Traveling Geeks

The Traveling Geeks Revealed

Good Vision has Great Vision

Yesterday, we hung out at Good Vision’s headquarters near Tel Aviv.

Hung out is more appropriate for this site visit since they brought in falafel pita bread wraps, an entirely different culinary experience than a falafel in the states, even New York.

Good Vision was the first Israeli consulting company to specialize in planning and managing corporate social responsibility proccesses in firms and governmental agencies. The organization is the child of Stanford graduate Ivri Verbin, who worked with Peres for six years as an economic advisor before launching Good Vision in 2002.

“I wanted to promote more ethical behavior in organizations,” says Verbin. Good Vision originates a diverse variety of projects, as the company?s extensive knowledge enables them to generate innovative navigation of funds.

The spirit of Good Vision is based on the belief that creating the precise collaboration between philanthropists and the community brings the best contribution to society as a whole.

Transition for people and communities is witnessed at three levels: the strategic level, the activity level and the level of media impact. They also do ethical programs within organizations and corporate governance, providing workshops for both management and the board of directors.

“We?ve been so focused on political issues that corporate social responsibility is fairly new in Israel. “Today, we are practicing and advocating for this philosophy in a number of international networks,” sats Verbin.

We also met with close to a ten teenager who have gone through Good Vision programs. In addition to sharing falafel with us, they shared their stories and their dreams, as well as the impact that Good Vision has had on them. It has helped them with management skills as well as self-esteem issues.

Two girls in army uniforms presented contageous smiles. One of them spoke of equality in the army and how the rules have changed in her generation.

She remarks, “before, women were treated differently. Today, if we sign up for military service, we have to do our five weeks a year until we’re 45 — just like the men. Even if we have small children.” She beamed when she said this, but I couldn’t honestly tell whether she was beaming because of the fact that they now have the same equality or she was an eternal optimist. She had one of those faces.

She was also so much fun to shoot. Women seem to be completely comfortable in front of the camera here. They know how to pose and more importantly, love it.

I wonder how this generation of women who sign up for the army will feel 50 and 60 years from now, after spending five weeks a year away from their small children and what the impact will be — positively and negatively, on the family.

In a few months, they will be launching Global Demos in Zurich. Says Verbin, “we are teaching young underprivileged children about science.” The “Science Van” is essentially science and environment projects on wheels.

They travel to a couple of areas per day, largely small towns that don’t have access to this level of expertise and training. Here, they have an open forum to not only teach kids about science, but to inspire and empower them into believing that they too could be a scientist one day. It?s a combination of education and self esteem building.

Other initiatives include cross pollination of ideas. “Because of globalization, we probably have more in common with each other than we do with our grandparents,” Verbin adds. Koldor organizes people to exchange mutual ideas across cultures.

He also talks about another web based organization that they are now involved in called Kavor.

Kavor educates children about a surgical or medical procedure before they go to the hospital. This non-profit prepares people in advance (nurses and doctors), and kids at home, where they feel safe. A ten year old is able to learn about procedures in advance so he is less afraid and more prepared when he gets to the hospital.

Verbin’s vision is a great one, something that Israel can really benefit from as such a young country in ways others will have to stretch themselves to “catch up.”

Us with their group below:

Traveling Geeks in Action

TravelingGeek bloggers in action just outside Haifa Israel this week. Sarah Lacy, Cathy Brooks, Deb Shultz, Robert Scoble, Renee Blodgett, Craig Newmark, Susan Mernit and Jeff Saperstein.

Tel Aviv and Jerusalem

Israel Photo Collection

I officially uploaded a sample of photos from my recent Israel trip. It was a hard choice to decide what to upload from a collection of more than 1,000 shots. Enjoy!

Check Point’s Gil Shwed Believes in Israel

Our group met with Check Point’s CEO and founder Gil Schwed today in Tel Aviv suburb Ramat Gan, the same stretch of land where the Barkats’ grandfather, a bus driver once grew tomatoes. According to Rosenthal’s research, he is nicknamed “Gil Gates” after successfully growing Check Point into a $20 billion stock market value company by 2001.

I shot a 15 minute video of Gil telling his ’story’ on a Nokia GSM video phone, but it sadly seems to have disappeared. If I can somehow reclaim the footage, I’ll post the video at a later date. Scoble also shot him in high resolution so if my raw footage is lost, you can watch the interview on Fast Company.com later this month.

One of the things that was an underlying thread throughout all of his business examples and recap of Check Point’s history, was his love of Israel and his belief that running a technology company here is easier than it would be in the United States. Easier and more efficient. He also brought up several other points.

Says Gil, “we?ve had an entrepreneurial spirit for over 100 years. My parents came here, trying to build something new. First agriculture, then infrastructure and today, technology. One thing that really helps us here is that we don?t have a local market.

What if we had started Check Point in Boston rather than Tel Aviv? Here, we think more globally. In the states, France and Germany, you have large local markets, which means creating and thinking in those languages and for those cultures. We are thinking of customers who are 6,000+ miles away from home.”

More than anything else, he stressed the benefits of building a company in Israel. “People are loyal here,” says Gil. “They are driven, think globally, and have a lot of passion. Because they are far away from the energy of Silicon Valley, they are focused on products and listening to customers, not the hype and latest trends.”

He thinks that being in an environment where a new trend born every few months is distracting. In Silicon Valley, there’s always a new trend and if people don?t jump on that bandwagon when it hits, they feel left behind. “Not the case here,” he says. “People work at companies for 3-5 years or longer and don?t feel as if they?re being left behind. They feel like they?re part of a group, a community, that they?re building something.”

In Rosenthal’s book, what it means to be an Israeli entrepreneur comes through as strong as it did today when we chatted in one of his conference rooms on Tel Aviv’s Ha’solelim Street. She describes him as a ‘boyish looking bachelor with cropped hair and John Lennon glasses.’ I didn’t quite see him that way, but I do think she did a great job of bringing his dry and serious wit to life.

During his interview with her, he noted that Israel is a natural for start-ups. Yossi Vardi feels the same way as does numerous other driven and successful entrepreneurs in this country.

Like Gil’s references today, he brought up the impact that immigration has had on business growth, particularly technology. He has immigrant mentality – strong, committed, loyal, passionate, driven and practical. I have read in a few articles that wearing black clothes is one of Gil’s trademarks, so I expected him to walk through the door wearing all black, and he did. Not surprising that he thinks wearing all black is “practical.” When you travel as much as he does, it makes sense.

He tells an amusing story of his resourceful mother in the book, an example from childhood that I resonated with. I think his mother and my grandfather would have really hit it off since my grandfather pulled similar stunts on a regular basis when I was growing up.

He recalls traveling around the country with her. “She’d see a dairy and stop and ask, ‘can my kid watch how you milk cow? She knocked on the door of Ha’aretz and asked, ‘can my kid see how you print the newspaper?’

It’s the best way to raise kids in my opinion. It gives children a sense of adventure and shows them how easy it is to create it. If it doesn’t feel right or you’re not sure, just ask. How will you know if you don’t try? I was raised that way but its no surprise since I was raised my grandparents, a generation behind most of my counterparts.

That generation is closer to the early immigrant mentality that Israel is experiencing today. It is during this stage of building a new country that great innovation happens. Passion and energy levels are high. There isn’t a lot of fear nor is there much complacency.

People hunger for growth and knowledge and with these characteristics, comes great things, like the amazing technology that came out of Check Point more than ten years ago and is being launched today in incubators and start-ups. Great innovation is coming out of kibbutzim as well but that’s another story to be told. Stay tuned. It’s a story that will likely bring tears to your eyes.

On my way home from Israel

I have a TON I will say about my Israel trip, but in the meantime I just wanted to shout out my fellow travelers who’ve already been doing awesome blogging and stuff about our trip. There are going to be spinouts for weeks from this trip. Heck, just look at the list of tools that alpha geeks use (which was produced on this trip).

I’m too exhausted to do any blogging. Might explain why I’ve been doing so much Twittering. It takes far less effort to write 140 characters at a time than to put together a cogent post.

The Peres Center for Peace Brightened my Day

Business in Israel has to overlap and integrate with humanitarian issues because these issues are at the core of their culture. Israelis live in volatile and unstable part of the world, surrounded by anger, fighting and uncertainty.

The Peres Center for Peace is designed to build an infrastructure of peace and reconciliation by and for the people of the Middle East that promotes socio-economic development, while advancing cooperation and mutual understanding. Their Assistant to the Director General Yael Patir talked to us today about the Center’s mission.

It is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization founded in 1996 by Nobel Peace Laureate, former Prime Minister, and current President of Israel Mr. Shimon Peres, with the aim of furthering his vision in which people of the Middle East region work together to build peace.

Says Yael, “Arabs and Jews are surrounded by hostility and mutual mistrust. Peres allows people on both sides to communicate with and understand each other.”

Today, I watched snippets of plays put on by Palestinians and Israelis. Through these plays, the actors can act out their hostility voicing their frustration on both sides. Then, viewers can learn about positive ways to reach a peaceful solution. “It’s important that children can see that there?s hope and that they can learn to trust,” she says.

Over 50,000 Israeli and Palestinian youth have participated in these programs. Project Manager Yarden Leal talks about how they use technology in their programs.

“The Center has peace computer centers, run innovative IT projects that allow students on both sides of the fence to communicate with each other, first over the web and then face-to-face,” says Yarden. “When I talked to them, I started to realize that it is our responsibility to make peace.”

Says a young boy who went through one of their programs, “it?s as much our responsibility as it is government. When we started talking to Palestinian children, we realized they wanted peace as much as we do.”

Palestinian, Egyptian, Israel and Jordanian farmers gather through a Peres Center program to only learn that they share a number of the same problems, including limited water supply. They learn about solutions that benefit all of them through cross border cooperation and research projects.

The Peres Center organizes Arab Israel business activities as well. Says their IT Peace Projects Unit Ushi (Asher) Krausz, “we want to get the word out that we ARE communicating and talking. Inside and outside the country, people need to see that there are some peace initiatives.”

Inside Israel hospitals, there are no check points. Dozens of Palestinian doctors undergo training in Israel hospitals every year. Says Yarden, “we are surprised again and again to see what happens when we bring Palestinians and Israelis together who come back to us and say, ‘how can it be that we have never reached peace?’ It is the people who can make peace, not governments.”

45 people work in the Tel Aviv office facilitate the Center’s activities. Says Yael, “we build the infrastructure to help the peace come. When a peace agreement happens, the ?ground? will be ready for it. During the period of the Oslo agreement, the people were not ready for it even though they reached an agreement at the government level.”

We learn that their projects are based on four different pillars, the first pillar the most interesting: the people-to-people pillar.

They bring people together based on their professional background. “We look for agents of change, whether they are researchers, academics, business executives or mental health professionals. We look for the added-value on both sides so both sides can see how they can gain from cooperation.”

They work with close to forty other organizations, i.e., mental organizations in Gaza or other peace organizations. The second pillar is peace education, which are mostly projects with youth. There are over 24 programs in the areas of mathematics, art, technology, sports and social interaction that kids can participate in. Last year, they helped over 2,000 kids.

Yael says, “the third pillar is capacity, where we try to build capacity on the Palestinian side so they can become equal partners to us on our side. We assist Palestinian businessmen, so they can learn about the chain of supply. They are blind to the process so we help facilitate that.”

The last pillar is what they call ?ad-hoc? assistance – essentially saving children wherever and whenever they can.

Yarden asks, “how do we utilize computers and computer games to create an atmosphere of peace education? We target the youth. The Peace Computers Center project is new. Here, we connect Israelis and Palestinians.

We had 400 kids involved in the first program and the next one, we’ll have over 600. After Israeli kids communicate online with Palestinian kids, they meet in-person. We encourage them to use IM and other online tools to meet other children. What we learn is that they often start with politics but then the conversation quickly moves to sports, exchanging music files and school activities.”

They involve families as well. Says Ushi, “we have family days once or twice a year. We never overlook the adults and we integrate them into our projects.”

Its a fascinating set of programs and inspiring to see them succeed. Raising awareness among the current generation will be key for building a better future. Kids need to see that there’s a way to reach peace, that there’s hope for an integrated, united Israel.

a country of jewish mothers

About 9:30ish or so last night i was sitting at a cafe on the beach with Orli Yakuel and JD and while we had a great conversation and the setting was beautiful, it was soon clear my stamina and success pressing my luck had just run out. my fever was coming back, i was sniffling, hacking– both orli and jd were looking at me and wincing.

so unfortunately i had to stay in bed today. a doctor is coming in a
few hours to see what is wrong, and if i’m well enough to travel back
to san francisco tomorrow. in the mean time, the hotel has called
several times to check on me and just brought up the jewish version of
sick food: tea, OJ and Matzoh
with butter. so if for any reason i can’t fly out– i’m sure i will have plenty of people taking care of me.

there’s this weird thing surrounding whether or not Israelis are
“nice.” they are known to be a very direct, brusque culture. indeed, as
sweet as the hotel staff has been today, other times i’ve called to ask
a question and they cut you off mid-sentence and transfer you somewhere
else. and just try driving here (i haven’t btw. peta dunia satelit but i don’t want to!)
there’s honking, swerving, throwing up hands as they yelling things in
hebrew angrily. without prompting most people who live here apologize
for how rude israelis are, and seem embarrassed by it.

but i think i speak for all of the “traveling geeks” when i say we’ve
experienced mostly love and hospitality here. it reminds me a bit of
New Yorkers– who can be pushy and rude in aggregate but warm and
helpful one-on-one.

but more to the point, it seems to be one of those cultural qualities
that makes Israelis such great entrepreneurs. there’s a quote from an
American CEO in my book and he’s responding to some pretty tough
criticism of how he treated his people during the bust. he said the
great thing about a recession is you don’t have the luxury of being
nice– it’s all about survival so you just do what’s best for the
business. that’s how the israelis run their businesses and their lives.

A Chat with JVP's Erel Margalit

JVP’s Managing Director Erel Margalit talks to our blogging group this week about start-ups and innovation in Israel.

Their Jerusalem outskirts office is not unlike a Silicon Valley-based VC office except that the printers and fax machines might be a tad older and like every other Israeli company kitchen, they’re well stocked with Nescafe instant coffee. The latter is an integral part of the culture here in the same way it was 20′ish years ago.

We learn about their DreamWorks-like initiative Animation Lab, which extends beyond a typical technology play. “The line is blurred between where technology ends and content begins,” noted Margalit. As the former head of MSN Israel, he has a background and perspective on digital rich content.

Erel and his team ‘get’ social media. We were introduced to three stealth mode companies and saw ‘on-screen’ demos. I can’t talk about them just yet, except to say that they’re dabbling in virtual worlds, interactive games, social networks and online video.

When asked about entrepreneurship and why there’s so much innovation coming out of Israel, Erel says, “Israelis don’t think about what they can lose but about what they can gain. Unlike Europe, they don’t have a plate on their door in a town where their family and history was rooted for 1,000 years. Israel is new and full of immigrants from all over the world. So its much easier for us to take risks.”

JVP is currently the king VC in Israel, having launched between 20 and 40 companies, with most of their exits in the communications and media space. “We’re on our 5th fund,” he added. English to Armenian “The key is to make a few home runs in each fund.”

We got the impression that they’re on track and that the climate was ripe with opportunities. Eran continued to rave about the opportunities that Israel has over Europe and the states…..and why. “Silicon Valley is very engineering driven versus the rest of the world. Not having that as a major driving force gives us an opportunity.”

He sees other opportunities in Asia where they’re developing a lot of interactive content. During his last trip to China, he observed that 500,000 were playing online warfare games. In LA, it was all about broadcasting entertainment. In Europe, mobile continues to take a leadership role.

I captured the tail end of his interview on video – see below (also uploaded to Flixwagon.com). Click play to tune in.