Fun Gigs

This Tuesday, I got to play violin for a Mardi Gras Themed Retirement Party of Peggy Meis, the Financial Aide Advisor that was THE person responsible for my admission and scholarship at CSU. People were dancing and laughing, and the event was almost as fun as being in Baton Rouge itself! It was an extremley fun honor to get dressed up for Peggy's party!

This Friday, I'll be playing violin with Clayton Risner at The Avenue for a Multiple Scelrosis Benefit Concert. Tickets are $5 at the door, and all proceeds will benefit the victums of M.S.

Speaker Series

Wow! Our last day in Israel on the Hillel Biz & Tech Program was packed with info!

I've got random bits online right now (more to come), and we'll be hopefully getting most of the powerpoints shared with us over the trip available for download online soon.

Sherwin B. Pomerantz sharing information about Atid EDI

Jonathan Medved sharing insights on Branding Israel through the company Israel Seed

Eli Kazhdan with StartUp Jerusalem

Jerusalem Touring

Finally as the speakers, programming, and running around Israel begins to wind down our and relationships with other participants on this track begin to grow, our trip is coming to a close. None-the-less, this trip provided many unique insights and connections that will hopefully develope into meaningful relationships.

We've had so much information to process, our brains of full of potently powerful entrepreneurial mush. For Joey from Penn puts it, "The only thing that's keeping me sane is a combination of falafel, tea, and Judiasm."

Today, we visited IDT followed by Hebrew University. Fun and friendly tour guides shared their passion and experiences at HU. Followed by an explanation by Yakir Sagev of the student run program New Spirit. His attitude was truely Israeli, taking the process of business planning "as it comes." This style of planning day-by-day was hard to believe could work for an organization that is dedicated to making constructive connections between students and businesses, but hey, that's Israel - a country designed to be adaptable to its ever changing political and cultural climate.

Adapting to this climate.

Re'ut Institute

The progressive high tech industry in Israel has been driving it to become a leading player in the global economy. However, weak government structures and policies have been a huge barrier to Israel reaching its full potential.

Gidi Grinstein discussed with us today how the work of the Re'ut Institute is designed to transform the strategy of their clients (in this case, the Israeli government) by providing a methodological analysis and feedback to make government agencies more efficient.