this year, together with Olga, Secretary-General, I was in charge of the conference.
LineUpr: How much time and work do you spend on average on the planning of HamMUN?
Lukas: The HamMUN takes place every year in December and planning usually begins in February. It usually takes one to two months for the team to be created. This year, our core team comprised 25 students who helped to organize HamMUN during their studies. For Olga and me as secretary-generals, but of course also for the rest of our team, that meant 10 to 20 hours of work per week in most cases. If there was a lot of work to do, then it was necessary to work through an entire weekend.
In the summer, the 50 or so chairpersons of our 15 committees, who applied from all over the world and helped us prepare the content, joined us. Of course, we must not forget the great assistants who helped us sometimes with 20 hours during the weekend. In total, 100 people in different positions were involved in the implementation.
LineUpr: What makes HamMUN so unique? How do you differentiate yourself from other MUN events?
Lukas: Firstly, we are the largest MUN conference in Germany and one of the largest in Europe, so of course one already sticks out of the crowd a bit. Then, of course, there would still be (how could it be different in Hamburg …) the parties! I’ve been to 10 different conferences myself and have not found any other one to organize such good parties to get to know the other participants in a relaxed atmosphere during the evening.
LineUpr: You have already used LineUpr twice. What was the decisive argument for you to use an event app?
Lukas: In recent years, we have given our participants a booklet with the schedule and key information about the conference. In 2017 we used the app and the booklet in parallel. We were so pleased with the feedback and our experience with LineUpr that last year we decided to use the app exclusively. On the one hand, of course, this saves costs and resources for printing, but it also has many other benefits.
In 2017 we still used the app and the booklet in parallel.
LineUpr: How did you use the app before, during and after HamMUN?
Lukas: In the one to two months before the conference, we started to use the app, especially for survival tips, to prepare our participants for the weekend in Hamburg. The main part of the usage was of course during the conference with the schedule and the site plan. This year our campus was full of construction sites and the map function really saved us.
LineUpr: How did your visitors react to the app?
Lukas: The feedback for the app was very positive. Both for the practical added value as well as for the layout and the optics.
LineUpr: Why should other MUN conferences use an event app?
Lukas: An event app is an excellent alternative to a traditional paper conference booklet. It saves resources, the information can be updated later and I cannot say enough about how convenient the map function is for the participants. The benefits seem to have already spread in the MUN world since the HamMUN 2017 and I think that there will be even more conferences coming to you in the future.
LineUpr: Is there perhaps an extraordinary story from the last HamMUN that you would like to share with us?
Lukas: On Saturday morning a participant contacted us via WhatsApp and asked us how to get to the university, he woke up the morning after the party in the zoo. In retrospect, it turned out that one of our organizers allowed a joke. Actually, we should have been skeptical from the start. With the map function of the app, he would have found the way to the university on his own…
Do enough advertising for the app so that all participants can see that it exists and how practical it is.
LineUpr: Which top three tips would you like to give other organizers when using LineUpr?
Lukas: Start a few months before the conference to try out the app and discover the individual functions, the design works super intuitive and you can change everything later without much effort. If you have to make announcements during the conference, the app is a great channel for it and, of course, most importantly: Do enough advertising for the app so that all participants can see that it exists and how practical it is.
LineUpr: Thank you for the great interview Lukas. MUN events are a great idea and we are always very proud to be able to support these events with our apps. More information about HamMUN can be found on their website, Facebook and Instagram.
We are looking forward to the next HamMUN.
