Despite having submitted the second draft of our position papers on Friday and having spent the whole of Saturday at a simulation of the General Assembly Plenary in Hohenheim, all of us gathered at 9am on a Sunday morning at the onset of the exam period for a speech training. 
We were lucky to be coached by a professional consultant who usually trains business executives, Dr. Marco Behrmann from Cevey Consulting (https://ceveygroup.com/).
After a brief, but highly motivating and interesting introduction by Marco, it was our time to speak. Each of us had to give two speeches with very limited preparation time. One was about a funny topics like a „drivers´ license“ for expecting parents, the other one was related to our committee topics. Getting feedback and having the speeches recorded on video helped us a lot to reflect on our speaking skills and pointed out what we can improve upon to maximize our impact when giving speeches in New York.
We learnt that successful impact in negiotations depends on a the right strategy, but also a of other factors, such as the context of the negotiations, the personal relationship of the negotiators, or flexibility of how to address different audiences.
We are extremely grateful to Marco, who gave us his precious time and invaluable advice on a Sunday morning.
Finally, it was there – the moment (or rather the days) we had been waiting for. When we sat in the opening ceremony on Sunday, March 24th, overviewing a grand ballroom in which hundreds of people were chatting excitedly, we felt that this was what we had been preparing for since octobre.
intervalls of approximately three hours in committee. The day turned out to be psychologically and physically straining, but also very rewarding, since we got a lot of work covered. Especially those working papers who were told to merge by their respective chairs and directors were actually grateful for the long and numerous committee sessions scheduled for the day.
On Thursday we visited the UN in New York, where the closing ceremony took place. There, all our work was rewarded when the delegation of Bahrain, respresented by the University of Tübingen, was recognized with an Honorable Mention Award for excellent diplomatic conduct. Furthermore, we want to extend our congratulations to all of those who also won an award for their position papers or a peer award for their outstanding diplomatic work!
On our first day in Geneva, we started with a guided tour through the Palais des Nations. The Palais des Nations is the European headquarters of the UN. Afterwards, we visited the German Permanent Mission in Geneva and had a meeting with a real diplomat, who has been working for Germany for years. He gave us a detailed insight into the work of a diplomat and into the working processes withing the UN, which was very interesting for us. The last stop on Thursday was the ILO (International Labour Organization), where we were told about the tasks and the goals of the ILO and how the different actors – states, employers, employees, etc. – come together and work on improving the working conditions for all.
There, we got an introduction into the action processes and protocols that inure in case of emergency – like the Ebola outbreak a few years ago. We were also introduced to another part of the work of WHO – mitigating the risks of health hazards like smoking with the help of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). In the afternoon, our next stop was the IOM, where we were lucky enough to get an expert for each of the three topics our delegates of the IOM will discuss in New York. Therefore, we learned a lot about Migration in Libya, Climate Migration and Cross-Border Displacement, as well as IOMs work with Civil Society. Our final appointment led us to the OHCHR – the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. There we were told about how the UN and
their network of state and non-state actors controls the implementation of Human Rights in the member states of the UN and helps improving living conditions. To relax after the long day we went to the Lac de Genève where we enjoyed delicious cheese fondue – at least those of us who eat cheese.
The topics before this General Assembly were: