The Lounge: April 2, 2019

Culture news from the week.

FROM LEFT, Lilach Asher-Topilsky, Shaul Kobrinsky, Aya Lurie, Natalia Zorabova and Shulamit Nuss (photo credit: EZRA LEVY)
FROM LEFT, Lilach Asher-Topilsky, Shaul Kobrinsky, Aya Lurie, Natalia Zorabova and Shulamit Nuss
(photo credit: EZRA LEVY)
ISDEF 2019
Israel’s largest international defense, homeland security and cyber exhibition, ISDEF 2019, hosted a security-diplomatic gala evening in cooperation with the Avnon Group at the Herods Hotel in Herzliya. The evening was attended by senior members of the defense establishment, senior defense industry officials, ambassadors, military and economic attachés, and diplomats and delegation members from abroad who came to Israel in search of new security technologies. Jonas Zolkén, ISDEF managing director, welcomed the members of the ISDEF Advisory Committee: former deputy chief of staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan; former head of the National Cyber Defense Authority Buki Carmeli;  head of the Foreign Ministry’s Economic Diplomacy Division and former Israeli ambassador to Cyprus Yael Ravia-Zadok; former head of the Mossad and chairman of Dantov Global Consulting Group Danny Yatom; former Israeli ambassador to the United States and deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr. Michael Oren; and president and CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries Nimrod Sheffer.
IDB Collection
The 2019 Discount Award for encouraging creativity was awarded last week to artist Natalia Zorabova. Lilach Asher-Topilsky, director-general of Israel Discount Bank, congratulated the winner and emphasized that supporting artists and encouraging Israeli art is extremely important to Discount Bank, which owns the largest collection of Israeli art in the country. Asher-Topilsky promised to continue the efforts of the founding Recanati family to support Israeli artists. Attending were Herzliya Mayor Moshe Fadlon; chairman of the Discount Bank Board Shaul Kobrinsky; CEO of Christie’s Israel Roni Gilat-Baharaff; Dr. Aya Lurie, director and chief curator of the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art; and Shulamit Nuss, curator of the Israel Discount Bank Collection.
Fiverr
On Wednesday night, Fiverr held a meetup on the topic of: ‘Marketing Momentum – Building a Superbrand,’ which was attended by 150 entrepreneurs, marketing strategists and young startup owners. Keynote speakers included Gali Arnon, CMO at Fiverr; Brent Messenger, global head of Public Policy & Community Engagement at Fiverr (who also worked with former president Barack Obama); and Omer Shai, VP of Marketing at Wix. All three described how Israeli companies can become superbrands on a global scale.
Nvidia
Last Thursday – a month after it was acquired by Nvidia – Mellanox Technologies held its annual gala event at Haifa Port, marking the 20th anniversary of the company’s establishment. Over 3,000 guests attended the event, including company employees from all over the country and their spouses, as well as dozens of Mellanox Palestinian employees who came especially from the West Bank.
The guests were treated to performances by Omer Adam, Aviv Geffen, and the singer Kitrijah. “More than anything else in the world, I am particularly excited to stand here tonight, and say thank you from the depths of my heart, since I would not have been able to do any of this without all of you,” said Mellanox President and CEO Eyal Waldman.
PM of Montenegro
Prime Minister of Montenegro Milo Jokanovic last week visited the offices of OrCam in Jerusalem, an Israeli company that aims to harness the power of AI to help improve the lives of people who are visually impaired, blind and unable to read or perform daily activities. Ziv Aviram, co-founder, president and CEO of OrCam, who founded the company with his partner Prof. Amnon Shashua (both of whom founded Mobileye, which was acquired by Intel), welcomed Jokanovic.
Translated by Hannah Hochner.