Israel is now officially 62 years old. While the Israeli banks were extremely prepared for the economic turmoil America caused and while Israeli start-ups continue to become major players in video innovation, mobile innovation and more the worldwide headlines Israel receives in the media are still depressingly dreary. Iran and their nuclear arsenal, Bibi not being tough enough on settlements and Obama’s criticism of Israel are what we read and see in the news. It’s actually quite fascinating that a nation that’s dealing with these issues contain one of the most expensive cities in the world, a booming technology industry and a passion for green leaving.
TEDxTelAviv takes place in the Nalaga’at Center on the Jaffa Port. TED is an extremely important conference that takes place in America and revolves around innovation, technology, media and research. This independently organized version of TED for Tel Aviv has impressively decided to not ignore the anomaly that is a country with an abundant amount of innovation as well as conflict. The theme of this years TEDx Tel Aviv is “Thriving on Turmoil” which “reflects the inherent contradictions that characterize Israel: ancient-modern, religious-secular, rich-poor, east-west, devout-irreverent, tradition-innovation.” The conference “will demonstrate how this diversity has catalyzed cutting edge technology, world-class research, great works of art and ingenious social entrepreneurship.”
While the turmoil doesn’t seem to be fading in the least, let’s take this day to acknowledge the fact that Israel and the organizers of TEDxTelAviv are using some of the most positive things about the country to try and discuss and deal with the not so pleasant things. More importantly there will be both Israeli and Palestinian experts and entrepreneurs presenting.
Don’t forget that even if you couldn’t make it to the beautiful port of Tel Aviv-Jaffa you can still watch conference live here and participate in discussions stemming from their Facebook Page, Twitter feed and Twitter #hashtag #TEDxTelAviv. Lastly, check out the guide with the list of phenomenal speakers that will be sharing there experiences.
