In the year of its 20th anniversary, MERLION launched a new format of the annual December meetings with its partners and vendors, and established the “Golden Merlioner” award.
"Back to the Future" was the title of the high-profile pre-New Year event held by MERLION this December. The celebration which took place at one of the largest metropolitan venues – “Izvestia Hall” - was attended by over 600 people. Such an event happened for the first time: when people so different, but at the same time so close to MERLION come together in the same hall and at the same time - representatives of the vendors, partners, and key employees. The held meeting marked the opening of a new page in the company’s history - the year 2013 or the third decade of MERLION.
The whole concept of the event was dedicated to time travel. Start of the travel was given by the top managers of MERLION - Alexey Abramov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Vyacheslav Simonenko, General Director.
“Today we celebrate the New Year in this format for the first time, but we hope to make it a good tradition, - says Alexey Abramov, Chairman of the Board of Directors. - After all, not just MERLION’s partners gathered here, but our good friends, with whom we are pleased not only to work, but also to celebrate this bright holiday. The outgoing year is special for our company – it is the anniversary one, we are 20 years old. Over the years we have come a long way and have grown into the largest IT companies of the country. It was the way of development and constant change, the path of evolution. After all, you cannot just grow – it is important to develop yourself. Therefore, we are constantly changing, adapting to the new realities, getting adjusted ourselves to the new needs and demands of our suppliers and partners. We evolve, and it is exactly with the slogan evolution of distribution that we are entering our third decade”.
This year MERLION established a special award for its partners; the award ceremony was held within the framework of the evening. 14 MERLION’s partners - the best of the best - were awarded the title of “Partner of the Year” and received the “Golden Merlioner” statuette from the MERLION’s top managers.
And then it all began ... All the guests along with the hosts (who were Garik “Bulldog” Kharlamov and Timur “Kashtan” Batrutdinov) made a real “Back to the Future” trip. Having stumbled across a remote control, they tried to figure out what it could be, and by pressing a button they found themselves in ancient Russia in 1012-1013. This is the “time machine” remote control! Now the main thing left - to remember the key combination to return it back. They all push and push buttons ... Futuristic city of 2062-2063 populated with super robots; USSR with the pioneers; the time of invention of writing system with Cyril and Methodius; man landing on the first detected habitable planet; the distant future, where people already can “upgrade” themselves ...
The travel ended successfully, everybody safely got back to the year 2012 and enjoyed the performance of the Chertkov Band jazz project and the singing of Yolka.
All the guests were congratulated from the big screens with enjoyable short films and by the MERLION itself (in the person was Vyacheslav Simonenko) as well as by HP, Intel and Microsoft. And after that the Christmas tree was lit!
Vyacheslav Simonenko: “Today I want to wish all of us successful growth of our joint business, so that we can meet again at the celebration of the new year and after one year, after two years and after ten years - at the next anniversary of MERLION. I wish that no one leaves the MERLION family of friends over the years. On the contrary, I wish this family to grow and multiply. I also want to wish everyone never to stop in the efforts to develop, always stay in modern trends, because we operate in exclusively modern technology market”.
MERLION would like to express gratitude to the following companies for their participation and support: Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Panasonic, Samsung. Special thanks to Electrolux and Polaris for the gifts provided, and to Kork for the presented neon show.