Grapevine: Television innovation in Jerusalem

Second annual Innovation in TV conference to be held at the YMCA.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Stone houses in Jerusalem (photo credit: Adi Benzaken)
Stone houses in Jerusalem
(photo credit: Adi Benzaken)
MORE THAN 1,000 executives and businesspeople connected with television are expected to converge on Jerusalem next week for the second annual Innovation in TV conference, to be held at the YMCA on November 4 and 5. The date coincides with the 20th anniversary of commercial television in Israel.
Channel 2, after a prolonged period of experimental transmissions, officially began broadcasting on November 4, 1993, making print media headlines with its first commercial – which was Castro’s double-flasher scene starring Yael Abecassis and Lior Miller. Channel 2 paved the way for Channel 10, which began broadcasting on January 28, 2002, but has been in financial straits for most of its history – and is once again in danger of being closed down due to low ratings, lack of profits and the tens of millions of dollars lost by key investors.
Meanwhile, keynote speakers at the INTV conference will include Bob Greenblatt, chairman, NBC Entertainment; Mikkel Bondesen, CEO, UFUSE (The Killing); Gary Carter, chairman of northern Europe, Shine Group, UK; David Eilenberg, senior vice president of unscripted development, TBS and TNT; David Ellender, CEO, FremantleMedia International and Kids; and Justin Gorman, head of entertainment, Channel 4 UK.
Senior representatives of NBC, WBE, HuffPost, TNT, TBS and Hulu will be among the many participants from the US and Europe. On its second day, the conference will feature the Promaxbda Creative Clinic, led by Kendrick Reid, senior vice president and executive director of brand strategy development for BET Networks.
IN RECENT years, many of Israel’s leading chefs have become screen and stage celebrities, hosting their own TV programs and participating in food-oriented panel discussions. They also author cookbooks. Some, such as Jerusalem’s Shmil Holland, in addition to the above, also lecture. Holland has a wonderful lecture on the origins and influences of Jewish Eastern European cuisine, particularly that of Poland. He will deliver it within the context of Polish Food Week, which is being held mostly in Tel Aviv, but also in Jerusalem and Haifa.
The product of a Polish background, Holland – who is a professional chef, food historian and author, and really loves what he does – will lecture at the First Station Complex on Tuesday, November 5 at 8 p.m. He will also be conducting a workshop on November 7.
ALTHOUGH THERE was a celebration of sorts in Nir Barkat’s campaign headquarters when the results of the mayoral race were announced, the real celebration took place last Saturday night at the View Banquet Halls in the Talpiot Industrial Zone, where 2,000 people comprising many sectors of the capital’s demographic mosaic gathered to eat, drink and be merry. The premises were decorated with some of Barkat’s campaign posters.
CLEANING THE city was one of the key elements of Moshe Lion’s almost-successful election campaign. Considering how much more money was spent on Barkat’s campaign than on Lion’s, and how much effort was put into impressing upon the electorate that Lion was an outsider with insufficient knowledge of what makes Jerusalem tick, he did extremely well even if he was defeated.
The dirt in Jerusalem really bothered Lion, especially in the street in which the prime minister lives, because it is a street frequently traversed by tourists. He raised this issue so frequently during his campaign that a couple of weeks before the elections, the dilapidated garbage bins with missing lids were replaced by brand new bins that all had lids. The garbage was collected every morning, and the street was infinitely cleaner than it had been for years.