How AI Can Help You Deliver a Powerful MUN Opening Speech

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Preparing for your opening speech is one of the most nerve-wracking parts of MUN (especially for first-timers).

I find that no matter how many times I write, rewrite, and practice my speech, I’m always at least a little uncertain about whether I’ve got it exactly right.

The solution to this problem is getting someone to read the speech and give me feedback. But because I often leave it until the night before the conference, I can’t always find someone to help out!

Fortunately, AI can be a great coach and assistant for MUN preparation, and it’s available 24/7.

Keep reading to find out how AI can help you deliver a powerful MUN opening speech.

Start By Practicing Your Speech

Presuming you’ve done your research and followed a proven formula for , the next step is practice.

Here are the ways most delegates practise their opening speech:

1. Read it silently.

2. Read it aloud.

3. Share it with a friend or mentor.

4. Read it aloud to a trusted advisor.

In each case, the goal is to review your speech and identify areas for improvement. Areas for improvement might include things like words or phrases that don’t flow naturally, arguments that need strengthening, or an unclear solution or call to action.

In points 1 & 2, it’s up to you to identify any flaws or areas of improvement. For 3 & 4, you’ll need to ask for honest feedback and advice and then implement it yourself.

Problems with Traditional Practice

While traditional methods of practicing and improving an opening speech do have value, delegates face a common set of challenges:

● Lack of experience and knowledge - Basic grammar and phrasing issues are easy to identify. But in most cases, only an experienced delegate or advisor will be able to help you identify what improvements need to be made.

● Being too close to the idea - We all have blind spots regarding our own ideas, which is why getting feedback from someone else is so valuable. However, sometimes a friend or relative might feel uncomfortable giving negative feedback.

● Vague or unconstructive feedback - Vague feedback like “It could be a little punchier” doesn’t give you much to work on. To be useful, feedback should identify a specific weakness and provide some idea of how this could be addressed.

● Running out of time - It can take a couple of rounds of feedback and revision to craft a perfect opening speech. When someone else is helping you with the process, you can lose a lot of time in the delays between making a change and waiting for another review.

AI doesn’t replace practising your speech alone or with a support person. However, it provides an alternative method of speech practice that overcomes many of the difficulties described above.

Improving Your MUN Opening Speech with AI

In theory, you could use any generic AI product to improve your opening speech (eg, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini). But when a specialized tool like is available for free, that’s the logical first choice.

Model Diplomat is an AI-powered educational technology platform designed to help students succeed at Model United Nations. Unlike generic AI tools, Model Diplomat is trained on the entire UN Digital Library, understands political and legal nuances, has a database of 193+ country positions, and offers specialized features such as debate simulations and AI coaching.

Here’s how to use Model Diplomat to improve your opening speech.

Step 1: Write Your Speech

Trust me when I say this—AI is most useful after you’ve written a decent first draft of your opening speech.

If you really get stuck, you can generate an AI draft based on key points and then refine it. But in my experience, writing the first draft manually results in a better final product, as it forces me to work with and fully understand the concepts and key points I want the speech to convey.

With the draft of your opening speech ready, head over to the Opening Speeches section of Model Diplomat.

Step 2: Review the Fundamentals

Before getting the AI coach to analyze your speech, take a moment to review some of the learning material in the Opening Speeches section.

The Fundamentals section is great if you’re newer to MUN.

Deep Dive covers more advanced skills and techniques.

Examples has gold-standard opening speeches so you have an idea of what the final product

should look like.

This quick review of the fundamentals of opening speeches not only prepares you to take on

board and implement the feedback you're about to get. It also ensures that each time you use

the tool, you increase your knowledge.

Step 3: Analyze Your Speech

Now, the moment you’ve been waiting for!

Copy and paste your opening speech into the Practice section and press Analyze Speech.

Scroll down a little to find the Analysis Results.

Step 4: Review and Implement Feedback

Model Diplomat’s AI Opening Speeches coach will give your speech a score out of 100, noting

strengths and areas for improvement.

Navigate to the Categories, Feedback, and Examples tabs for detailed recommendations and guidance for improving your opening speech.

How you implement this feedback depends on the nature of the suggestions and your personal preferences.

Some delegates might choose to take all the feedback on board and do a general rewrite of their opening speech. In other situations, making targeted changes (such as adding statistics to improve a key point) will be more appropriate.

Don’t forget to use the other features of Model Diplomat for help implementing the feedback if you need. For example, the intelligent research assistant (available via the Home tab) makes it a breeze to clarify a country’s position, find a statistic, or evaluate different strategies.

Step 5: Make Further Improvements (Optional)

After you’ve implemented the feedback, give your opening speech another read and see how you feel about it.

If you’re happy with the result, move on to the next stage of conference prep.

If you think improvements can still be made, return to Step 4 and get another round of feedback. Should I aim for a score of 100%?

The score in the Analysis Results is meant only as a guide to the scope for improving your speech.

Anything around 70% or above indicates a strong opening speech that you can confidently take to your conference.

If you have spare time, by all means, try to get your score close to 100%. But remember, your opening speech is just one aspect of the conference. Don’t overinvest in trying to get it perfect at the expense of other areas of preparation.

AI Enhances Traditional MUN Prep

AI doesn’t replace traditional methods of improving a MUN opening speech—it enhances them.

For example, after giving your opening speech a thorough proofread and reading it aloud, you can ask Model Diplomat to analyze it for improvement opportunities you might have missed.

Similarly, if you have a friend or mentor willing to provide feedback, you can improve your speech with AI first, aiming to reduce the time spent on multiple rounds of revisions.

Finally, the feedback you receive from AI can identify gaps in your knowledge or skills, which you can then take proactive steps to learn either independently or with support.

is a comprehensive AI-powered education platform that helps students succeed at MUN.

In addition to helping you improve your opening speech, Model Diplomat provides assistance with position papers, resolutions, country profiles, and several other aspects of MUN research and preparation.

Try Model Diplomat today by .

How AI Can Enhance Your MUN Opening Speech