I always like to start my topic speech/my first speech of the conference with a fun opener. It’s usually a song lyric or funny quote.

The most important part of this is picking a phrase that’s actually relevant to the possible issues at hand. For example if the topic is climate change (I swear 90% of the time I’m in UNEP) I would sing, like ACTUALLY sing, “this girl is on fireeee.” Then my partner would say “but with climate change on the rise so is our world.”

Simply, you need something to draw the attention of your audience. One time I quoted Nicki Minaj, “It’s not cool to be a loser. Go to school. Graduate.” You can do basically anything as long as it’s appropriate.

I wouldn’t be insensitive to the topic if it’s something serious but you can also have fun with it.

Also I typically refrain from using “fun” openers in my later speeches. I still do original things (like this one time I threw a paper airplane) but I wouldn’t just say a song lyric. I’ve found that chairs DO NOT like when you overuse unserious openings.

I’ll do a separate post on serious openers!

Also I just wanted to include a quick anecdote but the last time I went to NAIMUN this guy said THE EXACT ENDING LINE that I was going to say, “We’re all in this together.” Bro, like why are we the same person. Anyway thanks for reading!