The conference opened on April 6th, with a welcome speech delivered by Mr Samir Sharifov, the executive director of the State oil fund (SOFAR) and Chairman of the Governmental Committee on EITI. Two plenary sessions took place on the first day of the event chaired by Mr Sharifov.

Addressing to the audience at the first plenary, Pilot experience in EITI implementation: Azerbaijan's example, were Mr Samir Sharifov, Mr John Bourn, the UK Auditor General, Dr Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr Valeh Aleskerov, Vice-Speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Minerals, Mr Graham Baxter, vice president at BP Group, Mr Shahin Mustafayev, vice president at the State oil company (SOCAR), and Mr Sabit Bagirov, the coordinator for EITI Azerbaijani NGO Coalition.

Addressing to the audience at the second plenary, International Perspectives of EITI Implementation, were Mr Michael Levitsky, Senior economist at the World Bank, Dr Stephen Krasner, Director for Policy Planning at the State Department of the USA, Ms Karin Lissakers, Personal Adviser to George Soros & OSI, Mr Raymond Conway, the head of the EBRD country office in Azerbaijan, and Ms Allison Cochrane, a representative from the EITI Secretariat.

On the first day, approximately 170 participants attended the conference, including representatives from the Government of Azerbaijan, several foreign state officials and ambassadors, as well as delegates from international organizations and financial institutions, oil companies, civil society and mass media.

The agenda of the second and third days included topics on the role of civil society in EITI, and emerging challenges. On the second day, addressing the first plenary, Pilot Country NGOs, were Ms Kaliya Moldogaziyeva from Kyrgizstan and Mr Malik Isabekov from Kazakstan, Mr Uche Igwe from Nigeria, Mr Andrey Makarichev from Russia, and Mr Inglab Ahmadov, Mr Sevgim Rahmanov and Mr Gubad Ibadoglu from Azerbaijan. Chairing the first plenary was Mr Sabit Bagirov.

Addressing the second plenary, International NGOs, were Ms Vanessa Herringshaw from the Open Society Institute, Mr Henry Parham from the PWYP Coalition, Mr Gavin Hayman from the Global Witness organization. Chairing the second plenary was Mr Galib Efendiyev.

During the latter half of the day, three roundtables were run at the same time, with the topics focused on the interests of civil society in the international Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Particularly, the topics of the roundtables were as follows: EITI reporting templates and audit, Validation methods, and International coordination of national coalitions of NGOs.

The roundtables were chaired by Ingilab Ahmedov, Mayis Gulaliyev and Henry Parham.

Later, the participants discussed the outcomes of group work in roundtables, as well as suggestions and recommendations on future development of EITI, and formed a task force to be in charge of the systematization and presentation of these suggestions and recommendations to the International Advisory Group and EITI Secretariat. The sitting in which the outcoms of the roundtables were discussed was chaired by Mr. Farda Asadov.

Two presentations were made on the third day of the conference. These were Oil Contracts (by Peter Wells), and SCO Coalitions and Public Policy (by Leonid Polishchuk).

On the second and third days, the conference had attendance at approximately 80 participants, including representatives from social organizations of Azerbaijan and a number of foreign countries (Egypt, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nigeria, Russia, Turkmenistan and Turkey), as well as delegates from international organizations and financial institutions.

Organizing the conference was the Azerbaijan NGO Coalition For Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries.