Six appeal

The event had to be held in the new hotel in the city’s Wawer district, since it is the only one in the capital with a ballroom of the scale needed to fit in the record breaking number of guests, some of whom had come to find out if they would be walking away with statuettes, others to see who the winners were, and some just to be present at what is now the main event in the region’s real estate calendar.

The consummate hosts for the evening were Eurobuild’s editor-in-chief Ewa Andrzejewska, who has become synonymous with the Gala over the last few years, and award-winning TV presenter Piotr Kraśko. At the end of the initial section, in which our many sponsors and patrons were thanked, singer-pianist Sławek Uniatowski took to the stage with his rendition of the Sinatra classic ‘Fly Me to the Moon’, an apt choice for those who were about to feel over that celestial object upon being announced winners. After the sumptuous three-course dinner he was back with another appropriate song, ‘Someone, Somehow’, to focus our minds on who the winners might be and the great efforts needed to achieve this distinction.

The first awards were presented during the unique popular vote, which is performed electronically by the audience present. And the Gala was not only the biggest in its history by the number of guests, but also in terms of the size of the jury voting on the best teams, companies and projects in Poland and the CEE region – more than 200 top experts and professionals. In an intermission during the presentation of these honours, yet another apposite song was preformed by Sławek Uniatowski, this time singing the Billy Joel classic ‘Don’t go changing… I love you just the way you are,’ – words that could have been specially written for the next group of winners, those chosen by the tenants. Thanks to the skills and professionalism of Millward Brown, these winners are chosen in most comprehensive survey of tenants available to the market.

With the awards presentation over, it was time to think about those who are less fortunate than ourselves – namely, the children with life-threatening illnesses whose dreams are made true by the Mam Marzenie (I Have a Dream) foundation, which was once again the chosen charity of the event. Our pianist on the night reminded us of their plight and what we could do for them with his version of ‘We are the World’. In the raffle held to raise money for the charity, the main prize, worth PLN 6,373 and fashioned by A&A Dom Jubilerski, was the kind of gold and diamond necklace that might have been worn by Grace Kelly – but will now apparently be gracing Tadeusz Jachowicz, the regional director of Gleeds, who won it. The main charity event, however, was the auction of a six-litre bottle of Tuscany red, kindly donated by Mielżyński, whose managing director Robert Mielżyński, along with Mam Marzenie ambassador and actress Małgorzata Kożuchowska, conducted the bidding. And it was Robert Dobrzycki, the managing partner for Europe of Panattoni, who eventually walked away with the bottle – for PLN 75,000, smashing last year’s record of PLN 60,000. In all, PLN 86,217.70 was raised for a very good cause: making some seriously ill children very happy indeed.

With the formal part of the evening now over, the guests could move to the foyer for more refreshment and entertainment from Sławek Uniatowski, as well as from Tony T., a founder member of R.I.O., performing the group’s hit single ‘Shine On’, among others... and from JLL’s own rock group, who held their own admirably after the star turns had finished. If his career had taken a different turn, perhaps the company’s own Tomasz Trzósło could have been wowing stadiums as the lead singer of the Kings of Leon instead of wowing the Polish real estate market? This was a question I’m sure we were all pondering, as the partying and dancing continued into the small hours of the next day.