Emily Maitlis' Diary

Success is a funny thing. When I walk into The Grove hotel, Hertfordshire, early Thursday evening I can virtually touch it. The room is bursting with smart, sexy, creative people. Oh, and they are mainly billionaires (though that would be a shallow thing to point out). I have stumbled into the brave new world of the Founders Forum - a world of internet geeks and private equity buccaneers - and it feels, right then and right there, like these are the new masters of the universe. As speakers are invited on to the stage to pitch their ideas, they are given just seven minutes each. And the thing that impresses me most is how little jargon they use. No one says 'synergise' or 'strategise', no one talks about 'client rapport' or the need to 'multi-factionalise'. They speak English. The truly bright, I am reminded again and again, make the world seem incredibly simple.

It is the brainchild of [lastminute.com founder] Brent Hoberman, whom I more often see when my children are running in opposite directions (but always away from me) over wide stretches of Hyde Park in the pouring rain. But I'm fairly sure that's not why he's invited me here. And I am pretty sure it's because I'm currently embarked on a BBC Two documentary about Facebook, which we are about to start filming in California. Of which more later.

After the speeches, and before dinner, there are mojitos on the terrace and helicopter rides for those who chose. I chose. But by the time I get to the front of the queue the pilot tells me conspiratorially he has pretty much run out of fuel. In a normal place with normal people I would quietly slink off. But suddenly here I find I am not prepared to look risk averse about a simple little thing like a helicopter with no fuel so I laugh (ha ha ha), send one last tweet (tweet tweet tweet), and jump on board. During the flight the pilot apparently pointed out all the sights of London from the air, but when I restudy my photos I can see that all I have really taken is close-ups of the fuel gauge.

On Friday, I am back on Newsnight, but pitifully few of my colleagues seem to notice I nearly died in a helicopter, until I tell them, of course. We will be having a Big Debate on Ed Miliband's leadership of Labour and we are mulling over 24,000 gubernatorial emails from Sarah Palin. But by the time we get on air it transpires they are mostly about a sunbed. And who can blame her: it was Alaska.

The summer party season is in full swing - Glamour Awards in a big tent in Mayfair is full of chest-baring boy bands. Later in the week I find myself at the rather more-buttoned-up Asprey to celebrate with Taki of The Spectator, before heading on to a Portland do at the Serpentine Gallery with BBC colleagues. We are all rumbled having a pathetic-looking roll-up on the terrace by Alastair Campbell, who shakes his head in a way that makes us feel like teenagers. Peter Mandelson bursts on to the scene and tells us he's launching his bid for the IMF with an ITV exclusive. Which luckily turns out to be a joke.

The next day, to ease the hangover, I go for a run in torrential, biblical, diluvian rain. When I return, my BlackBerry looks like it's been through a Zanussi spin cycle and I spend the morning blow-drying my sim card. I often boast that I am addicted to nothing, but actually, when my BlackBerry is down my day falls apart. I once went to a sports physio for a back injury. When she got to my hands she asked why I had the thumbs of a masseuse. We were both perplexed until after the session when she saw the speed of my emailing. I'm not sure what I'm doing to the evolutionary chain, but my thumb muscles are, apparently, legendary.

Anyway, post-run my clothes have to be peeled off and my phone is kaput and instead of feeling endorphined and in love with the world I am just an out-of-sorts drowned rat. Later that day, on air, I am chatting to the lovely BBC weather-man Darren Bett about the hideousness that is (sorry, farmers, but it is) rain. The best cure for a wet mobile phone, he tells me, is to stick it in a bowl of rice in the fridge. And now I have a phone that looks like something from the YO! Sushi conveyor belt, because he forgot to mention the rice has to be uncooked.

The day ends, however, with one ray of technological light at the end of the tunnel and it has nothing to do with wet phones. Facebook, we learn, is about to float - valued at around £100 billion. They are aiming at November, which will be perfect for our documentary. They will have a lot on their mind, but how thoroughly decent of them to take BBC Two scheduling into account.
Emily Maitlis is a BBC and Newsnight presenter