Final Videos

Well, it has been quite a while since my last post! That being said, it was definitely nice taking a well deserved break after the hectic - mile-a-minute - pace I'd kept while in Israel. One person who was still working however was trip videographer, Steve Kushner, who after taking a brief detour into Jordan, returned home and pulled together two final videos chronicling our program. These videos capture the essence of our last three weeks in Israel - both in terms of the activities we participated in and the places we visited. Enjoy!

Back In The USA

Last Friday morning at 4:45AM Eastern Standard Time, I landed safely back in the United States of America from Tel Aviv, Israel. After passing through customs and then a quick layover at Newark International Airport, I was in Washington by 8:20AM. All in all, it has been a very long, but satisfying summer in Israel these past 10 weeks. In so many ways, this program met and then exceeded my expectations. It was awesome!

Without a doubt, it is going to take a while to fully process the trip, before I can report back with my true post-Israel thoughts. Over the next few weeks though, I'll look to have a few posts here and there, recapping the trip, linking to the final YouTube videos, etc. So look for those in the following weeks. Additionally, later in August, the team will also be getting together once again with donors for a reception at the Robert H. Smith School. Further, we'll be pitching next years program to the incoming class of MBA students.

Start-Up Nation

This past Sunday we had the opportunity to meet with Saul Singer, co-author of the book "Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle." Saul gave a thirty minute talk to the Smith team, as well as interns from PresenTense, about both his book and also thoughts on what factors have driven the phenomenal success of the Israeli economy over the past twenty years. Here's a clip posted below of Saul talking about his book.

It's funny how quickly Start-up Nation has become the de facto story of Israel. No matter where we've been this summer or who we've talked to - without fail - everyone has spent the first few minutes of each meeting discussing this book. Have we read it? What did we think? It was definitely cool to finally hear this story from the author himself.

Video Three

Our esteemed trip videographer, Stephen Kushner, has released his third video of the trip. Halfway through the program, this video is the third in a series (of five) depicting the Global Technology Entrepreneurship Fellowship for rising second-year MBA students from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland College Park. 

The Part 3 video (posted above) includes: commentary, company visits and interviews, as well as cultural experiences and camaraderie, from weeks 4-6. Once again, Steve's done a superb job distilling the spirit of our trip into 3 minutes of video. Thank you Steve!

A Video Record Ctd

Since arriving in Israel, one of our team members, Stephen Kushner, has been hard at work producing a video series, introducing the program, interviewing team members, and capturing the sights and sounds of our trip to Israel. Part 2 of the video series (posted below) includes: commentary, day-in-a-life, pitching to venture capitalists, company visits and interviews, hi-tech conference highlights, cultural experiences, and camaraderie. Enjoy!

The Prime Minister

As promised, here is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the 2010 High Tech Industry Association Conference last week in Jerusalem. The second part of Netanyahu's speech is posted in full at our team's YouTube site.

Hi-Tech Israel Ctd

Early last week, the Smith team visited Jerusalem to participate in the 2010 High Tech Industry Association Conference. I covered our visit to the conference here. 

Our video blogger, Stephen Kushner, captured some great highlights from the conference, including two panel discussions, as well as Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's keynote address (posted here). I've posted the two panel clips (with descriptions) after the jump.

A Video Record

Since arriving in Israel, one of our team members, Stephen Kushner, has been hard at work producing a video series, introducing the program, interviewing team members, and capturing the sights and sounds of our first weeks in Israel.

Photo by Kristin Thompson

Separately, Stephen has also begun producing smaller videos related to specific company visits and speakers. The first of Stephen's videos, a series of brief comments from one of our first speakers, Yossi Vardi has been added to that previous post.  

All subsequent videos will be displayed on this blog and also on YouTube. Part 1 of the video series is after the jump. Enjoy!