I’ve found that it’s best to prepare a topic speech a week or so before going into a conference. My partner and I practice and memorize it a few days in advance. We also typically follow a similar format for every conference we do so it’s easy for us to remember.

Here was our speech at NAIMUN:

Partner: Honorable chair and fellow delegates, this girl is on fire

Me: But with climate change on the rise so is our world

Partner: When 3 billion people live in areas susceptible to climate change, are we going to simply stand by?

Me: The delegation of North Macedonia says NO!!! Economic inequality within the Mediterranean is rapidly rising. The per capita GDP of the EU is SIX times higher than the South

Partner: A lack of action comes with a COST, and that is lives being LOST. With the Mediterranean making up a third of the world’s trade, the time to respond is now

Partner and Me:: One, two, three (snap)

Me: In those three seconds, 4000 tons of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere

Partner: Yet, unsustainable trade practices persist. It will be our downfall if we don’t end this issue ONCE and for ALL

Me: So join North Macedonia in developing the blue economy

Partner: Delegates, let’s unite and put up a fight against this crisis

At the beginning we have a hook “this girl is on fire” which my partner sang. It’s INTEGRAL that you include something like this in your first speech but make sure it’s relevant to the topic at hand.

We also try to incorporate some movement to draw people’s attention. In this case we went in a circle while snapping our fingers. This typically makes our speeches stand out to the chairs (we get a lot of compliments :).