Summer on the Baikal Lake: MERLION Business Channel Forum

In the heart of summer, on the shore of Baikal, a well-known lake, the MERLION Business Channel Forum, a regional visiting eventtook place. The forum attracted 65 representatives of 43 Siberian IT companies.

Partners from Angarsk, Bratsk, Irkutsk, Sayansk, Chita, Ulan-Ude visited the MERLION Business Channel Conference.

Representatives of world-wide leading manufacturers of computer equipment, i.e. Acer, Foxconn, Hewlett-Packard, Panasonic as well as their Russian distributor, MERLION, told the partners about primary trends on the Russian computer market and introduced a variety of interesting products.

Vladimir Nechaev, the Sales Director of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East Department of the MERLION, opened the Forum. Vladimir Nechaev told the audience about structural changes in MERLION, disclosed strategic aims for future and introduced a new officer who within the framework of the test project will distantly work  in Irkutsk. Thus MERLION has become closer to the partners.

Nina Afonskaya, the Regional Manager supporting retail partners of Hewlett-Packard Russia, made a presentation “Market Trends and Perspectives of Hewlett-Packard Jet and Laser Technologies“. She also introduced  new products including jet and laser printers, mobile photo printers, multifunctional HP devices and disclosed the abilities and advantages of Hewlett-Packard products.

Alexander Trukhachev, the  head of Foxconn office in Russia, CIS and the Baltic states, took the floor and , continued with his presentation “Foxconn: New Business Opportunities”. Alexander Truhachev spoke about the market of components, video cards, bodies and introduced the latest Foxconn products (video cards, Barebone systems assembly).

Grigory Nizovsky, the Acer (notebooks) Sales Director responsible for the  partners’ cooperation, made a presentation “Mobile PCs and Acer Partnership Programs in 2007”. Grigory Nizovsky introduced Acer’s new solutions to Siberian partners and pointed out key trends on the market of mobile PCs.

The Panasonic presentation (“Panasonic Photo/Video Products Collection”) was devoted to the specialties of the company. Jan Aboyantsev, the Regional Representative of Panasonic in Western Siberia, and Alexander Tretyakov, the Regional Representative of Panasonic in Eastern Siberia, told the audience about the advantages of new Panasonic digital photo and video cameras.

After the official part of the event the partners were able to discuss the actual aspects of cooperation with the representatives of MERLION, Acer, Foxconn, Hewlett-Packard and Panasonic in casual atmosphere.

In the evening  the participants of the conference were invited to a celebration dinner.

Vladimir Nechaev, the MERLION Sales Manager of the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East Department of the MERLION, noted: “The main aim of the Forum which is to get maximum feedback has been successfully achieved. Being involved  in direct cooperation with our partners we often got an idea that the difficulties appearing in our mutual work can not be called problems – only matters that can be settled with a mere telephone call. It is especially a pleasure for us to note that the partners spent a great portion of their precious working time for attending the Forum. The owners and managers of 43 computer companies of the region have participated in the event. In Russian IT business, due to the local mentality, impact of the personal contact is great. That is why reliability, attention to the changing demands of the partners, a direct contact have been and and will always be the basis for our successful and mutually beneficial cooperation”.