On 1 November 2008 the OJSC North-West Telecom held a special video-conference for the 6th anniversary of the Company. This time it was modelled as a quiz called ‘NWT Captains'.

The regional and branch directors were the brave captains who lead their teams to the victory as confidently and without fear, as they stir their ships-branches, always finding the right channel.   The Supervisory board of the North-West Telecom Navy including the Company top managers and chaired by the admiral Vladimir Akulich, the CEO of the OJSC NWT, observed the competition from the head quarters.

To get the main prize and the title "Once Captain – always a Captain” the regional directors and their teams had to do perform several tasks and to avoid all reefs and shoals.

The first task was the team presentation. Although it wasn’t included into the final score, the teams used the opportunity to show their creativity and congratulate the colleagues on the Company birthday.

The first official competition was poem-writing. Every team had 1.5 minutes to write a poem using the rhymes read by the presenter. The results were very enjoyable: everybody knows that eloquence is the integral attribute of any leader and this was shown by our captains.

The second stage was a quiz on the history of telecommunications. The teams had to choose the correct answer for the question.

At the next stage the captains had to answer questions about mathematics. The teams were competing in pairs, trying to solve as quickly as possible the humorous telecommunications-related puzzles. The results were very good and the teams showed both good speed and correct answers. But this wasn’t the end of the pair wise competition. At the last stage the participants had to produce word chains related to specific telecommunications areas, once again working in pairs and against time.

After all puzzles had been solved and the captains were waiting for the results, Tatiana Shuyskaya, the President of the Interregional trade union organization of the OJSC NWT addressed each of the captains with warm words of encouragement. After this the participants and guests of the conference were presented with a real theatre show with costumes, props and refreshments, served in all studios.

The address of Alexander Kuchko, the CEO of OJSC Petersburg Transit Telecom, who was following the conference from his studio, was another pleasant surprise.

The winners of the 2-hour regatta were awarded the following titles:

- Vladimir Belokaminsky, the Captain of the Arkhangelsk branch – ‘The Iron Logic’;

- Andrey Ganov, the Captain of the Vologda branch – “I am not afraid of storms and winds”

- Andrey Kulanzhenkov, Captain of the Kaliningrad branch – “For long-distance voyage";

- Sergey Gavryushev, the Captain of the Karelia branch – “Our nerves are made of nylon just like our ropes”;

- Vikenty Kozlov, the Catain of the Komi branch – "The dread of seas and competition";

- Vitaly Vitman, the Captain of the Murmansk branch – "Without fear and reproach";

- Nikolay Emelyanov, the Captain of the Novgorod branch – "Sea Wolf”;

- Leonid Tufin, the Captain of the St.-Petersburg branch -   “For honour and dignity at the video-conference”;

- Viktory Plyachenko, the Captain of the Pskov branch – “The Master of Poetry”.

The main prize and the honorary title “Once a Captain – always a Captain” was awarded to Vitaly Strizhkov, the Captain of the Leningrad region branch.