Tag: Meeting
All questions with this tag
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The Division of Conference Management of the United Nations Office at Geneva serves primarily conferences and meetings for the United Nations bodies and its Programmes, Funds, Regional Commissions, and Specialized Agencies. Non-governmental organizations, and other organizations with special status, are also allowed to host meetings at the Palais des Nations.
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Yes.
- Check out our webpage on available facilities;
- Send us the signed form and a draft agenda at least 6 weeks prior to the desirable date;
- We will check for availability of rooms and revert within 3 working days.
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With a valid UNOG grounds pass, you are entitled to participate in any public UN Conference at Palais des Nations. However, we always recommend that you check for any additional registration requirements with the secretariat organizing a meeting you are interested in.
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Please check with the meeting organizer. You may also consult indico.un.org, the registration platform for UN meetings in Geneva.
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UNOG services intergovernmental meetings of United Nations Member States as well as of other select groups, including non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council. For more details on the conference services offered by UNOG, see the Meetings & Events section.
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To obtain information about the meetings which will be held at the Palais des Nations, have a look at our meetings and events calendar.
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The digital recordings of all "public" meetings can be accessed in all official languages on a dedicated portal online. The site allows for searches by date and key word. Thereafter, the audio language and requested segment of the meeting can be selected. The "floor" option will provide the recording of the original language in which the intervention was made, whereas the other languages will provide access to the interpretation. Only the intervention in the original language constitutes an authentic record of the proceedings. Please visit the web page for accessing recordings of meetings. Live webcast access is available in the original language that the intervention is being made, as well as in English (as broadcast from the interpretation booth). Please also check the web page for UN Web TV .
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Provide a copy of any prepared text in advance to the secretariat staff so that précis-writers and interpreters can refer to the text as you read it. Refer to paragraph numbers, not pages, in official United Nations documents. The pagination of United Nations documents often varies between language versions, but paragraph numbers remain the same. Give the paragraph references before reading out quotations, not after. Speak at a reasonable pace so that précis-writers and interpreters — and indeed other members of the audience — can follow your arguments. If you feel that a particular point or quotation should be placed on the record, say so.
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Meetings are normally held between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on working days. Meetings cannot be scheduled on official holidays or after 6 p.m.
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Yes. All requests are subject to the official agreement of the administration and the security services. The catering services must be provided by the official UN Geneva caterer.
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When liaising with the Meetings Management Section (MMS) for an upcoming request, make sure to list all elements. MMS will then advise and guide you further.
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When general accessibility measures do not meet individual requirements, conference participants may request reasonable accommodation. Such requests should be sent to the organizing Secretariat via the Indico.UN registration. Organizing Secretariats can then discuss with the Department of Conference Management and the Security and Safety Service how the specific request can be accommodated. The organizing Secretariats should activate a short questionnaire for all of their events in Indico.UN, allowing participants to indicate their needs for reasonable accommodation when they register for the meeting. If the short questionnaire is not activated, participants have a possibility to indicate their needs in the free-text box.
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In general, the printing, design and layout, web and multimedia services are provided to international organizations based in Geneva; international organizations based in other duty stations may also request such services from UN Geneva.
Conference organizers and diplomatic missions based in Geneva can also request such service as part of the whole package of conference services. They can contact the Design and Printing Section of UN Geneva at genevapublishing@un.org.
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gMeets is a web-based application used for handling the electronic booking and approval of meeting requests and meetings. This integrated application is a standard for conference management across all UN duty stations that support global standardized business processes and requirements. gMeets allows for global online booking of meeting rooms and conference services and provides conference planners and clients with online registration and self-servicing capabilities.
gMeets has been re-engineered on a modern platform as the web application for electronic booking of meeting services of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi.
Any request for conference facilities and services at UN Geneva needs to be registered in gMeets, and hence anyone requesting these services can use gMeets. The Meetings Management Section at UN Geneva will provide the necessary guidance and assistance.
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The steps to open an account are explained on the dedicated Indico.UN help page. Once you have created your account, please contact the Indico.UN team which will assign a role (category manager or conference manager) to you.
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Press conferences organized in the press room by UN entities are filmed by UNTV, and the footage is made available on www.unognewsroom.org.
For any other specific needs, the Design and Printing Section provides photo and filming services to its clients. This includes photo and video shooting, photo and video editing, as well as captioning and animations. However, the Section does not provide filming or streaming of entire conferences.
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Conference rooms are usually open at least one hour before the start of the meeting. If conference organizers need more time to set up the room, they should liaise with the Meetings Management Section. Access will depend on other meetings that may be scheduled before the meeting in question.
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Participants can test their connection one hour before the meeting starts. The focus is on speakers during a session, i. e. anyone who is known to take the floor. For the morning session from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. testing starts at 9 am. For the afternoon session from 3 to 6 p.m., testing starts at 2 p.m. Speakers who will intervene only in the afternoon session should test from 2 p.m. onwards.
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Meetings are normally held between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on working days. If UN Geneva services are requested outside these official hours, they will be charged as overtime. Meetings cannot be scheduled during weekends, on official holidays or after 6 p.m.
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Indico.UN is the global standard for event management in the UN system. It is a fully hosted software as a service built on CERN’s open-source technology (INDICO), supporting on-site, virtual, and hybrid meetings. It provides a comprehensive solution, from participant outreach and registration, event scheduling and promotion, to access control and participant engagement.
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Corrections should be submitted in one of the working languages. They should be set forth in a memorandum and also incorporated in a copy of the record.
They should be sent to dms-dcm@un.org within one week of the date of the document in question.Any corrections submitted will be duly checked against the audio recordings of the meeting. Any corrections to the records of public meetings of a committee are consolidated in a single corrigendum, to be issued shortly after the end of the session.
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Requests can be submitted at any time. For requests with conference services, however, availability of services needs to be checked and the respective cost estimate has to be approved in due time; a late acceptance of the latter may lead to the non-availability of queried services.
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Entrances at Door 40 and Tempus Building are fully accessible. Entrances to all conference rooms should be wheel-chair-friendly. For more information, visit our page on accessibility.
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Once a request is submitted in gMeets, you can no longer make amendments. Should this be necessary, please contact the Meetings Management Section directly. If the additional services are requested, they will be accommodated depending on availability.
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The Indico.UN help page "Create an event" gives step-by-step instructions on how meeting organizers can register their event in Indico.UN.
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No. According to UN Geneva rules regarding the organization of functions the official caterer is the sole entity authorized to provide catering services for reasons of food safety and access to the premises among others.
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UN Geneva provides services such as the development of microsites, display of interactive information on TV screens, photography, videography, drone footage, and 3D printing of established 3D modules, etc. The microsites are usually developed to promote important publications of clients.
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While the layout of the conference rooms cannot be changed, decorations and flower arrangements are allowed, as long as relevant security and safety regulations are respected. Flower arrangements have to be ordered separately and cannot be provided by UN Geneva services. It is not allowed to fix anything on the walls of the conference rooms. To display posters, separate stand-alone walls can be requested. Please discuss your needs with the Meetings Management Section.
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Room bookings can be cancelled. However, a cancelation should be done as early as possible. Given the current significantly reduced capacities, a timely cancelation would allow us to reassign the slot to queries from other clients. Also, requested services on an extrabudgetary provision need to be cancelled two weeks prior to the planned meeting start, as otherwise, costs may still be incurred due to commitments made by service providers (e.g., recruitments).
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No. According to UN Geneva rules regarding the organization of functions the official caterer is the sole entity authorized to provide catering services for reasons of food safety and access to the premises among others.
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A meeting is a gathering of two or more persons for three or fewer hours in sequence (one of a series of meetings during a session) during which a legislative, administrative or deliberative body occupies a conference room and/or a space on a meeting platform and requires some conference services.
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In accordance with General Assembly Resolution 56/242 of 18 January 2002, meetings at the Secretariat should take place during normal office hours on working days, defined as from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm and 3.00 pm to 6.00 pm. Extending a meeting beyond three hours may only be granted in exceptional circumstances and is subject to extra costs. Meeting organizers needing to request such an extension must contact the Meeting Management Section (MMS) of the Division of Conference Management or through the meetings services assistant in the room no later than 30 minutes before the meeting is scheduled to finish. Requests addressed to the audio-visual services, the webcasting team or other service providers will be referred to MMS. MMS will coordinate between the different parts of the UN Geneva conferencing ecosystem to determine if the extension can be granted. The meeting organizer will be informed if the meeting can continue in the same room and if all required services are available, e.g. the hybrid meeting platform, webcasting, etc. Due to the provisions of the UN common system agreement with the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC), it is not possible to extend interpretation services beyond 15 minutes of the regular time unless specific exceptional measures have been put in place in advance of the meeting in agreement with the Chief of the Interpretation Service (exceptions may apply to the Human Rights Council). Meeting extensions of more than 15 minutes incur additional costs which will subsequently be charged to the meeting organizer through the final bill.
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Participants of meetings can indicate in their Indico.UN registration form that they would need vehicle access (private cars, not taxis) due to reduced mobility. The meeting secretariat should inform the Security and Safety Service in advance to ensure that conference participants with reduced mobility can enter with their vehicle on the day of the meeting.
Persons with disabilities are automatically granted priority access upon arrival to Peace Gate. They are also given a map of the Palais which indicates accessible doors, elevators, and restrooms. If visitors choose to drive to the Palais, priority parking spaces for persons with disabilities have been allocated.
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Summary records are posted as soon as they are available on the committee web site under the relevant session and can also be found in the Official Document System (ODS) of the UN.
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A step-by-step instruction on how to create and assign roles can be found on the dedicated Indico.UN help page.
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The “UNOG_Public_Wifi” Wifi Network is open to all conference participants and does not require a password. Access to it is guaranteed in common areas.
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Yes, UN Geneva supports its clients in printing all kinds of outreach and promotional materials. This includes but is not limited to banners, flyers, leaflets, post cards, small and large posters, roll-ups, stickers, calendars, bookmarks, etc.
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Room bookings can be cancelled until the beginning of the scheduled meeting time. Given the current significantly reduced capacities, a timely cancelation would allow us to reassign the slot to queries from other clients. Also, request on an extrabudgetary provision need to be cancelled two weeks prior to the planned meeting start, as otherwise, costs may still be incurred due to commitments made by service providers (e.g., recruitments).
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Yes. Culinary specialties can complete the cocktail offers with the agreement of the UN Geneva caterer. Such exceptions will be granted on the basis of compliance by the requester with the food hygiene and food safety rules concerning the culinary preparation, the transport and the storage of these specialties.
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The “UNOG_Public_Wifi” Wifi Network is open to all conference participants and does not require a password. Access to it is guaranteed in common areas.
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You can book your tour online. As tour capacities are limited, please make sure to book early.
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Room bookings can be cancelled until the beginning of the scheduled meeting time. Given the current significantly reduced capacities, a timely cancelation would allow us to reassign the slot to queries from other clients. Also, request on an extrabudgetary provision need to be cancelled two weeks prior to the planned meeting start, as otherwise, costs may still be incurred due to commitments made by service providers (e.g., recruitments).
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The Information Service sends out official press conference announcements and notes to correspondents regarding UN events and activities to journalists accredited to the United Nations in Geneva.
UN agencies and Member States must send their own press materials to the media.
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Yes. Culinary specialties can complete the cocktail offers with the agreement of the UN Geneva caterer. Such exceptions will be granted on the basis of compliance by the requester with the food hygiene and food safety rules concerning the culinary preparation, the transport and the storage of these specialties.
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Conference organizers are free to use the dedicated door card holders, as long as nothing is permanently fixed on the doors.
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You are welcome to indicate your preference for a specific conference room. Room allocation depends on room availability, and the queried conference room may not be available. The UN Geneva Meetings Management Section will always assign the best available option.
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No. According to UN Geneva rules regarding the organization of functions the official caterer is the sole entity authorized to provide catering services for reasons of food safety and access to the premises among others. In the case of functions organized in connection with events of a cultural nature (exhibition openings, concerts, etc.) permanent missions or authorized entities wishing to serve culinary specialties not available from the UN Geneva caterer may be authorized to make use of their own catering staff subject to approval by Administration. In no case may they engage a private catering company.
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NGOs can organize hybrid meetings at UN Geneva using a platform for remote meetings called WebEx. Some participants are physically inside the conference room and other participants attend remotely through an online link (sent prior by the meeting organizer).
The NGO must have a dedicated and experienced person to handle WebEx.
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Yes, there are several roles in Indico.UN, and your role determines which actions you are authorized to perform. An overview of the different roles can be found on the Indico.UN help page, "Managerial Roles Overview".
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You are welcome to indicate your preference for a specific conference room when first contacting the Meetings Management Section (MMS) or the focal point in your organization. Room allocation depends on room availability, and the queried conference room may not be available. MMS will always assign the best available option.
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The Security and Safety Service has three wheelchairs that can be made available for visiting adults with reduced mobility. They are located at the Peace Gate, Pregny Gate and Door 40. Another two pediatric wheelchairs can be made available for visiting children with reduced mobility, one at Peace Gate and one at Pregny Gate. If a participant knows in advance that he or she will require a wheelchair, he/she can make a note when registering on Indico.UN and they will be booked for them in particular. The wheelchairs offered by the Security and Safety Service require someone to assist the individuals using them.
The Visitors Center has another two wheelchairs available. They can be booked through the Visitors Center.
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Use of IT equipment inside conference rooms is restricted to technical staff, support staff and conferencing staff. Sometimes, publicly accessible cyber-cafés are made available to conference participants where they can access both computers and printers.
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Yes, the Printing Section can print large and small quantities of publications. Small quantities may be printed on short notice, i.e., with a turnaround time of one to two weeks. Please contact genevapublishing@un.org for advice.
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In principle, UN Geneva is mandated to accommodate the official UN Calendar of Conferences and Meetings, as well as any other official session or event as instructed by senior management. If changes to meeting room bookings have to be made for reasons beyond the control of the Division of Conference Management, the Meetings Management Section will do its outmost to find a suitable alternative room or time slot.
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Use of IT equipment inside conference rooms is restricted to technical staff, support staff and conferencing staff. Sometimes, publicly accessible cyber-cafés are made available to conference participants where they can access both computers and printers.
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No. According to UN Geneva rules regarding the organization of functions the official caterer is the sole entity authorized to provide catering services for reasons of food safety and access to the premises among others. In the case of functions organized in connection with events of a cultural nature (exhibition openings, concerts, etc.) permanent missions or authorized entities wishing to serve culinary specialties not available from the UN Geneva caterer may be authorized to make use of their own catering staff subject to approval by Administration. In no case may they engage a private catering company.
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Flip charts can be requested through gMeets at the moment of submitting the meeting room request. Conference organizers can also contact the service in charge directly, for example to find out if sufficient numbers of flip charts are available: unog-nameplates.conferencerequest@un.org.
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Putting in place a ramp should be requested from the Meetings Management Section which will inform the movers. For security reasons, the person with reduced mobility has to be accompanied when using the ramp.
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In case of a medical emergency of a conference participant, the Security Control Center can be contacted at +41 22 917 21 12 or a UN Geneva Security Officer can be informed. The emergency number 112 can also be called from a fixed phone.
Participants can also contact the Medical Service for advice at +41 22 917 28 07 (nurses) or +41 22 917 25 20 (reception). These numbers are not for emergencies, as there may be moments when the phone cannot be answered. You may also contact the nurses by email: unognurses@un.org.
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In case of a medical emergency of a conference participant, the Security Control Center can be contacted at +41 22 917 21 12 or a UN Geneva Security Officer can be informed. The emergency number 112 can also be called from a fixed phone.
Participants can also contact the Medical Service for advice at +41 22 917 28 07 (nurses) or +41 22 917 25 20 (reception). These numbers are not for emergencies, as there may be moments when the phone cannot be answered. You may also contact the nurses by email: unognurses@un.org.
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The Indico.UN team provides an online step-by-step guide for participant registration. Please share the link to the guide with your participants.
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Material printed by the UN Geneva Conference Services can be sent to locations in or outside Geneva upon request. This service can be requested when placing the printing request and is subject to cost recovery. For more details, please contact us at distribution@un.org.
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Please write to ineed-unog-css-flags@un.org to request a flag for a meeting.
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Media outlets with press accreditation can broadcast live from the Palais des Nations using their own equipment. For large news events, broadcasters can connect their equipment to a UNTV live feed. No live standups are allowed during press conferences and stakeouts or in meeting areas while the event is still in progress. No recording or live transmission is allowed in areas reserved for coffee breaks or food service.
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Conference participants have access to a space in the E-Building, ground floor (on the same level as the Cafeteria, near the offices of UNTV) to pursue religious practice.
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Conference participants have access to a space in the E-Building, ground floor (on the same level as the Cafeteria, near the offices of UNTV) to pursue religious practice.
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Yes, we do share a presentation explaining how the system works and what functionalities it has. We can also give interested entities a demonstration of the system. Please get in touch with us.
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Please liaise with the Central Support Services/Facility Management Section, Mr. Etienne Martinet (phone: Tel.: +41 22 917 2997, email: etienne.martinet@un.org).
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A dedicated room for nursing mothers is available in the E-building, third floor, room E.3054-2. It also contains a changing table for babies. Conference participants who need to access the room, should contact the Security at +41 22 917 29 00 and ask them to open the door remotely.
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Please contact genevapublishing@un.org to obtain a quotation for the cost of printing. UN Geneva colleagues managing this email will direct you to the relevant Design and Multimedia Unit colleagues to discuss your specific needs and requirements, before a quotation is prepared.
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In principle, the consumption of food and beverages other than water in conference rooms is strictly forbidden. Water for the speakers can be requested via the official caterer, Eldora (phone: +41 22 917 5619, email: onu@eldora.ch).
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Member States or UN entities can bring their own photographer or videographer to document their press conference or participation in an official UN event or conference. The official videographer and photographer must be accredited as part of the official delegation, or organizers of the event, and not as press, as they are not media representatives.
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The seating order is organized as per the request of the organizing Secretariat and following UN protocol. Podium and protocol arrangements should be in accordance with established United Nations standards, rules and procedures of the meeting. The Meetings Management Section and the Meetings Servicing Unit can advise on official seating protocol.
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No. The Information Service only provides the list of UN Geneva accredited journalists to the spokespersons of UN entities based in Geneva, in line with guidance on data protection.
Member States or NGOs that would like to send out press materials to journalists accredited at the Palais des Nations can reach out to the Association of United Nations Accredited Correspondents (ACANU), which could potentially share your material with their members. You can reach them at acanu.secretary@acanu.ch.
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If the submitter knows in advance that a document has to be submitted late, he or she can reach out to the Documents Management Section (DMS) and negotiate late slotting. If the late submission is not anticipated, the document will be processed as per capacity with no commitment on the release date. If the document is slotted, the delay will be reflected in the official submission compliance of the submitting department.
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If a correction is flagged while a document is still being processed, the information can be included. A new final original file has to be submitted to the Documents Management Section (DMS). If the correction is communicated when the document has already been published, a formal correction by means of a corrigendum or revision will be required.
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In general, interpretation is provided for UN Geneva conferences and meetings in the six UN languages. Please discuss all non-standard requests for interpretation with your counterpart at the Meetings Management Section when first reserving the meeting room.
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Interpretation and other services can be requested on a reimbursable basis, on an extrabudgetary provision. The Meetings Management Section at UN Geneva will need to verify availability of queried services, for which a cost estimate will be raised. The estimate has to be accepted in due time by the client to assure the availability and ultimately the provision of queried services. Service providers can only arrange for the necessary once the cost estimate has been accepted, and hence a late acceptance may lead to the non-availability of queried services.
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The Indico.UN Analytical Module provides users with statistics about a given event, about specific subcategories (e.g., a selected location or an event series), or about their entity, depending on the user’s permissions in the system.
Key indicators are the number of events, number of approved participants, number of badges printed and number of checked-in participants per client, subclient, per event and per event series. Filters and views per period and location are available, too.
Indico.UN users can be granted a reporter role to access the Analytical Module. Reporters may access the module through the link available in the Indico.UN interface. Please consult the Analytical Module Help Files or contact the user support team for more information on how to access the Analytical Module workspace and how to grant users a reporter role in Indico.UN.
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UN Geneva's Fully Automated Speech to Text (FAST) project partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to customize their proprietary speech recognition tool for UN Geneva conferences and provide automatic transcription of meeting recordings. The FAST transcripts, powered by WIPO AI, are offered in English, French and Spanish. Arabic, Chinese and Russian transcripts will be added throughout 2023. The word-aligned transcriptions appear automatically next to the respective audio recordings of all public calendar meetings on the redesigned Digital Recordings Portal.
During the current trial period the service is offered free of charge. The transcripts are delivered without any human post-editing and are not completely verbatim. They do not constitute an official record and are provided for the convenience and reference of delegates and meeting organizers. Further, the transcripts do not affect the mandates of those entities that are entitled to official records, such as summary records or verbatim records. For any questions, please contact fast@un.org.
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Yes, Indico.UN works with UN secretariat organizations, UN specialized organizations, non-UN organizations and private entities around the world.
Meeting organizers will have to arrange the venue, consult the security in charge and arrange any other related service outside of Indico.UN. At the same time, they can leverage on the conference and participants management features of Indico.UN to create the event page, set-up/customize the registration and the timetable, set-up email notifications to participants, set-up security roles, manage the registrations and send email notifications, perform security management activities, badge printing and check-in activities.
Indico.UN is integrated with other UN-secretariat conference management systems handling room bookings, transcripts, or security services. The corresponding features are available only for specific UN conference venues. Please consult the Indico.UN support team for more details.