UC Berkeley is harnessing the talent of Israeli and U.S. thinkers at an unprecedented international conference Feb. 1-2 that will look at Israel through a high-tech lens.
The first day of the “Israel Through the High Tech Lens” conference will be held at the Haas School, and the second day will be held at Berkeley Law. The event has been organized by the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy, and Society.
"Israel stands out as a nation where innovation thrives, and there are dozens of Israeli companies and Israeli entrepreneurs who choose to allocate parts of their business in our own back yard, the Silicon Valley," says Haas Professor Steve Tadelis, a member of the institute's faculty advisory committee.
Tadelis and Haas Adjunct Professor Jerry Engel, founding executive director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, will be among the more than 35 speakers addressing business, legal, economic, and social aspects of the Israeli high-tech world. Specific topics to be discussed will include the legal challenges to U.S.-Israeli business collaboration, labor-market diversity, and green-tech trends.
Daniella Beinisch, the institute's executive director, noted that Israel has more entrepreneurs per capita than any other country, the second-largest number of startups in the world (after the U.S.), and the second-largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies outside North America (after China).
“I'm deeply involved in promoting Israeli tech in Silicon Valley and investing in Israeli companies,” says full-time Berkeley MBA student Itamar Novick, MBA 12, a senior associate at Morgenthaler Ventures. “So I hope that the conference will help to widen the discussion about innovation and entrepreneurship in Israel, leading to additional VC investments, mergers and acquisitions activity, and business deals between Israel and the US.’’
Novick also said that the momentum from author Dan Senor's book, Start up Nation, helped kickstart the idea for the conference. Senor is also the keynote speaker on the first evening of the conference. David (Dadi) Perlmutter, the executive vice president at Intel, is the keynote speaker on the second evening.
The conference is free for UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff, but registration is required. For more information on pricing and registration, visit law.berkeley.edu/israelhightech.htm.