London. Puebla. The Hague. Singapore. Vancouver.….Your City!
WorldMUN’s stands apart from other conferences by immersing delegates in the culture and the vibrancy of the host city, and the conference could not succeed each year without the efforts of an excited and talented host team. If you want to bring the WorldMUN spirit to your city, this page will help familiarize you with the Bidding Process.
Hosting WorldMUN is a rewarding but substantial commitment. Between May 2012 when we announce the winning bid for the 22nd session of WorldMUN, and March 18-22 2013 (the dates of WorldMUN 2013), your host team and the Harvard Secretariat will collaborate closely to plan virtually all aspects of the conference. The Harvard Secretariat will oversee the substantive staff of committee chairs, and all other logistical management and social events will be planned by the host team through continuous dialogue in the months before conference. With your team’s local knowledge and creativity, we are excited to help you develop your vision for future WorldMUN conferences.
Please Note: BIDS ARE DUE APRIL 18, 2013
1. Download the bidpack here.
Download the bidpack at this link. This guide is the key to putting together a successful bid & outlines all the requirements & specifications required of bidding teams.
2. Start Early
A successful bid requires months - and sometimes even years! - of careful research and preparation. Therefore, as soon as you decide to tender a bid for WorldMUN 2013, start forming your host team and planning out how you would execute the conference. Important early research involves negotiating prices for conference venues and brainstorming ideas for social events, in-conference visits, and guest speakers.
An early start is so important, because a high quality bid is packed with detailed information about conference costs, expected revenues, and the logistics of how approximately 2000 delegates will live, socialize, and travel around your city. For example, instead of giving a rough estimate of hotel prices, provide a list of specific hotels arranged by location, maximum occupancy, and cost. This is just one example of the level of detail that we expect you to bring to all areas of the Bid.
3. Assessing Feasibility
WorldMUN does not have a specific target size. In the past several years, the conference has ranged from 1600-2400 delegates, and as the Harvard team considers any trade-off between location and conference size on a case-by-case basis.
With that in mind, it is important for your team to demonstrate that your host city has sufficient conference space and hotel rooms to accommodate a large number of delegates. For host teams not based in an urban area, remember that the host city and the host team’s university do not need to be located in the same city.
Successful host team structures vary, ranging from 5-15 team members. However, it is very important that your university can provide enough assistant chairs and volunteers to staff all aspects of the conference. Each committee should be supported by 2-3 assistant chairs, and in our experience, you will need at least 60-70 volunteers to staff major conference events like registration, opening ceremonies, and social events. In the past, teams from small universities have overcome the challenges of recruiting a larger staff by partnering with other local universities or federations that sponsor Model UN in their host country. Furthermore, both undergraduate and graduate students have successfully staffed the conference in years past.
4. The Budgeting Process
When we evaluate bids, we are particularly interested in how you plan to pay for the conference. A thorough, well-organized, and realistic budget, even if it is only a preliminary one, communicates that your team has thought through its ideas and can synthesize a myriad of detailed information into an overall vision for the conference.
As you seek to offset costs, it is very important that your budgeting assumptions reflect a realistic plan for raising revenues. Typically, the host team controls all revenue from social event tickets and drink sales, while the Harvard team keeps all income from registration fees. However, your assumptions about social event attendance and drink sales, as well as your funding from potential sponsors, should not leave your budget reliant on a very small margin of error to cover costs.
Our comprehensive Bidpack - a guide to writing a bid - to be released in the mid-autumn, will contain a sample budget to help you present the information.
5. Social Events
Social events differentiate WorldMUN from any other Model UN experience. Your event proposals are the chance to showcase the culture of your nation and give delegates a taste of your city. Each year, Global Village and the team performances of Cabaret Night serve as signature events while the other two events and the farewell party offer chances to get more creative.
In the Bid, you should present a specific venue and theme for each night, and it is important to strike a healthy balance between giving delegates a memorable cultural experience and providing ample opportunities to dance and socialize. Furthermore, your Bid should contain a discussion of viable contingency plans in case your first choice of venue does not work out.
6. Contact Us
We recognize that each conference will arise out of a unique set of circumstances, and we want to ensure that every bid we review is able to reach its full potential! Please reach out to us at strategy@worldmun.org if you are interested in bidding.
7. Ban on Publication of Bids Through Social Media
No bids can be publicized through social media, which includes but is not limited to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. All bids judged to be in flagrant disregard of this ban upon social media may be disqualified.