World: On-line course on Chairing International Conferences

Background

The value of this course is not only to provide information, skills and guidance to delegates who may be appointed or elected to chair meetings, it is also important for all delegates to understand what the chairman is doing, and why he or she is doing it. Indeed, unless delegates want the conference to fail, they should support the chairman’s efforts. In short, successful conferences require strong and able chairmen to be effective, need supportive and cooperative delegates. This in turn means that all delegates who wish to influence outcomes of the conference need to understand what the chairman is trying to do. If they want the conference to reach certain decisions, they need to work with and through the chairman. This online course aims to equip participants with the skills to successfully chair a meeting or international conference, as well as to understand and work with whoever is appointed to this position, thereby contributing to the success of such an event and a greater fulfillment of one’s institutional mandate.

Learning objectives

At the end of the course, participants should be able to:

• Communicate an appreciation for the role of presiding officers;
• Use acquired skills and knowledge to efficiently chair meetings;
• Determine what preparations are appropriate as meeting chair;
• Identify common chairman mistakes and give best practice strategies;
• Support and cooperate with the chairman.

Target Audience

The course targets diplomats, governmental officials as well as staff of inter-governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Private sector specialists and postgraduate students with relevant experience in multicultural working environment are also encouraged to apply.

Methodology

The tuition language of the course is English and it extends over a period of two weeks, each week consisting of a module focusing on a different topic. The course will be delivered via UNITAR’s e-Learning platform, which allows the participant to establish a self-paced study program supported by various types of multimedia, required and recommended readings, discussion forums, assessment quizzes, and other useful study materials. Finally, there will be a personal evaluation to measure the understanding of the topics within each module.

Registration and Course Fee

The course participation fee is 500 USD. Participants from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are eligible to apply for a fellowship. Registration will be closed as soon as the course is full and your place will be secured once your payment is confirmed. For additional information on the course and how to register, please visit our website or email us: Website: www.unitar.org/mdp Email: mdp-elearning@unitar.org Telephone: +41 22 917 87 16

Please follow the steps below to apply for one of our online training courses:

• Go to https://www.unitar.org/event/user/register to create a user account.
• Once your user account is created, go to https://www.unitar.org/event/chairing-international-conferences-4
• Select “add to cart”.
• After selecting, you will see other courses that might be of interest to you. You may add another event by clicking on the title of another event, which will take you to the event detail page.

If you want to confirm your selection, click on “selected events” in the top right corner of the page (“view your shopping cart”)

• Click “Proceed to checkout”
• You will then be directed to the billing page where you are asked to fill in your bank details.

You will then automatically be sent an invoice by email. Upon receipt of your payment, we will send you an email confirming your registration. Before the beginning of the course, you will receive a new username and password which will allow you to access the content of and attend the e-learning course.

We highly encourage credit card payments. You may find some useful information on “how to register” on: http://www.unitar.org/event/about-unitar-events#register