García: What’s in a press conference?

I haven’t ever put much thought into press conferences. As a journalist, my job is really just showing up, listening and asking the right questions.

But standing alone in front of dozens of community members at a mock conference put me in a spotlight for which I was unprepared.

This month, I was invited to the Public Service Company of New Mexico’s Public Safety Power Shutoff event. The utility hosted multiple external partners from counties, cities, health care entities and state departments to engage in tabletop exercises.

Teams worked through fire season scenarios to help prepare PNM and its partners for real-life situations that could prompt a power shutoff. The exercise, which focused on the East Mountains and Ruidoso, questioned different groups on how they would react during these events.

At what point would transmission lines be pulled? When is it necessary to notify the public? What critical infrastructures, like schools and health care facilities, are threatened in the area? How does PNM know when to cut power?

Wes Gray, PNM vice president of operations and engineering, said the exercises are tailored to each event, held a couple of times before fire season. Originally aimed at the utility’s internal teams, he said, including external partners helps them understand PNM’s decision-making.

“One of the things that we’ve discovered in some of our participation in prior events is that this is a communitywide, statewide responsibility for dealing with these events,” Gray said. “It’s municipalities, it’s counties, it’s land management agencies, it’s utilities — we all have to work together and be in lockstep with each other to try to minimize impact on citizens.”

In the final tabletop exercise, weather conditions were so extreme that PNM was on the verge of calling for a power shutoff. Before that decision, the utility would hold a mock press conference and answer media questions.

Cue the booming welcome to “Hannah García from the Albuquerque Journal.”

You’d think my familiarity with these groups would help my nerves, but making my way up front — where a few steps felt like giant leaps — it was like I had forgotten everything.

As I stood there, microphone slipping from my sweaty grip, I felt like all my rudimentary journalism skills were fleeting. But gaining my composure, I thought to myself, “What do readers need to know?”

“Will the potential power shutoff affect residential and commercial customers?”

“Will PNM call centers still be in operation?”

“Is there any estimate on how long the power shutoff could be?”

“What are recommendations on how customers can prepare for this?”

Even though it was a hypothetical scenario — where nothing was actually on the line — the experience has left me with a new appreciation for the work that goes into deciding to call an emergency press conference.

An interesting or economically driven conference is one thing, but the severity of something like cutting power to thousands of homes and businesses is a whole other ballgame.

In each scenario, PNM and external partners consistently discussed when citizens needed to be notified and how that information should be delivered. They know they can’t control the weather, but they still explored what could be done internally to avoid the point of having to cut power.

No one wants to be left powerless, but I now know that those decisions are an absolute last resort for PNM.