About a year ago we reported that Innovate!Europe was holding a workshop and networking event in Israel, through which one startup would be selected to participate in Guidewire STUDIO, an in-residence business accelerator in Silicon Valley. Well, Innovate!Europe is coming back to Israel, but this time as the Innovate!2010 global competition. The goal of the competition is to identify and promote up-and-coming technology and media startups. They’re looking for early-stage companies that “have what it takes to be named one of the world’s most promising startups.” Here’s more info from an email they sent around: The top 100 companies will be featured ...

People are always asking us about Paypal and how it works in Israel with the Shekel. So, I went back to the announcement on the PayPal blog, New PayPal Currencies: Mexican Peso and Israeli Shekel. After reading over comments from Moshe,  Fabio,  Roi, Roberto,  Yeong-Ping Koh and the like, I learned more from the comments section than from the post itself. Here's what I discovered: You can withrdraw money to any Israeli-issued VISA cards or U.S. Bank. Israeli PayPal users cannot withdraw funds to a MasterCard. You can use your ILS balance to pay anyone in 190 markets worldwide. You can also receive funds from buyers or family and ...

SphinnCon Israel is sold out! SphinnCon Israel is a SphinnCon networking event focused on search and internet marketing, and is taking place this coming Tuesday, February 5 at the Jerusalem College of Technology (also known as Machon Lev). This event is exciting thanks to the incredible lineup, with representatives from well-known international companies like Google, TechCrunch, Kenshoo and Yedda (see my previous interview with Yedda's Lior Haner, who will be speaking at the conference), and thanks to the location: Jerusalem! For once I don't have ...

I was reading about the launch of the new MacBook Air, and I saw that the singer for the background music is someone named Yael Naim. Well, that sounded pretty Israeli to me, and I checked it out further and yes, she grew up in Hod Hasharon, in the Tel Aviv area. According to the bio on her site, Yael's first album was a failure, but in 2004 she met David Donatien, a West Indian drummer. David encouraged her to sing in Hebrew, "something she had strictly denied herself up until now." The song ...

Last night I went to my first iDrink event. For those of you who are not familiar with iDrink, it's a party/event for Israelis in the Internet and web industries. The format usually includes presentations by startups and sponsors of the event, some free drinks, and a lot of socializing and networking. This was their seventh event, and there were tons of people there. At first, we couldn't even get into the bar, and people were literally spilling out the door. But that was ok, cuz even the door was a social place to be. We got inside in time to hear/see the end of a presentation by a startup called ...

It’s now official - Lorelle Van Fossen (yes, THE Lorelle) is going to be the keynote speaker at the upcoming WordCamp Israel blogging conference! When: Oct. 25, 9am to 4pm Where: Michlelet Afeka - Bney Efraim, Tel Aviv Tel: 1-800-37-37-10 Cost: Free! But you must register to reserve your place. Among the topics to be covered at the conference is blogging and business (I’m on that panel ), how to create an effective web presence with WordPress, and practical tips on installing WordPress and using Plugins. The conference now ...

A little over a week ago, I discovered "The Middle East Entrepreneur Training (MEET)," a US State Dept.-backed program geared towards strengthening leadership and entrepreneurial skills among residents of the Middle East...except Israeli Jews! I quickly contacted as many people as I could about this blatant discrimination, including reporting this on a mailing list for journalists and writers. This happened last Thursday, Sept. 21, and by Friday morning all of the related web pages had been taken down, and were changed to include Israeli Jews. But instead of blowing over, Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu ...

Update: A few interesting things have happened since I wrote this article. 1. The Beyster Institute has taken down all the pages I have linked to here. But they can't beat Google! If you want to see them, simply paste the URL in your Google search box, and on the results page, click on "Cached" to see them. Contact me if you have any questions. I've also saved the pages on my hard drive. 2. A reporter contacted me for a story on this issue, and told me that "coincidentally" the Beyster Institute is redoing their program requirements, and now ALL Israelis are welcome to apply! Well, I'll be applying, and ...

Netvision apparently thinks that they are the rulers of all things Internet in Israel. They may have a large market share of Internet accounts, but their bravado with regards to Internet standards really takes the cake. Background: Like many services or technologies that are used worldwide, such as telephones and electricity, the Internet has Standards. These standards ensure that websites are accessible to all in all places because they all follow certain rules related to domain names and the like. The organization that develops and enforces these standards is ISOC, which is short for The Internet Society. ISOC has many branches all over the world, including ISOC-IL, the Israeli branch. It ...

In Israel, everyone is an entrepreneur. At least, sometimes it seems that way. Everyone knows someone who has started up some kind of venture, whether it's related to technology, finance or industry. Sometimes I can't believe how many people I personally know who have technology startups. Many of these ideas do come to fruition and succeed on a large scale. Look at Teva, Amdocs, and Comverse for some examples of the biggies, and see this list of the top 10 Israeli Web 2.0 wonders for a look at some of Israel's most promising startups. But how does Israel rank on a global scale for entrepreneurship? According ...