Reckless optimism

 

 

 

Thursday 9:00am:  Ten hours to go until we finally roll tape on the “kick off” segment of the first ADA Majlis, a roundtable discussion with several energy ministers who are just arriving for the Baku Energy Summit.  The program has to be strong!  A lot of people in Azerbaijan, a lot of important people, will be watching Sunday night when this “experiment” in post-Soviet television hits the air.  But how interesting, how candid, how telegenic can I expect these mostly-Eastern European ministers to be?  Never mind that I’ll be asking them to be brilliant and funny in English!  Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a Joe Biden or Orrin Hatch in the bunch!  Well, I do have former GOP White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, from the US delegation, committed to appear – for probably the 25th time in my television career.    

There is a major buzz around the Hyatt Regency Hotel.  The presidential summit is Friday, but it’s the ministers who actually will do the work this afternoon.  Delegations are arriving and security is tight.  Grey suits everywhere!  I’m in the dinning room eating pork sausages, fried tomatoes, scrambled eggs, and drinking real coffee with Haver Kambaizade, the former head of Chevron in Baku.  Chevron is a distant second to BP in influence in Baku, but a big player in Kazakstan where it owns the drilling rights on the north slope of the Caspian Sea.  Haver is a woman, one of the few who’s been on top in the oil game here.  She’s blunt, and funny, and she’ll be a refreshing addition to our energy analyst panel Saturday evening.

Thursday, 10:00am:  Alex from the Romanian delegation has called three times, but he doesn’t want to commit his minister to our afternoon roundtable until he finds out what other countries will be there.  It’s just like booking senators and congressmen on the NewsHour!  I’m fine with that because I’m not sure we have room for him.  A panel of eight, including Khazar and Ambassador Pashayev will be ideal!  Meanwhile, I just got off the phone with Beka from neighboring Georgia, and I’ve locked in that minister. He’s a must! Georgia’s summertime skirmish with Russia shutdown the flow of oil through the BTC pipeline that stretches from Azerbaijan through Georgia and on to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.  I don’t expect anyone will refer to that directly during the ministers meeting, but it certainly will be the “elephant in the room.”  However, I expect the term, “energy security,” will be used freely.

Thursday, 11:00am:   This afternoon’s production has now doubled in size. What, originally, was planned as a conversation with three or four ministers, requiring two or three cameras, now might include six or eight ministers and five cameras.  We need more space at the hotel, and a production truck – a mobile “control room” through which the video and sound from all of the cameras can be fed at one time, switched, and recorded as if it were a “live” program.

Thursday, 12:30pm:  I meet at the Hyatt Regency with Ruslan from ITV, who will direct our program.  He has brought with him several camermen and engineers.  And they’ve brought a truck!  I must say, ever since I chose ITV to be our broadcast partner, they have given me everything I have needed, and have been everywhere I have asked them to be whenever I’ve wanted to scout out another program location, often sending three times as many managers and technicians than I need.   Ruslan and I agree on a square-shaped table, instead of couches and chairs, setup on a balcony overlooking the lobby.  It will be just a short walk for the participating ministers once they’ve wrapped up their meeting.  

Thursday, 1:15pm:  BIG TROUBLE.  Here come the grey suits, the security detail for the summit, along with a bomb-sniffing dog.  They are closing the street in advance of the meeting and, as Gunay translates for me, ordering the ITV production truck off of the hotel premises.  The truck is essential to produce our upcoming roundtable with the ministers in less than 5 hours!   But as far as these suits are concerned, without a letter of approval from the President of Azerbaijan, I might as well be speaking English.