Israel Active

Winnipeg businessmen Michel Aziza and Hans Peper have set-up the North American headquarters of Israel’s Traffilog. Traffilog’s on-board system provides real-time feedback to the driver and to the fleet operator on driver safety, fuel consumption, vehicle performance, and vehicle health. Traffilog’s systems are being installed in every Volvo and Scania truck in Israel.

Multinational hi-tech company Broadcom bought nine Israeli companies in the past decade (seven of its last ten acquisitions) and needs to recruit more local staff. In 2009 Broadcom had 100 Israeli workers, but now it has over 800 – more than in the rest of Broadcom’s European sites.

El Al Israel Airlines is starting a trial that plans to convert all flight manuals for its Boeing 777s onto iPad computers. This will save up to $560,000 a year and 40kg of paper per flight.

With Israel’s natural gas output from the Tamar field scheduled to commence in a few months, the government has raised 2013 GDP growth predictions from 3% to 3.5%.

The Start-up Ecosystem Index 2012 report scores Tel Aviv as overall runner-up to Silicon Valley in its Global index. Here is a link to the full 160-page report.

Israeli online farmers market Farmigo aims to give Americans access to local fresh-from-harvest food, instead of the industrialized food now on their tables. Farmigo intends to fundamentally change the way food is purchased and distributed.

In the eight months up to September, Israel’s Galilee International Management Institute has been formulating policies for the Kenyan Central Bank and training students from the Kenya School of Monetary Studies. Kenya asked the World Bank for help and they called in the Israelis.

Israel’s Tourism Ministry promoted visitors between Israel and Hungary by organizing a fashion show by Frau Brau on Wizz Air’s inaugural flight between Tel Aviv and Budapest. Passengers boarding the Hungarian aircraft had no idea what awaited them.

I once spent a fortune on a pair of foreign-made spectacles from a local optician. With IsraelOptical you choose Israel-made glasses on-line with free worldwide shipping. You can upload your own photo to see what the glasses look like on. It’s a win-win alternative – unless you’re an optician.

50 Israeli start-ups opened their doors to visitors at Tel Aviv’s Open Start-up event. Despite alarms sounding, and all having to take temporary shelter, Start-up Nation didn’t slow down. Thousands of Israeli start-ups continued to function, even under missile fire. Conduit even opened a temporary child-care center so its employees could bring in their kids because schools were closed.