PIMUN 2013

At the end of spring semester 2013, a delegation of 7 people attended the PIMUN conference organized by Sciences Po and other universities in Paris. It was the first time that ETH MUN attended PIMUN, and we were quite happy with this conference. While the level of debate was on a rather average level, it was a fantastic experience to have the great general assembly on the last day of the conference at the plenary hall of the UNESCO headquarters. Debating with simultaneous translators and using the real placards and microphones of the UNESCO among 500 students was impressive and a lot of fun to all of us. Also, we enjoyed the interesting mix of committees, with large GA committees as well as exotic ones such as the UEFA. Head delegate of the conference was Philipp Simons, and we are glad that our delegates Simon Schöller, Philipp Simons and Sebastian Heinekamp received awards for ETH MUN.

During our trip, we stayed at the Unic Renoir Saint Germain Hotel, which was in close proximity to Sciences Po and the UNESCO headquarters. The social events were perceived well by our delegates. While the dinner party at the first night of the conference was rather poorly organized, the grand party on the second night was very well organized and a lot of fun. The opening and closing ceremony were rather lengthy, and while some of the key note speakers were really interesting, we felt that they just had too many and it was a poor choice to not have all speakers in English. It is also noteworthy that the timing of this conference was absolutely perfect for ETH students, since it was at the last weekend of the semester. In conclusion, in particular the experience at the UNESCO headquarters made this conference one which would be worth attending again.