Deborah Schultz

TWS2008 - Israel's Local Startup Competition

I am honored to join the judges panel again at this year's TWS2008, Israel’s web startup competition, organized by The Coils [covering the internet scene in Israel]. 

The competition, will take place tomorrow, July 1 in TLV.  Sadly, I can't be there in person this year.  Among the judges are friends such as Emily Chang, Pete Cashmore, Guy Kawasaki, Brian Solis, Om Malik, Chris Brogan, Jeff Clavier as well as a number of Israeli industry friends & luminaries including  Michael Eisenberg [Benchmark], Barak Shein [Microsoft],  Meir Brand [Google Israel], Yair Goldfinger, Kfir Pravda, Joey Simon, Ofer Adler and others.

Mashable and GigaOm will cover the event for the overseas crowd.

Wishing all the companies good luck! Looking forward to hear the virtual envelope "rip" from afar!

TravelingGeeks: Israel through the eyes of first timers

This weeks has been a whirlwind of interesting, absurd and hysterical moments as the TravelingGeeks have bumped around the country and the tech scene in Israel. It has been exhausting and amazing to watch these two worlds that I live in come together in such a unique fashion. I definitely have more thoughtful posts rolling around in my brain - for now here are some Snackbytes to whet your appetite:

• Picture a mini van with all of us smushed together three across with laptops open, evdo cards humming while twitters ricocheted amongst ourselves and folks and around the world

• Craig's intro to twitter by Scoble- perfect medium for a guy with the coolest driest sense of humor of anyone I know

• Lunch with local women bloggers at Nanoushka -gossiping about the difference between Israeli geek guys  and SF geek guys - yeah - I know you are dieing to hear all about it - but this Lunch was strictly off the record


• Amazing afternoon coffee stop with Ishmael Khaldi's family - where I got to be an interpreter between Jeff's wife Eileen and Ish's mother and sister that was both touching and endearing.

• The graciousness of Scoble - he has an amazing ability to focus and listen for hours - and always knows just the right questions to ask - never get to really see him in action till now

• The sheer enthusiasm of Sarah, not to mention our all too brief shopping trip in Neveh Zedek [tel aviv's hip little Soho-esque neighborhood] Glad it was not longer or more pocketbook damage would have ensued.

• The photography skills of Renee, Cathy's wit and Susan's joy at meeting Israeli women bloggers

Just got word that the day in Jerusalem was,  as expected - amazing and emotional.  I am sure there will be some heartfelt posts to come.  One more day to go..tomorrow should bring some more interesting experiences - including a meeting at Rogozin HS and the Peres Center for Peace.

So many thoughts....

I have been running around Israel all week meeting with amazing Israeli start-ups.  Things are really picking up here. Very exciting times. 

I have not had time to synthesize all my thoughts and observations...yet...be patient.. more to come.

In the meantime enjoy the photos on Flickr: Tags / kinnernet2006 [idea stolen from Jeff P]

and some of the other blog posts by Jeff, Tom, Loic , Heiko and Mary - to get the current scoop

Tags: Kinnernet 2006, Israel,