John Reis

I am standing for Debate Society Convenor because I have experience in organising speaking conferences and believe I have valuable ideas to contribute to the way the society’s competitions are currently being run. In order to do this, I would like to join the organisational team of the society at the ground level so I can fully understand the intricacies of how it works.

A couple of weeks ago, I got the opportunity to be a runner for the UCL Pro-Am competition. I enjoyed doing the work and getting to know the people on the current committee. It also reminded me of when I founded the first upper school MUN conference at my high school in 2024. Since it was the first conference hosted by my school, there was no previous framework for logistics for the two-day conference, with over 200 people involved.

During that time, I learned how to create room layouts, direct the logistics team, design and order customised merchandise, finance the conference, secure keynote speakers of interest, and train personnel. These are the skills that I can offer the UCL Debate Society. This is my first year doing debate, and I am committed to improving my speaking skills quickly through consistent attendance at the society. So far, this has allowed me to place 13th among novices at the QMUL Open 2026, my first competition. I think that my journey of learning debate for the first time might be valuable in the future to others who have never been involved in anything similar.