SOFIA REGIONAL ENERGY OFFICERS TRAINING - ADMINISTRATIVE

UNCLAS SOFIA 001312 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE FOR ENERGY OFFICERS DEPT FOR EUR/ERA, EUR/NCE, EEB, SCA DEPT PASS TDA FOR SCOTT GREENIP DEPT PASS DOE FOR TYLER TILLER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ENRG OTRA BU SUBJECT: SOFIA REGIONAL ENERGY OFFICERS TRAINING - ADMINISTRATIVE AND LOGISTICS INFORMATION REF: SOFIA 1239 ¶1. (U) This message provides administrative and logistical information for the Regional Energy Officers Training Session to be held at Embassy Sofia December 6-7, 2007. Attendees will receive a notional schedule via email in coming days. ¶2. (SBU) Based on email exchanges, the following is our current list of participants. If this does not reflect your post's/agency's participation accurately, please contact Kelly Adams-Smith (adamssmithke@state.gov) and Dina Abaa-Ogley (abaa-ogleydj@state.gov). As there is a waiting list to attend this conference, we need to know as soon as possible if any of the following participants listed below are NOT planning to attend: STATE DC: EUR DAS Matthew J. Bryza Erin McConaha ¶J. Larry Wright Curtis Hyatt Alex Greenstein Katherine Gilbert Lane Bahl DOE: Tyler Tiller TDA: Scott Greenip OTHER WASHDC: Bud Coote Astana: John Cooney Ankara: Rebecca Neff Ashgabat: Heather Troutman Athens: Clark Price Beijing: Brian Klein Berlin: Michael Sullivan Baku: Alan Eyre Belgrade: Troy Pederson Bucharest: Blair LaBarge Budapest: Aspen Russell Helsinki: Jane Messenger Istanbul: Grant McMurran Kyiv: Patrick Slowinski London: Mark Johnson Moscow: Ali Jalili Moscow/DOE: Geoff Lyon Oslo: Edward Caneul Riga: Les Johnson Skopje: Michael Latham Tallinn: Rob Hollister Tbilisi: Robert Keene Tirana: Robert Newsome USEU: Richard Frost Vienna: Dean Yap Vilnius: Daniel Gage Zagreb: Nicholas Berliner ¶3. (SBU) A block of rooms has been reserved for participants at the Hilton Sofia, 1 Bulgaria Blvd, Sofia, +359-2-933 5028/9. When we receive your country clearance request with your travel information, we will customize your reservation and send you a reservation number. ¶4. (U) Conference fee: To defray the cost of the conference lunches, breaks, transport to and from the embassy, and other conference costs, participants will be charged a conference fee of 140 USD, which will be collected in advance from your travel order fiscal data. Please make sure your country clearance request includes a Miscellaneous Obligation-type (MO) fund cite for the conference fee of USD 140. Because part of this fee will cover lunches, Sofia meals and incidentals rate for December 6 and 7 should be reduced by USD 22 each day, for a total meals reduction of USD 44. ¶5. (U) Country Clearance Requests: As soon as possible, attendees should send their country clearance requests containing flight information and fund cite for the conference fee. In our response, we will send your hotel reservation number and additional information about the gathering. ¶6. (U) Arrivals: Attendees should change money at the airport and take a taxi to the hotel. Embassy recommends using only OK Taxi Company (937-2121). Taxis from this company should be waiting outside the airport. The taxi ride to the Hilton should cost no more than 20 leva or 15 dollars each way. ¶7. (U) Visas: If you decide to travel on your official or diplomatic passport you do/do require a visa regardless of length of stay. Tourist/tourist passports do not require a visa for visits of less than thirty days. If you do not already have a Bulgarian visa, it is advisable to enter/exit Bulgaria for the purposes of this event on your tourist passport. ¶8. (U) All attendees should bring their official USG-issued ID for access to Embassy Sofia. ¶9. (SBU) Agenda/Dress Code: The schedule for this two-day event is full. We will begin early on December 6 and will be sending via email departure times for transfers between the hotel and the embassy. On the first day of the event outside experts will brief us on energy issues focusing on pipeline structure and particular pipeline projects. Directly after the conference on December 6 we will hold a reception in the Embassy's atrium. Dress code for December 6 will be business attire. On December 7 we will hold internal, USG-only discussions and the dress code is casual. ¶10. (U) Sightseeing/Skiing. For those wishing to stay through the weekend, we will include in your welcome packet information about tours, cultural events and near-by skiing. As of November 16 there is snow on the mountains. We will send weather updates as the conference approaches. Please direct all questions related to this event to Kelly Adams-Smith, with a copy to Dina Abaa-Ogley, at the email addresses listed above. We look forward to welcoming you in Sofia! BEYRLE