Master of Ceremonies

On Tuesday, I went to the annual dinner for the US-Russia Business Council. It was held at the Armed Forces Cultural Center, an imposing neo-classical building with even more imposing security. The compound and the building itself were bristling with armed, frowning men demanding to see invitations. Even the cocktail party on the second floor was surrounded by such security agents.

The keynote address was given by Yuri Primakov, former prime minister of Russia, and a longtime Soviet diplomat. He didn’t really break any new ground in his speech, but did a thorough job of explaining the major issues in the US-Russia relationship. He spoke for about 45 minutes.

Dinner was catered by Marriot, and while good, was probably more designed to reassure the visting American business people than anything else. It was standard, hotel banquet room food available at any business conference anywhere in the world. There must be one gigantic factory for this stuff somewhere, churning out frozen “medley of vegetables” next to a dollop of mashed potatoes gluing down a fillet of either beef or fish. I’ve noticed that in the fancy versions, the food is simply stacked a little bit higher than in the mid-market versions.

I sat with some people from the Sesame Workshop, creators of Sesame Street. They broadcast in 125 countries and produce local content in 55 of those. We talked about some of the topics specific for Russia – hygiene being a big push in concert with the UN this year. Also, how they have teamed up with Merrill Lynch to introduce financial concepts to youngsters. Good move. Research indicates that children who watch Sesame Street consistently outperform their peers academically, and can expect to earn more as adults. The show is probably the most studied thing ever put on television, including the Zapruder movie, and has data going back to the early 1960’s.

Entertainment at dinner consisted of ridiculously talented children performing classical and folk music. One 11-year old kid played 2 selections from the Nutcracker on the piano. It was unbelievable – close your eyes and Van Cliburn was sitting at the keyboard. The ridiculously cute and talented award went to 6 and 8 year old girls in matching dresses and bows in their hair who played a violin/piano duet. Amazing talents. Business men tapped away on their blackberries in time to the music. That’s as much of a rise as you could possibly get out of this crowd.

Later that evening, a couple of colleagues and I met up with a departing fellow. We managed to stumble our way through a beer and a farewell shot of vodka. It wasn’t the best timing in the world – he was packing for his 5 am flight the next morning. But it was necessary to send him off in the best way we knew how.