Six rooms

DISEC is where every member state has a seat and a vote on the questions that decide whether the world gets safer or more dangerous: nuclear weapons, small arms, weapons in space, cyber warfare and the arms trade.

It is a large, serious room. Resolutions are recommendations to the General Assembly, so the work is persuasion at scale: building blocs, drafting language that a majority will accept, and defending it under questioning.

Expect long moderated caucuses, real diplomacy in the corridors and a draft resolution that changes hands many times before it passes.

The Human Rights Council is the UN body that examines how governments treat the people who live under them. It hears reports, investigates abuses and passes resolutions that name what is happening and what should change.

The Junior track keeps the same substance and slows the procedure. The chairs explain each step as it happens, speaking times are generous, and the first session is a walkthrough rather than a test.

If you have never sat in a committee before, this is the room to start in. You will leave knowing how a resolution is built, because you will have built one.

The FIA governs world motorsport, including Formula 1. It writes the technical and sporting regulations, runs the stewards who decide penalties, and answers to teams, manufacturers, drivers, promoters and governments at the same time.

FIA runs as a crisis rather than a UN committee: events unfold during the session, portfolios have private powers, and a decision taken in the morning can change the shape of the afternoon. Delegates represent teams, officials and stakeholders rather than countries.

It rewards quick thinking, clear writing under pressure and the nerve to act before you have all the information. It is the committee people talk about on the way home.

The International Press is the conference newsroom. Reporters and photographers move between committees, sit in on debate, interview delegates and chairs, and publish what they find.

Instead of a country you are assigned a beat and a deadline. Reporters file articles, opinion pieces and interviews; photographers produce the visual record of the summit. Press work is judged on whether it is accurate, clear and well made.

If you write, shoot or edit better than you argue, this is the committee for you. It is also the best seat in the house: you see every room.

The Commission on the Status of Women is a functional commission of the Economic and Social Council. It sets global standards on the rights of women and girls and reviews how far governments have actually moved toward them.

The debate is precise. Delegates work from real data on education, labour, political representation, health and violence, and draft agreed conclusions that governments can be measured against.

It suits delegates who like policy with evidence behind it, and who can hold a position on a sensitive subject with care and rigour.

The Lok Sabha is the directly elected house of the Parliament of India. Members represent constituencies and parties, and the house debates legislation, holds the government to account and votes on bills that become law.

In committee you sit as a Member of Parliament, not a country. Procedure follows Indian parliamentary practice: the Speaker presides, members raise points of order and privilege, and debate runs on motions and bills rather than resolutions. Party discipline matters and so does the whip.

If you follow Indian politics it is the most familiar room and the most demanding one to do well in, because everyone knows the material.