On December 8, the business community Congress College, acting under EAJC aegis, conducted the final 2011 gala titled “Put a good word in for life quality.” The format of this meeting was somewhat unusual: serious and less serious reports on the subject alternated with acts by members of creative professions, followed by presentations of goods and services provided by members and partners of the business community. There was also a lottery, the prizes of which were the presented goods and services. All of this merrymaking both within and out of the official part of the event was accompanied by light live music and a sampling of exclusive wines and sweets.

The event was opened and led by the Chairman of the Congress College, EAJC Vice President Yuri Raskin. The main report on the subject of the meeting was presented by the Chairman of the Consumers Union of the Russian Federation Petr Shelish. His report was followed by the Director General of the Moscow International Business Association Alexander Borisov and the head of the Le Monti company Leon Gandelman. His quip “I wish for you all to satisfy as many needs as you can – and for that you just need to earn more!” was met with joyful agitation.

There was also a discussion on the creation of a new College in the upcoming year. As Yuri Raskin noted, “In the future year, one of the priority directions of developing the business community must be our activity to improve general quality of life, which means that we provide our colleagues with quality goods and services. Thus we plan to create a specialized College on life quality, uniting people who provide quality goods and services and people interested in being consumers of the same.” The mini-presentations of different goods and services became a good advertisement for the activities of the future College.

Some old friends of the EAJC and Congress College were guests at the event and participants of the entertainment program: the actress Yuliya Rutberg, poet Vladimir Vishnevsky, composer Aleksandr Zhurbin and his wife Iryna Ginsburg.

The most important part of the meeting was the presentation ceremony of the “Collegiate of the Year – 2011” award. The award was a 3D puzzle featuring the Earth's globe, placed on a stand with the motto of the Congress College: “We know, we can, we solve,” which, according to Yuri Raskin, should symbolize the very idea of the community – a union of individuals to solve common tasks.

Ten people were given the awards, including for leaders of Colleges, who participated in their organization and promotion: Aleksander Knizhnik, Alla Oleynik, Moshe Furschik, and Maia Epstein. To the delight of the usual participants of the community meetings, the award for “Best moderation of the round table” was given to the President of the Russian Financial Corporation Bank Andrei Nechayev. The award for the best plenary report was given to the Head of the Association of Russian Banks Garegin Tosunyan. The most active collegiate award was given to Bronislav Bashkin, the most useful – to Grigoriy Kogan, and the most charismatic – Larisa Ryabchenko. The award for “Faithfulness to community traditions” was presented to Leon Gandelman.

There was also a specially prepared video presentation of the most important events of 2011 for the business community, which became a wonderful illustration of the activities of the Congress College in the departing year.

There was a traditional reception after the working part of the meeting. The main decoration of the reception was a celebratory cake “The Congress College” made by “Palych.”