by final year student Venus Masiha (team included Ali Alahmad and Domas Kudzma)

The first two days of the competition were training sessions. We were given very informative and well executed training during these days that helped us to understand the process of mediation further. The competition officially started on the third day. The first stage of the competition was made up of three rounds. The first two rounds took part on the third day and the last round on the fourth day, before the semi-finalists were announced. We were very successful and were announced as one of the top 16 teams allowing us to proceed to semi-finals. As we only had one team competing from Reading we were only able to go through as mediators while universities who had two teams competing gave them an opportunity to compete as all roles (client, advocate and mediator).

Venus’ Award for 8th Best Speaker and the team’s Semi Final Trophy

The semi finals consisted of one “knock-out-round”, so only one of us could actually mediate. We decided that Ali Alahmad would take on the semi-final as he had done well previously in our internal competition. Unfortunately, we did not make it to the Final. The competition was very tough as there were many skilled teams, many of which were American teams who have Commercial Mediation as an obligatory module. Considering these circumstances we were very pleased with our performance and the outcome of it. The competition ended with an Award Dinner in the evening of the fourth day where we were awarded for “Outstanding New Mediation Program”. It was four very intense and long days but we all found it to be a very giving and fun experience. We met people from all around the world, made many new acquaintances, acquired new skills and had a lot of fun in the process.