May flew by so quickly. However, we at SPIBA had a lot of different interesting events, especially for the development of relations with the state authorities.
The dialogue between business and government; which involves a permanent opposition, a conflict of interest and periodic firing in the fight for their positions. “War by any means to a victorious end”, which many beautifully call “lobbying” and friendly relations with the “enemy” which refers to corruption or populism.
We at SPIBA believe that the government should develop partnerships that will lead to more constructive solutions that are beneficial for both sides.
It seems that we should proceed from the fact that business and government may have different interests, but share a common goal which unites us – that  is to create a space for successful business development and economic growth.
On May 12 the SPIBA Marketing Committee, with the support of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg and the DP Media, organized a round table discussion on: “The interaction of business and public authorities: an international dimension.”
Alexander V. Prokhorenko, member of the Government of St. Petersburg, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, St. Petersburg, described the role of the Foreign Relations Committee in the development of international activities in St. Petersburg. Roman Romaniuk, Chief Editor of DP Media, talked about the role of the media in building effective relationships between business and government. Tatiana Leontieva, Business Development Manager at SPIBA and Lolita Ebril made a presentation of SPIBA and talked about possible ways of interaction of SPIBA with state authorities. The meeting ended with an excursion to the Historical and Memorial Museum “Smolny”. Photos from the event can be found here.
In early May “Green Week” was held in St. Petersburg. On May 13th, Unilever, with the support of SPIBA, organized acampaign to “Plant a Tree.” This event was held in the Park Turku (Frunzensky District) which gathered volunteers to plant trees and clean up the park. If you were not able to participate in this campaign, watch the event unfoldhere.

On May 17the there was a meeting of friends at the panoramic bar MixUp in the recently opened signature hotel W Hotel St. Petersburg located in the historic city center. We are still impressed by the luxury and refinement that we observed and experienced in this hotel of the highest level. We hope that this wasn’t a one-time event and that we will continue our cooperation with W Hotel.

On May 19th the SPIBA Legislation and Lobbying Committee held a regular meeting. Olga Uryupinskaya, adviser of the international law firm Salans made a presentation on “Challenges of registration of land rights in the border areas of the Leningrad region and their solutions.”
On May 25-26the in Lappeenranta, Finland the 2nd EU-Russia Innovation Forum was held. The main objective of the Forum was the development of partnerships between European companies and organizations and Russia in the field of economic modernization and management. Over 500 companies from the EU and Russia attended the Forum. Our association was a media partner, and Ludmila Murgulets made a presentation about SPIBA and how it promotes business development in the Northwest.
On May 24th the HR Committee held a meeting on “Assessing the effectiveness of solutions in the field of personnel management.” Evgeny Dotsenko, head of HR-consulting GC Training Institute – ARB Pro made a presentation on Solutions and the impact of staff training and development:  doubt or hope. ” Evgeny is also a certified business coach in Russia, a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (UK), a member of the American Society for Training & Development (USA), the winner of the award Trainings, 2010 in the category of “Coach of the Year.” We received a lot of positive feedback about the event. Thank you Evgeny for being able to share with us your experience!
On May 25, 2011 we had a business tour in the company Optogan where Round Table “Promoting demand for innovative products” was held. The central issue at this meeting was the birth of innovative business in Russia and stimulate demand for innovative products. Many questions were answered at the round table by representatives of the group of the companies Optogan and OAO Rusnano. Employees of Optogan told the meeting participants about the history of the infrastructure development of Optogan in the world and in St. Petersburg, on the spectrum of services to companies in the development and production of LED chips, lighting audit of facilities, and gave advice on the use of LED lights on the stage of design and construction.
Further, the event participants were able to see with their own eyes the infrastructure of a great enterprise and the creation of LEDs, and opportunities for further development of production.
Included in the dialogue was Artem Hryukin, Deputy Director of the Department of Programs to stimulate demand of Rusnano. His  comments made an invaluable contribution to the understanding of the challenges faced by vendors and employees of Rusnano in the process of introducing innovative products in Russia, further, about the problems faced by businesses in the regions.
We saw real-life practice in the development of innovative products and we were glad to  to hear the recipe for the success in innovative businesses.
Upon completion of the event an informal discussion was held. The meeting participants agreed to continue cooperation and development of partnerships between several group companies, including:  Optogan, OJSC ,Rusnano and SPIBA.