Foreign Media Credentialling for the Sea Island Summit of G8 Nations, June 8-10, 2004

1:30 P.M. EST

Real Audio

MR. DENIG: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. Today's briefing deals with credentialing for the G8 Summit down on Sea Island in Georgia, and we are very pleased to have for this briefing Mr. Barry Bennett, who is the Director of Communications for the 2004 G8 Summit Planning Organization. He is experienced in both political communicating and private sector communications work, so he has a great deal of experience, and we're very grateful that he could be with us here today to talk about this.

He'll give a presentation that involves PowerPoint, and after that he'll be very glad to take your questions.

Mr. Bennett.

MR. BENNETT: Thank you. Good afternoon. We've got a little PowerPoint we'll go through, and then we'll answer a bunch of questions, but the opening PowerPoint is to give you a little flavor of where the summit is going to be held. It should take a few seconds for it to load here, maybe more than a few.

The Georgia coast is one of the largest strings of coastline that's undeveloped. It's quite beautiful and unique in that these live oak trees line the coast more than Palm trees that we're traditionally used to seeing down South.

A little taste, and I do mean a little taste, but a good flavor piece for what it's like down there. It's a really, really gorgeous location.

The summit actually will be on Sea Island down here on the bottom of the screen, which is a small sliver of land about a quarter of a mile wide, five miles long, right on the coast.

The International Press Center will be in Savannah, which is about 80 miles north. It's going to be about an 80 to 90 minute bus ride for the pool movements down to Sea Island, but there isn't a lot in between, so that's about as close as we could get. And Savannah is a fabulous place to be. Next slide.

The credentials will give you access to the IMC, the International Media Center, the Filing Center. They'll also be your ticket to all the transportation that we will provide to and from the hotels in Savannah, to the Media Center, and if you're in a pool movement, it will get you on the pool bus as well. It also will get you your meals and everything. It's really a one-stop shop, if you will.

In order to apply for your credentials, you'll need to send us a letter on your news organization letterhead asking for credentials for yourself and your colleagues. You can put as many folks as you want on one letterhead; you don't have to send us an individual letter for everyone. And fax it to us at the number here. [FAX 202-647-3299]
I'm sure we have this number to pass out or we'll make sure that you do get it. I'm sure Paul's already passed it out.

But if you give us your full legal name, the organization, your title or position, and -- very important -- your e-mail address, , and a phone and fax number, we will then start the process. And what we do, we go through first to make sure you're an official news organization. You wouldn't be in the room if you weren't. And then we pass that on to Secret Service; they will contact you with a form you need to fill out with birth date and all that kind of stuff, all that private information that I don't want to possess. And you'll submit that to them and you'll get your background check and then the credential will be issued. Next slide.

I briefly just went through this. The most important thing, though, is your e-mail address. What we have is a contact management software package, where we will be contacting you regularly through the e-mail to get your room, to find out what special needs you might need in the Media Center: how much space, I need a computer, I don't need a computer, that kind of stuff. We'll be asking you a lot of questions through e-mail, so we'll try to make it as easy as possible for you.

Each country will be given 14 pool slots for every movement. The countries will determine the composition of those because as you know, every nation's media is composed a little differently. But in an addition to those 14, the major wire services, the AFP, AP, Reuters, all those folks, are going to be taken out of the individual country pools and allowed to be kind of super pool delegates, if you will, so that we don't choke up those 14 slots for each country with a Reuters photographer in each of the 14. We'll already have a group of Reuters photographers down there, AFP pool, AP as well. So to try to get -- you know, even though it's 14, it might seem like it's 21, as compared to a normal pool.

The majority of the operations will be at the International Media Center in Savannah, which is a three-year-old facility, which is fabulous. I was with the British delegation in the last three days, and the Russians before that and France before that, and they all agree that this is by far the best filing center that we've ever had in a G8.

It will be open 24 hours a day; right now we're preliminarily planning on opening up June 6th. That may move up a day. We're waiting to determine what the interest is. But we would expect that the leaders arrive on the 8th. We'll try to get up at least 48 hours before the leaders arrive.

There is a view of the -- a couple of pictures I think we have of the facility. Like I said, it's three years old. It's a wonderful 250,000 square foot facility that will be really perfect for us. Next side.

Kind of an overhead. You can see here that the river, the convention center is right outside the city of Savannah, just across the river. We'll provide water taxis from our main hotels.

Like right there is the Hyatt, you can see. And there's another hotel over there, and then over here there is a big Marriott. There's a bunch of hotels that are right across the river. We'll have water taxis that come over every 15 minutes, and we can move almost a thousand people an hour by water taxi across.

We'll also have buses that will cross this bridge and come over, but obviously it'll take longer by bus. It's a much shorter route by boat. The main entrance to the facility is here. We'll have stand up locations through here with a shot, both back across the river and a shot back at the IMC, you know, for different light situations.

But there's another view though. There's another view from -- looking at Savannah across the river at the facility. It's really a gorgeous facility that we're quite lucky to have. It happens to be on an island. It's called the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center.

QUESTION: And what's the name of the river?

MR. BENNETT: Oh, it's the Savannah River. Cleverly named.

It's too far to swim across, especially with the Coast Guard and the Secret Service, but it's a short little boat ride across.

Inside the convention center we will have it broken out into kind of a traditional -- a little tweak from the design in Evian, but you'll have your major broadcast outlets cordoned off in a section, a big section for a filing area, about 1,200 filing seats here, and then editing booths here for 2 x 3 meters and 3 x 3 meters, and you can connect as many of those as you'd like as well. And these are for rent, these are for rent, and here in the large filing area, if you want a guaranteed work spot, they're for rent. And there is a bunch of work spots that are just for the taking, as well. But these editing booths are very popular, as you know, so you can lock things in there, you can leave your computer in there and lock the door and take the key with you and it would be safe.

In the middle, this is going to be a 24-hour Internet café, a place for wireless e-mail access on your laptop, that kind of stuff, but most importantly, a portable Krispy Kreme donut truck. There will also be, you know, beverage services and that kind of stuff.

A little retail area here, it's the standard stuff: currency exchange, photo equipment, developing, travel office, that kind of stuff.

Through the main hall, here, you come in here, it comes down the main hall, there's going to be a technology display. We are going to highlight American innovators, past and present, at about 20 different stations. Again, everything from biotech to, you know, Gulf Stream has got a new technology that allows pilots to see through clouds and therefore avoid mountains -- that kind of stuff.

The stand-ups are, again, they're here on the river for the TV folks. There's a service area here, you know, the typical big fax, copying kind of area that we've seen.

Every nation will have an office. There are four of them right there, and there are four more on the upstairs. This is going to be an interview room. I know, for instance, the Governor is going to be there one day. We'll have a bunch of folks who can come in and allows folks to schedule interviews with him.

There are going to be three main presentation rooms in the center. This theater right here, which is very nice, is 350 seats and it's going to be video connected to Sea Island, so if something comes up and a leader needs to brief in a hurry, he could brief by videoconference to this theater.

There's, these two rooms here we've combined for a 150-person seat Briefing Center, and then upstairs -- Rocky, if you'll change the slides -- this center here will seat 800. And they'll all be set up for both videoconferencing and then, on the final day, we would expect leaders would come to Savannah to make their final, you know, press conferences, as they traditionally do.

Again, you have the EU and a bunch of different offices there and more techs, more tech display on the side. If you go back one, okay? The press pool gathering area is here. Even though we are inside an NSSE we'll still need to sweep the equipment again before you get on the pool bus, because once you get on the pool bus, the good news is you'll be clean and you won't have to be stopped at Sea Island. You'll have agents on the buses, and we'll have escorts, so it will be relatively -- well, more seamless than usual. Let's go with that.

But like I said, it's going to be about an hour and a half bus ride down. We anticipate two or three pool movement per day so, you know, it's not going to be horrific, but still -- it's a lot further but about the same amount of time than it took to get to, you know, the French filing center, even though it was much closer.

And we've tried to learn from both Kananaskis and Evian to make sure that those travel times are as efficient as possible.

Again, the whole center is going to be an NSSE, a National Security Special Event, controlled by the Secret Service, so the journalists will be able to get out to the filing stations without having to do through security and getting cleared to get back in and all those kind of hassles that we've run into in the past.

There will also be a nice restaurant out here on the sidewalk, and this will be open 24 hours a day. You know, quick fare, hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, fish -- whatever can be grilled there.

If you go to the next slide, Rocky, this restaurant will seat about 1,200 folks. These are all windows that look out on the big bridge that spans the river. It's a gorgeous setting. And again, this will be operating 24 hours a day as well.

Once you have a credential that entitles you to all of your food and beverage through the whole summit. That's all on Uncle Sam, if you will, which has become a custom in the G-8 summits.

QUESTION: That is very good.

(Laughter.)

MR. BENNETT: The French, unfortunately, set a very high standard when it comes to food, so we'll try to meet that.

What am I missing here on the sub-center [at the Summit site on Sea Island]? The three meeting places -- the theater, this room for 150, this one for 800 -- are on a first-come, first-serve basis. We're taking the nations through in protocol will order, so I'm starting to get a better understanding of who will brief in what room when. But traditionally, you have the President brief first and then it goes into protocol order after the host nation. So, you know, on Thursday you're probably looking at, you know, from some point in the afternoon to probably into the evening, constant briefings.

Some leaders will brief during the week. It's their call. Some will just have staff briefings. But most of those briefings will take place in Sea Island and be connected via videoconference to the center. We're trying to make the theater really special in that the videoconferencing will be life-size. So, you know, even though it will be a huge screen on the stage, the leader will appear in life size, but more importantly, he'll be able to see you in life size and be able to point to you around the stage as if you were really in the room.

Next slide.

This is an example of a 2 x 3 metered office. You've seen these, probably, in a hundred filing centers around the world. Obviously, a 3 x 3 would be one meter wider. It's going to come equipped with a standard package. We haven't quite determined exactly what that's going to be, but it would be power, light, Internet connectivity, some chairs, a table, you know, a wastebasket, plant -- something, you know, to make it livable for three days in a small room. But the door does lock and there will be a window so that you don't feel like you're in a prison cell for three days. But most importantly for us, the door locks. Only you have the key. But still, you can lock your things in there and not have to carry them back and forth all the time.

Next slide.

The sub-center down in Sea Island is going to be a tent, or a temporary structure. It's going to be about 20,000 square feet. And these are just notional kinds of things how we're going to lay it out, but, you know, it'll be a big filing area, the wire services area, the network area, a dining facility, because we have to feed you while you're down there. An interest, of course, after just spending three days with the Russians, a smoking area is very important. And we'll have some staff offices there and then we'll have a separate entrance for the leaders. Here's the big videoconferencing center that's hooked up to the leader that's everything in life size, and two 75-seat theaters, as well, for the press pools or for a leader to a video-address. One of the rooms --

MR. DENIG: I'm sorry, Barry. Is that on Sea Island itself?

MR. BENNETT: This is on Sea Island itself.

And lots of stand-up locations for the TV folks down there as well.

Host TV is providing live footage of everything to everyone in conjunction with EBU, and Fox is the White House pool for the event, but we're working with EBU to distribute and they're working quite well together. So we won't have the typical paid host television like they did in Canada, but still working with the pools, people have the same level of service at much fewer tax dollars' expenditure, I might say.

But the events notionally as we go through are: The leaders arrive on the 8th in reverse protocol order, starting about 9 o'clock in the morning. And then there will be a dinner that night, a welcome dinner hosted by the President and Mrs. Bush. And then the next day they go into meetings literally for about 14 hours. And then the next day there's a wrap-up meeting. Traditionally, if there is an expanded leader meeting, which has not yet been determined, that they always come in for that last day for, you know, a much bigger kind of meeting. And then they all head to Savannah or the filing center here to do their final briefs.

Next slide.

This is a little map of Sea Island. Malcolm McKinnon is a little tiny airstrip which is where the helicopters will land. They'll actually land in Hunter Army Airfield, which is in Savannah, and then they'll be helicoptered down on a, you know, presidential helicopter-type operation. They'll come into here and will have to go into Sea Island.

But Sea Island, the resort is just these buildings through here. There are only 212 hotel rooms on Sea Island. There are about 500 private homes up and down the main drag here. But the, all of the delegation and all the summit activities will take place in these rooms except for some dinners up here at a golf club.

So it's very compact, very secure. The place is riddled with alligators. They're big, they're real and they're hungry, so we'll be nice and safe. Obviously, no car will get past this intersection here. And you know, the checks start even well back here.

This is St. Simons Island here, which is the intermediate to get there. St. Simons Island has about 11,000 people who live on it. You can find pretty much everything you need on St. Simons Island -- CVS, Piggly Wiggly, Outback Steakhouse, everything you could possibly need is on St. Simons Island.

Next slide.

More of a close up of Sea Island. You can see the main buildings that make up the hotel enterprise, the, you know, the secure zone will basically be around in here. The whole island will be shut down. This was a glorious old hotel that they've demolished. It lost its fifth star and went to a four-star resort because of water pressure. So they demolished it and are rebuilding it. It won't be ready for us, but it will be ready in 2005 and I encourage you to do.

The media sub-center will be someplace over here, notionally, inside a construction fence.

Next slide. That's it.

Probably a million questions I didn't answer, but I'm happy to answer them now.

MR. DENIG: Let me just remind you before we start with the questions that if you go to our website, www.fpc.state.gov, on our special page for the G8 Summit you'll find the basic information for the steps to take for credentialing. So just remember the March 15th deadline for your initial submission.

We are glad to take your questions. I ask you as usual to please use the microphone; identify yourself and your news organization. We'll start with Michael over here.

QUESTION: Michael Backfisch, Germany's Business Daily, Handelsblatt. It was said that we are notified in this week by e-mail if we took the first step.

MR. BENNETT: Yeah.

QUESTION: When does that start? Is it today? Is it tomorrow? And when is the deadline, so we know, oh, something's wrong if we're not notified by, I don't know, this coming Friday or so?

And secondly, what I have to do to sign up for an access to laptop, Internet, and stuff like that, you know?

MR. BENNETT: The first part of your question, if you've already applied for your credential, if you've already completed the first step, at 11:00 today you should have gotten an e-mail. You know, it will take some time for them to be generated by the machine, but by the end of the day you certainly should have an e-mail with the information on the Secret Service clearance form that you have to submit secondarily to complete the process.

On the laptop issue, we will send you a rate card through that same e-mail system that will allow you to say, I need to rent a laptop for three days and we'll have, you know, you just basically check the box that populates the database and we've got you.

As far as connectivity goes, we will basically provide all the connectivity that you would need.

A PARTICIPANT: The rate card will be available March, will go out March 1st.

MR. BENNETT: Okay, so around the first of March is when the rate card will be out.

MR. DENIG: All right. Carrie, let's go to the front row here, to Africa.

QUESTION: Will there be any arrangements for hotel?

MR. BENNETT: Yes, we will actually take care of all the hotel accommodations. We have basically reserved every room in the city. And once you have the credential, you, again, will be contacted by email to say, do you want to spend -- I think they're broken out in three categories -- do you want to spend $99 a night, $150 a night or $200 a night, and you can choose which range you'd like to be in and for what nights you're going to come. And you'll get contacted back saying you've been assigned to the Radisson Hotel. Here's the number. You need to call them and give them your credit card and you've got, you know, 72 hours to do so or we have to go through the process again.

MR. DENIG: Let's go to Andrei.

QUESTION: Andrei Sitov, with TASS from Russia. TASS is a national news agency but it's also an international news agency in the sense that it serves the former Soviet Union at least, and we have some language services. So my question is about the pools that you mentioned, that they will have the super-delegates for the pools. How will you decide whether TASS belongs in that category, or for instance, I am sure the ANSA in Italy or DPA in Germany will have the same kind of question, too.

MR. BENNETT: Right. Once we get through the other countries that we haven't gone through the process with yet, we've asked them to get back to us on what news agencies they would like to have included in those super pools. But I would anticipate that Russia would be interested in any event. I would hope they would.

MR. DENIG: Let's go to Finland in the back there, please.

QUESTION: Thank you. Jyri Raivio, Helsingen Sanomat, Finland. I just got your e-mail step 2 and I was a bit embarrassed because it's the first of its kind where the photo should be sent digitally.

MR. BENNETT: Yeah.

QUESTION: And for somebody 20 years younger than I, that's not a problem at all, but it might cause some problems for elderly folks like me who don't have scanners and stuff. Could there be an address where we could send our old black and white photos by mail?

MR. BENNETT: I believe -- we're doing that, right? Or we're not? What we can probably do is set up a day where our photographer can come over here and take digital pictures of you.

MR. DENIG: Well, actually, we can you do that here at the FPC.

MR. BENNETT: Can you do that in-house?

MR. DENIG: Yeah, we can do that here. We have a digital camera. So we'll figure it out.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

MR. DENIG: Yeah. So just let your program officer know, please, and wear a nice suit that day. (Laughter.)

All right. Gentleman in the back.

PARTICIPANT: A quick follow-up. The photos will have to be digitally scanned. We can't send JPEGs on the second step.

MR. BENNETT: Yeah, you can send JPEGs.

PARTICIPANT: We can send JPEGs? Okay.

MR. BENNETT: Yeah. Yeah.

A PARTICIPANT: JPEGs or GIFs.

MR. BENNETT: Yeah, or GIFs. Any standard photo format would be fine.

MR. DENIG: All right. Let's go to the gentleman in the back, followed by the lady.

QUESTION: Hi, Rob Gentry, TV Asahi. I just wanted to ask you a question. You mentioned rental of space to hold the space in the filing center. Can you explain a little bit more about that?

MR. BENNETT: Sure. We don't know what the exact charge is going to be, but for a 2 x 3 will be a sum cost.

QUESTION: I'm sorry, I missed the --

MR. BENNETT: The big room.

QUESTION: If I mis -- maybe I misunderstood it, but it sounded like you were saying in addition to renting the editing space or -- and you said also in the open area to reserve a space.

MR. BENNETT: Yeah, the tables.

QUESTION: That's what I was wondering, yeah.

MR. BENNETT: You probably want to be seated at a table. If you want something that's guaranteed for you, then there's a charge for that, a nominal charge for that. If you're willing to roll the dice and go in and try to grab an open seat, then you can do that as well. Some people, you know, they just get very possessive about their floor space.

MR. DENIG: All right. Let's go to the lady please.

QUESTION: Nadia Charters from Al-Arabiyya Television. For people who works for television, I just wanted to ask you, if we don't have names for, like, producers, maybe I'll have my name and a cameraman, but for producers, can we just give you a name to reserve for a place, and later on, I don't know what's the deadline to give an actual name and details.

MR. BENNETT: The problem is they can't, you know, I can't have an anonymous person cleared through Secret Service, so I've got to have a name.

QUESTION: What's the deadline? I mean, what's the time frame?

MR. BENNETT: It's March 15th. But I told TV folks this before. Oversubmit. You know; if you've got four people and you don't know which one's coming, submit all four.

QUESTION: We don't. We have people freelancing.

MR. BENNETT: You're just going to have to use a freelancer? Yeah.

QUESTION: So March 15th is deadline?

MR. BENNETT: Yeah.

MR. DENIG: All right. Let's take the guy in the blue shirt again, right there.

QUESTION: Carlos Solis, Jiji Press. I have a question about the hotels and when the cut down of the first step process is going to be decided. Our office has already done the first part, and as far as cutting down of the names though, is that going to happen when the hotel allotments are decided, in around May?

MR. BENNETT: Actually, we'll start getting to folks around March 1st about your hotel accommodations. So, for instance, if your organization submitted 50 names and only 20 are coming, or let's just say that the Atlanta Journal Constitution sends us a 100 names and 80 are coming, then once you get your hotel accommodations and you put down your credit card, you know, it's pretty much a go or no-go decision.

QUESTION: So that's going to start around March 1st?

MR. BENNETT: It's when we're first going to let people do it, around March 1st. And it will last for a period of a month or so.

QUESTION: Okay. And will that be around the same timeframe where we decide on work space on how many phones and --

MR. BENNETT: Yeah, all those kinds of things. We basically have to know what we're going to build out, you know, by the end of April.

QUESTION: Okay, great. Thank you.

MR. DENIG: All right. Let's come back up to the front here. We'll take the gentleman in the grey shirt.

QUESTION: Konrad (inaudible), Germany. I'd like to ask you if, in this open space, if there would be the table, will it be equip with phone and access to the Internet, and possibly ISDN connection?

MR. BENNETT: It will be Internet connectivity and telephone. If you'd like an ISDN line, that's one of the things on the rate card that you can put in to get an ISDN line.

QUESTION: Okay. Are there any lockers to leave the stuff?

MR. BENNETT: There are going to be lockers out in the main hall where you can store personal items -- a tape recorder, that kind of stuff.

MR. DENIG: You can just pass it to Mr. Adu-Asare.

QUESTION: Yeah, you talked of the presentation room and the briefing center.

MR. BENNETT: Yeah.

QUESTION: Are these places set up for Q&A?

MR. BENNETT: Yes.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. BENNETT: But, I mean, it's up to each nation. I mean, you know, if President Chirac doesn't want to take Q&A, you can be assured he won't.

QUESTION: Malcolm Brown from Feature Story News.

Could you just elaborate a little on how the Host TV material would be distributed to, say, foreign broadcasters, which are not representing nations represented in the G8? Just practically speaking, how would one go about getting, say, a tape of a briefing?

MR. BENNETT: EBU will distribute through their router system, like they do at all major events, all of the live feeds, simultaneous feeds. I think they can do up to 128 feeds at once through a router system. And I think they'll charge you for a drop into your booth, like they normally do. I want to say notionally that figure was like $600 or something for a drop. But you'll get all that live, not necessarily on tape.

MR. DENIG: All right. This gentleman right there.

QUESTION: Laszlo Trankovits, German Press Agency DPA.

Just let me underline what my colleague from TASS said. DPA, of course, is very much interested to be part of this super pool.

But I have one more question about the rooms, about these small rooms, which are available. You were just going to explain how much you will charge, I understood, then stopped. Could you tell me how much will be the charge for this room, rooms, and how they will be equipped? There will be chairs and tables and a television available, or we have to bring everything? Could you explain this, please?

MR. BENNETT: Sure. When we send out the e-mail form to you requesting whether or not you'd like a 2 x 3 meter or a 3 x 3, or some combination of them, we will tell you exactly what's in each of the rooms that we are providing. We will also give you a list of other items that you might want to supplement those standard features with, and they'll all have some cost associated with it.

We're still trying to get what the actual cost of the 2 x 3 meter would be. It's not going to be exorbitant. It's got to -- you know, it'll be pretty standard for the United States. I understand that, you know, in Europe they provide all this stuff for free. In the United States, you know, the White House Press Corps wouldn't take it for free. So we're trying to get in the middle.

MR. DENIG: All right, back to Andrei, and then we'll go way in the back over there.

QUESTION: From what I know about how the Kremlin pool operates, they tend to bring a lot of people, a lot of press with them from Moscow. So do these people -- and I know that my agency has people on that pool in the Kremlin.

Do we need to notify them at this point that they need to observe all the deadlines that you mentioned, or will they be handled kind of separately, will make a separate security and all other arrangements with a national pool like that one?

MR. BENNETT: Well, the Kremlin Travel Agency has been in touch with us already and have indicated 65 or 80 folks. And I believe what they're planning to do is come over in roughly three waves: the TV guys will come with the equipment; and then the press plane will come prior to Mr. Putin's arrival; and then some will arrive with the leader.

MR. DENIG: Okay, in the back.

QUESTION: Yeah, I had a question about the movement between Savannah and Sea Island. I'm assuming that Sea Island is for pool only. Is that --

MR. BENNETT: Correct.

QUESTION: Right. You mentioned two to three movements per day. Is the facility in Sea Island going to be open 24 hours and --

MR. BENNETT: Yes.

QUESTION: Okay. So, but there's going to be more than two or three bus trips back and forth per day, or no? I mean, like when you say movements, I'm envisioning like changing the pool.

MR. BENNETT: Yeah, swaps.

QUESTION: Right, right. But so if -- if somebody was working in -- on something at the Sea Island facility and they wanted to stay over -- you know, they're not covering anything but they need to finish more work, are there other transportation options back and forth?

MR. BENNETT: Well, what we've done is we've built in enough time in the swap-out time where we leave enough time to be able to finish whatever it is you need to file on. And, I mean, I think we've left plenty of time to finish filing. But the problem is there's just not enough space for -- when the red pool is going to go back on the blue pool's bus because there's just not enough space for -- to have two pools present at one time. Because I mean, we're talking about pools of, you know, 130, 150 folks, which is pretty very significant down there. That's as many people as that are staying on Sea Island.

MR. DENIG: Right. Back to Andrei.

QUESTION: Will there be restrictions on cell phone use in the Sea Island, in the Sea Island facility?

MR. BENNETT: No, not that I'm aware of. We have to constantly watch satellite frequencies and manage the frequencies, but cell coverage, your U.S. cell phones will work very well. We have supplemented the service. It didn't work at all six months ago, but now it works fine. I kind of liked it the old way to tell you the truth, though.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: I mean, the cells work on different networks, so networks do not -- all of them.

MR. DENIG: All American ones will work.

MR. BOUCHER: And T-Mobile will be one of them, so if your international folks are coming with T-Mobile, that'll work as well.

MR. DENIG: Okay. The lady right here.

QUESTION: Yes, Natalie Minard, Eurovision, EBU. I was wondering for the standard position you were talking about before, there are some position that you've mentioned in Sea Island and also in Savannah, I guess that for the live --

MR. BENNETT: Right.

QUESTION: -- do you have live position in Sea Island, or do we all have to be in Savannah?

MR. BENNETT: The live positions are in Savannah. In Sea Island is to tape as live because it can be -- the tapes can be queued and they will be broadcast, but they won't actually be live.

QUESTION: Right. So it's an hour-and-a-half drive from -- I mean --

MR. BENNETT: Right.

QUESTION: -- from Sea Island and --

MR. BENNETT: So you'll be able to -- your tape will be able to be up -- say, if you did a stand up on Sea Island, we can have your tape up within 15 minutes.

QUESTION: From who --

MR. BENNETT: Whenever you were done with your tape.

QUESTION: Uh-huh. But who is going to transfer it -- I mean, to send it by satellite from Sea Island?

MR. BENNETT: Fox. Fox, the Host TV will transmit your tape. But all the leader stuff, all the briefings down there will be live. All the arrivals, all that stuff will be live, sent back to the IMC where people can broadcast it live or tape it for use later, whatever you want to do with it, but we'll provide it all to you live.

MR. DENIG: Yes, ma'am. Could you use the microphone please?

QUESTION: Do you have a time when you would determine the super pools? Do you have an approximate time when that decision will be made?

MR. BENNETT: I would like to have it all done by the end of March.

MR. DENIG: All right. Any last questions?

QUESTION: Yeah.

MR. DENIG: Yes, Adu-Asare. Just a minute. Wait for the microphone.

QUESTION: I'm sorry. Your offices is going to allocate the pooling system. Is that correct?

MR. BENNETT: Correct.

QUESTION: And what are the criteria for doing that?

MR. BENNETT: Well, what we do is we give -- like we would give Russia 14 slots. They will determine who fills those 14 slots. We won't. But, you know, so they'll all come to us and we will handle them logistically to get them down there, give them filing space to file, and then get them back in Savannah. But each nation will determine who gets in their pool.

MR. DENIG: Barry, in that sense, will the pools be limited to G8 country journalists?

MR. BENNETT: Once we get back from all the nations to make sure that 14 works, we would then have some other thoughts to go outside of the G8 nations.

MR. DENIG: Okay.

MR. BENNETT: We're trying to take care of them first.

MR. DENIG: Right. And how would we allocate those remaining slots?

MR. BENNETT: It depends how many there are, but we'll have to figure out some kind of draw or precedence.

MR. DENIG: Okay. Back to the lady here, if you could identify yourself please.

QUESTION: Lisa Lan with NHK. Are those 14 slots all print slots, or it could be TV as well?

MR. BENNETT: However they decide, I mean --

QUESTION: How the country decides?

MR. BENNETT: Yes. I bet, you know, in Japan, a large portion of them will be television.

MR. DENIG: And if it's just to clarify, if, say, TV Asahi or something like that, and they have a producer, a reporter and a camera man, is that three slots?

MR. BENNETT: Well, you'll know when you go down for a pool movement whether or not we expect remarks. If we expect remarks, then we'll have talent and a producer. If all we're expecting are images, then all you get is the camera.

MR. DENIG: Okay, Michael.

QUESTION: One last one. You said the deadline was for notification 11:00 a.m. today, if you are on the trip for after the first step, right?

MR. BENNETT: No, no. The notifications started. The second step started today.

QUESTION: Exactly.

MR. BENNETT: You've already submitted this morning.

QUESTION: Right. In case you didn't receive this e-mail, because at 11:00 a.m., if I remember correctly, there was nothing on the screen, do you have a quick phone number or e-mail? Because if I remember correctly the first step there was only a fax number. Do you have a phone number, a hotline or something?

MR. BENNETT: Sure. The main number is 202-647-4804. And just tell them you'd like to speak with someone in credentialing. And there are three or four people that they will get you to.

What's the --

A PARTICIPANT: Media.credentialing --

MR. BENNETT: Okay. Media.credentialing@g8usa.gov will work as well.

MR. DENIG: All right. Any final questions?

(No response.)

MR. DENIG: All right. In that case, thank you very much, Mr. Bennett.

MR. BENNETT: Thank you.

MR. DENIG: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.