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Tuesday, January 23, 2007
The calm before the storm
It's Monday and the whole CNN team from London and Atlanta have arrived in the Alpine ski resort of Davos for the World Economic Forum. And it's no mean feat getting everyone with luggage, cameras and edit gear up the mountain. Everyone has settled into their apartments and hotels and even better, the computers in our work space are actually working! Our trusty IT guru Sylvia has spent the entire day fielding questions that usually start with "Why can't I...?" or "Why won't it...?" and I swear the woman has the patience of a saint. When I was here in 2003, I don't think I even unpacked my laptop, it was all pen and paper. Possibly more to do with my tech incompetence than lack of IT support, but that's another story. Now we're all so reliant on files and e-mails and our own CNN systems that it's unthinkable not to be able to get onto the computer.

We go live in 90 minutes and the "bird" (slang for the satellite) is up and running. So far so good -- but for those of us who have been here before, we know it's just the calm before the storm. The WEF meeting officially begins on Wednesday and that's when the stress levels really start to rise. 2,400 delegates, 220 official sessions and a big media bun fight to schmooze the political and business elite. I choose to believe it's organised chaos -- but those watching from a distance might think otherwise. A lot of running around, trying to make sure you don't miss anything, shoving food down when you get a moment's rest, shouting for camera men -- you can't think where they've gone until you remember you sent them on a two camera shoot for a high-level interview about 20 minutes ago. The whole affair is one big juggling act.

So I'm trying to enjoy the relative peace and tranquility while it lasts -- I can almost feel the storm approaching.

-- From Executive Producer Sonia Sequeira
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