MERLION invites its partners to become students again

“MERLION’s IT School” is a series of partner conferences that will take place in 10 Russian cities throughout 2012, the year of MERLION’s twentieth anniversary. The success of the largest Russian IT distributor is based on long-term, productive and amicably warm cooperation with partners, whom MERLION now wants to thank for the joint success.

“MERLION’s IT School” is a special form of partner appreciation, where the company wants to share its experience and knowledge. The main objective of the program is to enhance the partners’ competitiveness, improve their positions in the local markets, and increase their competences in promising commodity groups, products and solutions of leading global vendors.

“MERLION’s IT School” was launched successfully in Perm on March 15, 2012. The event was attended by over 40 participants, most of which represented the city’s IT companies which decided to become students at “MERLION’s IT School”.

The event began with the official part: the bell rang inviting the guests to the first lesson in MERLION’s unusual school. The working day in the Perm IT School was opened by Yulia Pechnikova, head of MERLION’s Business Development Department. She gave a lesson on the topic “MERLION2.0 – the evolution of distribution”. Then, IT students listened to a speech "ASUS – new developments and innovations” by Yekaterina Dorozhko, ASUS sales representative (Urals) in Monitors Division. After that, the seat of IT industry wizard teacher was taken by Yelena Prokhorova, business development manager of the Brother company in the Volga Federal District. She familiarized the audience with the features of the company's current product line. Then, according to MERLION’s curriculum, Alexandr Kirsanov, a regional representative of Intel Display Team, took the floor and presented a unique product based on Intel® technology – an ultra-stylish, ultra-fast and ultra-thin Ultrabook™, a state-of-the-art development in the computer technology industry. The classes were wrapped up by Anton Lyagayev, Microsoft’s distributors manager, who spoke on the company’s software and accessories. His presentation also dealt with special offers and promotional events by Microsoft.

The official part was followed by a culinary master class which offered the guests a unique gastronomic trip to the exciting and extraordinary, but nonetheless very attractive, world of Japanese cuisine. The major stops along the culinary route included traditional Japanese dishes, such as sushi, sashimi and rolls.  The guests received the required theoretical preparation and found out the answers to their questions: why rice should be fit like an athlete, how to choose and cut the fish correctly, what it means to lay the table in Japanese style. However, theory is dead without practice, so the students were sent to sail the culinary waters independently. Having discovered all the secrets and subtleties of preparing the fashionable culinary masterpieces, the guests applied their knowledge in practice right away.

Virtually, everybody has taken part in the culinary training. Having been reminded that men make the best chefs, even the gentlemen took to cooking Asian dishes with great enthusiasm. After the cooking mastery course, everyone was able to taste the resulting dishes. The gastronomic masterpieces in Japanese style were bright and colorful, just as they should be, confirming the well-known saying of the country of the rising sun: “The Japanese eat using the eyes as well as the mouth”.

The efforts of the training participants were evaluated by professional chefs. The best cook received a prize in commemoration of the event.

A cocktail party ended the day when the guests of the event could communicate in an informal setting.

As a whole, the first school-day of MERLION’s IT School in Perm received an excellent mark! This should have been expected because teachers in this unusual school of IT skills are steady A’s in their subjects and students strive to reach new peaks in the IT business!