We are pleased that more and more Model United Nations conferences in Europe are approaching us and would like to use a LineUpr event app. Since last year we can also welcome the IsarMUN to this circle.

As one of the biggest MUN events in Germany, they also benefit greatly from an event app. In this interview, Anna-Sophie explains how they were able to enhance the communication comfort for all participants with LineUpr and at the same time were able to work sustainably. Have fun while reading.

LineUpr: Hello Anna-Sophie. Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Please introduce yourself.

Anna-Sophie: Hello. Thank you for the opportunity and your support!

I am 20 years old and have been studying Law (StEx) and the Near and Middle East (B.A.) for 4 semesters as a double degree at the LMU in Munich. Last year, together with my Co-CEO Sebastian Eppelt and a team of over 50, I set up the Isar Model United Nations 2018. As a MUN conference, we have been simulating the committee work of the United Nations and similar international institutions (e. g. NATO, WTO, …). This has been done for one weekend every year for the last 12 years under the umbrella of our parent organization MUNAM e. V. (Model United Nations Association Munich e. V.) with over 200 student participants from all over the world.

LineUpr: How much time and work do you spend on average on the planning of the IsarMUN?

Anna-Sophie: In total, more than 50 students and young professionals participated in the organization of IsarMUN on a voluntary basis last year. Of these, 13 were involved intensively throughout the year in the planning and implementation. Divided into an “Executive Board” and an “Academics Team”, we start about a year in advance with the logistics and content organization of the IsarMUN. Weekly meetings to discuss what has been achieved in the different work areas, where there are problems and what is still to be done. As the conference gets closer, more time will have to be invested by each individual. During the conference itself, the team will be on duty almost 24/7. From setting up in the morning and coordinating the lunch break, to taking care of the evening program, which often goes into the morning hours – sleep becomes a minor matter. Depending on your position and time, the IsarMUN will be a full-time job.

LineUpr: What makes the IsarMUN so special?

Anna-Sophie: The IsarMUN is one of Germany’s largest Model United Nations conferences. In addition to having the beautiful Munich as a location, we are particularly renowned for our internationality. Our more than 250 participants were made up of 51 different nationalities last year. Hardly any other MUN conference in Germany is that international.

Furthermore, we attach great importance to organizing exciting offers for everyone, from MUN-Newbies to the old hands. Thus, in addition to several beginner and refresher workshops, we also have an entry-level program for committee chairmen and, for the first time last year, we had an academic specialization program.

LineUpr: You used LineUpr for the first time. What was the decisive argument for you to use an event app?

Anna-Sophie: First and foremost is the comfort for the participants. With LineUpr, our “delegates” always have all the important information, whether it’s directions, room information or timelines, on hand and do not depend on a printed version that can be easily misplaced or forgotten. Also, with LineUpr short-term changes always reach our participants swiftly and without any deviations.

LineUpr: How did you use the app before, during and after the IsarMUN?

Anna-Sophie: We mainly used the app to share the schedule and the allocated rooms/location information with our participants. Additional information such as the dress code for the respective agenda item could also be integrated practically. For future conferences, we would like to make the IsarMUN app even more interactive, allowing us to share not only the schedule, but also documents created during the conference, and to generate participant surveys.

LineUpr: How did your visitors react to the app?

Anna-Sophie: We received consistently positive feedback. In particular, our final feedback reflected the enthusiasm of the participants. So, when asked what was especially useful, LineUpr was mentioned again and again and the Multiple Choice question designated for LineUpr showed that all participants regarded LineUpr as a valuable addition to the conference.

LineUpr: Why should other MUN conferences use an event app?

Anna-Sophie: First and foremost, the comfort for the participants, as well as the simplification of the communication and the resulting increase in the professionalism of the entire conference are of paramount importance. Also, LineUpr can serve as a valuable tool for a greener conference and significantly reduce paper usage. Of course, depending on usage, this also means valuable savings on printing costs.

LineUpr: Which top tips for the use of LineUpr would you like to give to other organizers?

Anna-Sophie: LineUpr is so intuitive to use that not so many tips are needed. But what we definitely want to recommend is to invest enough time in the preparation of the app on the one hand, and on the other to assign a person responsible for the app during the event to fully exploit all of the great possibilities.

LineUpr: Thank you Anna-Sophie, for the great interview. We are always happy to support Model United Nations conferences with a LineUpr Event App. More interesting information can be found on IsarMun.org. They are also worth a visit on Facebook and Instagram.

We are already looking forward to the conference this year.

The post Event Apps for MUN Conferences – Experiences of the IsarMUN first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

Imagine being able to attend a political meeting at the headquarters of the UN in the rooms of the Human Rights Council just once. Someone who is allowed to experience this every year is Cindy Bischofberger. She is the co-organizer of the GIMUN and because of the location, the GIMUN has a special advantage. She is allowed to hold her conference on the premises of the UN Headquarters in Geneva.

Since 2018, GIMUN has been using an event app. How much time Cindy invested in the creation and exactly what she used the app for is what this interview is about today. Have fun while reading. ?

LineUpr: Hello Cindy. Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Please introduce yourself.

Cindy: I am an International Relations student in Geneva, currently occupying the position of Under-Secretary General of Logistics for GIMUN (Geneva International Model United Nations, a student non-governmental organization with Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations). I grew up in the German-speaking part of Switzerland but am now lucky to have surpassed the national linguistic border by doing my studies in the French-speaking region. I have always been fascinated with foreign languages and cultures and love to travel and get to know diverse people from around the globe. These interests are perfectly summed up both by my university courses, but also my activity for GIMUN.

LineUpr: How much time and work do you spend on average on the planning of GIMUN?

Cindy: That is a really difficult question. As MUNs are in general based on voluntary work, nobody really does statistics about the amount of time that goes into the organization of such an event as the Annual Conference. I can definitely say that the workload was different every other week. Sometimes, I spent only several hours a week, other times more than 8 hours a day. It is also important to add that the whole GIMUN Team consists of more than 20 people having different tasks (Committee Management, HR, Logistics, Translation and Interpretation as the Annual Conference is a completely bilingual event, Cultural Events, Press, etc.). The involvement and effort of every person contributed to a successful conference in the end.

LineUpr: What makes GIMUN so unique? How do you differentiate yourself from other MUN events?

Cindy: Compared to other MUN events, the two things that make GIMUN unique would have to be its bilingualism and the location of the committee session in the European headquarter of the UN. We are privileged having the chance to use these facilities, which only makes the bilingualism possible (as the booths for interprets are available there and make it possible to have direct interpretation in four of our six committees). Already the opportunity to have an NGO badge and walking around freely (and getting a sense of orientation in the many different buildings), discovering the Human Rights Council with its amazing ceiling art done by Miquel Barceló and enjoying the breaks outside looking for the peacocks are special.

The bilingualism, on the other hand, gives you an insight into the real world when every word of the delegates are translated into several languages. It is amazing to see the interprets their work and the participants of the conference overcoming their language differences and reaching common goals nevertheless.

LineUpr: What was the decisive argument for you to use an event app? How can also other MUN conferences benefit from an event app?

Cindy: Eric from LineUpr contacted us directly and we gladly took the chance to have an event app for the first time. It was an amazing experience and I would recommend it to every other MUN as it gives you a different platform to share information. With the advancements of technology, everyone is used to having access to information all day at every place, so an app is convenient to have all the people involved up to date at every moment. Guessing from LineUpr’s openness and friendliness, if other MUN conferences are also interested in having an event app it would be worth contacting LineUpr directly

LineUpr: How long before the event do you start creating the event app? How much time do you invest in the app?

Cindy: Once again I cannot say exactly how much time it took me to create, complete and keep updated the app. Although it is really easy to handle the website on which the app is made, it took me between at least 30-40 hours to include all the necessary information. Because there were some last minute schedule changes, most of the work was done around two weeks before the conference.

LineUpr: When and how do you inform the participants of the event about the event app?

Cindy: Exactly due to the last minute adaptions, we just informed our participants one day before the conference about the existence of the app and reminded them once again during our Opening Ceremony the following day. I would have loved to publish it a little earlier so that the participants could have also made use of the general information (how to get to Geneva, what apps are useful in the city).

LineUpr: How did your visitors react to the app?

Cindy: Apart from some people having had problems getting the app to the home screen of mobile phones, we have just had positive feedbacks. Especially during the day of registration where rooms had to be changed a lot with the many workshops going on, everyone was glad to have direct access to the schedule online. The same goes for the first day at the UN. Furthermore, it was also appreciated having the addresses of the places for our social events in the evening so that they were easy to fin.

Some people were surprised, as they have never seen an app for a MUN event. However, several people told me that the participants made good use of the app during the whole conference.

LineUpr: How has your event or event organization changed by using an event app?

Cindy: I can start with my personal experience: I did not have to know every room of every committee by heart, but could just look at my phone to answer the questions of people that were lost Furthermore, it is another possibility to show visibility of the whole organization and motivate the whole team to try something new that has never been done before. For our 20th Anniversary this year, the survey about a new slogan was easily integrated into the app and every person had fast access to it. For the rest of the communication, it would maybe have been better to have a link to our Instagram and Facebook page, as most of the information was published there by our Public Relations Director. As there was a lot going on, we, unfortunately, have not had the chance to adopt this procedure which would have made the app even more useful.

LineUpr: Is there a crazy story from the last event that you want to share with us?

Cindy: Well, I would not say that it is a crazy story, but definitely a funny one. When organizing the catering for the dinner on Saturday night, we went to pick it up with a Renault Clio and the four men handing out the food just looked at us as if we were mad. “How do you want to put everything inside this tiny car? You will have to drive at least 4 times to get everything to the conference”. We proofed them wrong by just driving twice and having fun cruising the city center with a car packed with yummy pizza and some drinks, being able to provide the hungry participants a full catering right on time after the Opening Ceremony.

Side note: because the Opening Ceremony was in the ancient building of the University of Geneva, we had no elevator to take all the catering up to the second floor. This meant that we arrived out of breath and could barely speak when we had to give a speech presenting our department.

LineUpr: Which top three tips would you like to give to other organizers when using LineUpr?

Cindy: 1. Definitely look at how other MUNs have organized their apps and what they included in it. This helped me a lot when thinking about the setup and what to include in the schedule etc.

2. Be cautious when it comes to the pictures you want to include in the app: make sure that they are quadratic and not any other form so that you have no negative surprises when the upload is done.

3. Start to familiarise yourself with the website where you create the app already in the beginning, this makes it easier when you actually add more information about your event.

LineUpr: Thank you, Cindy, for the nice interview. We learned a lot about your MUN event. It is certainly very exciting to be able to carry out your MUN event in the rooms of the UN.

You will find more information about the GIMUN on their website, Twitter, and Facebook. And for all those who are more of the optical type, visit the GIMUn on Instagram or YouTube.

In the case, you also organize MUN Events, talk to us. We would love to support your conference with an event app.

The post Event Apps for MUN Conferences – The GIMUN and Experiences of Cindy Bischofberger first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

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.

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…

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.

The post Event Apps for MUN Conferences – Experiences of HamMUN Conference first appeared on LineUpr Blog.