Final Post on COMUN

Colombo Model United Nations

25 years of success

Colombo Model United Nations, known as COMUN, is a student led educational simulation activity in which students participates as delegates to debate about the global issues and design creative and practical solutions to the issue. Along with this they also learn about diplomacy, international affairs and relations, and the United Nations. This year COMUN was hosted again by OSC in which more than 400 delegates participated. I am working as the Deputy Head of Technology for COMUN since the past 6 months, I’ve been working cooperatively with the rest of COMUN technology team to make this 25^th year of COMUN  a great success. During the conference of 3 days I focused on showing commitment and demonstrate skills and the benefit of working collaboratively with the executive committee of COMUN 2019.

The COMUN XXV conference was held from 1^st to 3^rd of March 2019 in which it successively completed it’s 25 years under the theme of ‘Reconstituting Global Perspectives’. I was a part of COMUN since 10^th grade when I joined COMUN’s 24^th session as a delegate of Bolivia in the committee of General Assembly 3 and this year I was a part of the executive committee of COMUN (EXCO). Being a delegate was a different experience than working as member of the EXCO. Model United Nations improved my public speaking skills during the conference and researching skills. However soon after I realized that I would be better in serving COMUN from its technical department than a delegate because my strength was in technology more than public speaking by which I was able to qualify for the Deputy Head of Technology for COMUN 2019.

During the 25^th session of COMUN this year, more than 400 delegates from around the schools in and out of Sri Lanka participated in the conference and this year the Executive Committee consisted of 34 members. Practice debates were held earlier during the year at the Overseas School of Colombo. The practice debates were held for an opportunities for delegates to get familiar with the debate simulation and was a learning period for us, the technological team, for knowing the procedure of COMUN and all the electronic/media work to be done.

On the 1^st day of COMUN 2019 Conference, which was held at the Overseas School of Colombo, an opening ceremony was held in which the technological crew had a leading job for handling all the network and media during the ceremony. In the crew our Head of Media, Milo, was in charge for capturing images and videos and along with handling the editing and uploading aspect of it. Head of Technology, Anuda, Deputy Head of Technology, Youzhi, and I were in charge with the power point presentation, sound and light controls, and handling the live stream camera in the auditorium. During this event I got a chance to explore my knowledge of sound and light controls which I learned previously in practice debates. I had to follow the commands of Anuda on handling the lights because it had to coordinate itself with the presenter and during that time I was also quite nervous because there were a lot of people in the audience and I had a responsibility of handling the lights for some moment which is an important aspect of a successful ceremony.

After the ceremony was over, all the delegates were dismissed to their committees along with their chairs. The tech crew headed towards working on the necessary work for the debate sessions such as maintain the images and taking footage of committees by Head of Media, maintaining the COMUN website, and along with that we also had a job to allocate all the resolution, and foreign policy statement papers in each committee.

On the next day, back at the Overseas School of Colombo, the conference continued and I was working with the tech team continuing our work on technological management. On the 2^nd day I got some chances from the Head of Media to take pictures of the conferences while him, Head of Technology, and the Deputy Head of Technology were busy in taking footage for the COMUN video. During that time I got many opportunities to further develop my photography skills because there were loads of different positioning in different committees where I can try some new pattern of photography. During Week Without Walls I was focused on taking landscapes but on this day I was focused on how to photograph humans in action. I might have spent at least 2 hours on photography which was plenty time for me to learn several features of a DSLR camera specially with lighting, fast shots, and positioning. At the end of the day I also got a chance to use Gecko Net’s Ronin for videoing which was a new device I wanted to learn and although it’s very tiring while holding the Ronin it was a great experience.

The next day was the last day of the conference held at The Cinnamon Lakeside hotel which was the largest day for the tech team because of the prestigious work we had. I’ve never been to that hotel before and didn’t knew any information about the technological equipment and places they have. As soon as we arrived there early morning, we first analyzed the area where stage equipment such as mics, projectors, cables, etc. were needed and then imported all the technological equipment we brought from our school such as monitors, projectors, etc.

During the day the Head of Media was constantly engaged in the creation of the COMUN video and gathering footages along with the Head of Tech where else the 2 Deputy Heads of Tech. Youzghi and I, were taking pictures of the committees. Soon after we switched roles to editing pictures to working with projectors and cables. The day went fast because of the amount of work and running from one committee to another and back to the tech room was and by the end of the day our Head of Media produced a very successive video of COMUN 2019 which was displayed in the closing ceremony and also represented the COMUN tech team. This video can be viewed by clicking here.

The closing ceremony was quite a rush for us as all members of the tech team were involved in the management of the ceremony such as the Deputy Head of Technology, Youzhi, was one of the master of ceremony, Head of Technology, Anuda, was handling the power point presentation, and the Head of Media, Milo, and I were in charge of photography. 2 men were needed for photographing the closing ceremony due to the large public and there were special guests as well. The closing ceremony went well and we finished the ceremony by showing our COMUN 2019 video, created by the Head of Media, which was a success for our tech team as it is one of the most viewed videos COMUN tech team have ever created.

During the final day at Cinnamon Lakeside, the tech team did have a lot of work to do all day long and was the largest and longest day for us. Some of our intense work load can be shown below:

Taken by Head of Media, Milo & Deputy Head of Tech, Divyanshu.

COMUN’s 25^th session was great success as the conference went smooth without any major difficulties and was a great learning experience with several field of technology such as photo editing, photographing, light and sound controls, videoing using Ronin, and many more. Besides the technological aspect I think I learned a lot more about my peers in the tech team as COMUN gave us more time to unite and work collaboratively with each other’s strategies. Most credits for my learning experience goes to my tech team consisting of Head of Technology, Anuda, Head of Media, Milo, and the Deputy Head of Technology, Youzhi, which helped and guided me through the journey and made COMUN 2019 more enjoyable than being serious.

The executive committee consisted of 34 members consisting of members from different schools and out of which I didn’t new 80% of the members however I never felt left out because my tech team was a great support and I socialized a lot with them. This is it for my journey in COMUN as I will not be participating in COMUN next year besides I will be preparing for my IB exams, and I’m very thankful to COMUN for giving me the role of being the Deputy Head of Technology for this year with an amazing tech team which created loads of new experiences. We, the tech team, might have resigned from our positions for this year however the COMUN 2019 tech team will never be forgotten. For more on COMUN Tech check out the links at Tech1, Tech2, or Tech3.

Head of Tech: Anuda

Head of Media: Milo

Deputy Head of Tech: Youzhi

Deputy Head of Tech: Divyanshu