The Global Summit, a three day encapsulation of MUN Impact, the first of its kind, kickstarted at 13:00 UTC on July 21, 2020. The three day conference began with an Opening session, followed by 4 sessions where 20 different presenters gave workshops, and concluded with a social hour, where participants were able to socialize with new peers.
Day 1 certainly lived up to the anticipation. From the minute the Opening session began with inspiring words from Ms Martin, the Executive Director of MUN Impact and Mr. Will kennedy, Senior Programme Officer, UN Office for Partnerships, United Nations to the final minutes of the last session of the day, the youth of the world were connected, enlightened, engaged, and providing hope for the future of our planet.
The Opening Plenary was complex and multifaceted, getting off to a seamless start, that provided an inclusive and exciting way to start the conference. Some of the highlights of the opening session included Will Kennedy articulating how powerful youth can be, press teams multiple and beautifully crafted videos, and Ms. Michèle Coninsx’s talk, the distinguished plenary speaker, on terrorism. During this session there was a brief Q&A with Ms. Coninsx as well as a short talk from Mr. Alejandro Borja, the CEO and Founder of YudLeads. The session came to an end with the inaugural gavel and a few announcements for the participants.
Ahead of the conference participants chose which sessions they would like to attend, and session 1 sure made it hard to pick right from the get go which to attend. Albert Olivia presented on Leading Towards Equality in Opportunity. Andrew Hudson presented on SDG 14: Challenges, Opportunities and UNDP Response, Maysoon Hussein workshop was on Securing Sustainability from Home, and Sebastián Pilla had a spanish session on Los ODS como eje en la gestión del Consejo Consultivo de Jóvenes de Santa Cruz – Galápagos.
Session 2 brought equally interesting workshops from Lamya Adam, a panel of Zoey Fisher, Jaideep Singh, Farihah Ahmed, and Ivan Wei giving the behind the scenes of the inner workings of the summit, a presentation from Sara Montes, Catalina Viteri y Daniela Calderón, as well as one from Victoria Basma.
The day continued during session 3 where Ambassador Eric Robson talked about The SDGs Innovation Challenge, Sophia Kianni presented on Inside the Youth Climate Movement, Dr. Anthony Speca gave a workshop on Polar Aspect: Model Arctic Council and Sustainable Development, Ella Sobhani & Vivian Wu joined forces to talk about Project Aquascope- Environmental Sustainability, STEM and Youth Entrepreneurship, while Alejandro Borja, Antonella Cicconi and Camila Cabrera shared how they made MUN en Casa a reality.
Session 4 brought Walter Simonsen presenting on How MUN Impacted My Future as a Musician and Educator, Jordan Hattar who shared his Recipe for Success, Arya Kanade who shared about Ladies First, a joint presentation from Tara Tafreshi, Hannah Sparrock, Younglin Cho on Problems & Solutions Regarding Food Waste & Food Choices, and a presentation from Javier Rincón.
The day came to a close with a social hour with much talk of the exciting start to the conference and equal amount of high hopes for the following two days.
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By Hallie Williams