our references
European Parliament
The European Parliament selected us to promote European elections in the Central Hungary Region in the framework of “EP Voks” EU-campaign and we managed to reach out to the most people in this EU-funded programme. Furthermore, we were requested to organize role-play games during the European Youth Event in Strasbourg in the EP-building. Several MEPs - Tamás Deutsch, Kinga Gál, Enikő Győry, Edit Herczog, Péter Olajos - contributed to our success as a Jury or offering Brussels-based traineeship for our very best players. László Surján supported our programme as the Vice-President of the EP. We consider György Schöpflin an almost permanent guest at our programmes as he has been already involved in 10+ simulation as a lecturer or Jury Member, offered three traineeships and organized several study trips to Brussels.
European Commission
The European Commission financed the biggest ever simulation of ours, which was held for four consecutive days and where more than one hundred European youngsters participated. We have a continuous partnership with the European Commission Representation in Hungary: several Negomoot-event took place at EurópaPont, the HQ of the Representation, as a special award to the most ambitious Negomoot-players traineeship at the Commission were offered. While the Head of Representation - Gábor Zupkó, Tamás Szűcs - is a recurrent guest on our programmes; István Perger, the Deputy Head of Representation has been involved as a Jury Member in almost every Negomoot simulation since 2012. Our study trips are welcomed by the Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics.
Robert Schuman Institute
We have been organizing mini simulation games for the Robert Schuman Institute, where young diplomats and young leaders have to successfully draft a resolution after a short preparatory period. In return Acting Director Gábor Berczeli and their senior project manager, Viktor Kecskés acted as Jury Members several times on the Negomoot competitions. We are grateful for them, because we could be the pioneers, who organized EP-simulation in Armenia and Serbia.
Corvinus University of Budapest
With the tremendous help of Associate Professor Sándor Gyula Nagy - who became our Honorary Member as well -, students from Corvinus University of Budapest can decide to participate at our very best simulations as an elective course that has been a part of their curriculum since 2011. Therefore, more than 500 university students could develop their soft skills (negotiation strategies, presentation techniques, assertive communication, interest representation, etc.) and gain practical experiences beyond the lexical knowledge that a traditional course provide. During the Hungarian EU Presidency, the Corvinus University was the host for the official presidency simulation game organized by us. The ceremonial negotiation room of the Rector is the venue of the most fascinating debates of the year.
Prime Minister's Office
After the EU-related issues became a task of the Prime Minister's Office in 2014, we have welcomed many senior officials of the State Secretariat for EU Affairs. The best participants were not only awarded with traineeships, but several Negomoot-players got a permanent job offer from the State Secretariat. More than 10 Negomoot-alumni have worked at the State Secretariat, some of them as a Head or Deputy Head of Departments. Minister of State Szabolcs Takács held opening speeches and participated in the Jury quite a few times, furthermore he was open to participate in a short role-play game with the British ambassador at one of our events. Mr Takács support us, because "these youngsters who are now participating in this programme can easily become members of official delegations in 1-2 years and then they will have a lot of experiences how a multilateral negotiation looks like".
Ambassadors
We are proud to have welcomed at our events many members of the diplomatic corps based in Hungary. The ambassadors of Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom have already given a lecture, debated in one of our panel discussion or evaluated the Negomoot players as the Jury. Several diplomats of the Embassy of the Netherlands participated in our programmes in the last years. H.E. Iain Lindsay (UK) opened the very first Brexit simulation that modelled in details the whole negotiation process between the EU and United Kingdom.
National University of Public Service
The participants for the two international simulations, where the topic was the migration crises, arrived from more than 20 countries from all around the world (e.g. Belgium, Mexico, Nigeria, Korea, Russia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom). The new college building of the National University for Public Service is the perfect place to organise our simulation competition.
Danube Institute
The Danube Institute, an independent center of intellectual debate for conservatives and classical liberals and their democratic opponents in Central Europe, requested us to develop a simulation game that models the negotiations of the withdrawal process of the United Kingdom from the European Union. In our most complex simulation the participants have to model simultaneously the public debates of the British Parliament, the multilateral discussions among the Member States and the bilateral negotiations between the UK and the EU.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade
Many Negomoot players are dreaming about becoming a diplomat and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade is the institution, where these dreams can come true. Thanks to mainly István Joó, Ministerial Commissioner for Water Diplomacy, Export and the Danube Region Strategy 20+ Negomoot-winners could start their carrier as a trainee at the Ministry. The Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade nominated several members - such as Márton Ugrósdy, Deputy Director for Strategy - into our Jury and offered numerous traineeships for the best participants.
founding fathers
The original concept of the Negomoot was developed by three gentlemen - Botond Feledy, Márton Hajdú and Gergely Polner - in Brussels some years after the 2004 enlargement of the European Union. During working for the EU institutions they recognized that the implementation of the specific formalized EU decision-making process to a role-play game is a perfect concept to start a reform in the lexical knowledge based Central European education systems. They believed in the teaching of Confucius ("Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand") and they focused to improve the participants' soft skills – such as promoting self-interest, negotiation skills, consensus building and teamwork – that are probably the most valuable skills they need during their lives. All three founding fathers are recurrent guests on our events and their professional carriers show that it is worth getting involved in the Negomoot.
Gergely Polner
Mr Polner is leading Europe political and regulatory analysis at Hanbury Strategy. Previously, he was Head of Europe Public Affairs at Standard Chartered Bank and Head of EU Affairs at the British Bankers' Association. Prior to his City career, he spent 8 years at the EU Institutions, including as Head of Public Affairs for the European Parliament in the UK and as spokesperson of the Presidency of the Council.
Marton Hajdu
Mr Hajdú is still working at the Brussels bubble as a Team Leader at the European Commission. Before that he was the Spokesperson of the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU for 5 years including the period of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU as well.
Botond Feledy
Mr Feledy went back to Hungary after working at the European Parliament and has several positions in these days. Just to mention some: he is the Director of Institute of Social Reflection, Consultant at Blumental&Frank, Senior Research Fellow at Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy and a regular guest of TV shows and radio programmes as a foreign policy expert.