Tuesday – Day 14
Posted on 3rd August 2012
Today had a real adventure. One worth writing about and worth reading.
The day started slowly with a late wake-up. At ten to eleven I woke up, breaking the shower head in an attempt to wash off the sweat. Oops. Five to eleven I was out of the house, meeting a girl, Shachar, from ISSI 2012 who I had met at the dinner a few nights previously.
Following that was a decent falafel with Naomi Elstein, an older friend from my gap year in Israel. She took me to an artisan chocolatier on Ibn Gvirol and I sampled a few of the many delicious truffles.
Truffles
However, the real adventure began later that afternoon when I noticed a ‘Garage Geeks’ event on Facebook, which was slated to start in Holon at eight thirty that evening. I had heard of Garage Geeks from my uncle previously as a community run group that runs start-up, tech and entrepreneurial events. This one was a talk given by Kara Swisher (founder of All Things Digital blog) and Megan Smith (VP of Google BizDev) who were married to each other. Searching up for bus routes on Facebook I came up blank, and looking up the address on a map revealed only a large industrial zone with few roads and many warehouses.
Kara Swisher
Thus, I posted on the event page, asking for directions. About one minute later a guy by the name of Haggai posted a reply with his phone number, letting me know that though public transport to the area was almost nonexistent, he might be able to help given he was travelling through Tel Aviv on the way down. I gave him a call and a few hours later I was in his car on my way to the event! Haggai was a lovely guy with experience in networking and entrepreneurship, having recently secured a good deal of support for a venture in data security.
Haggai and I
After being briefed by Haggai on how the night was going to function and having picked up a few networking tips, I entered the venue which was packed with hundreds of eager entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts and even a tech writer or two. The talk and subsequent Q&A was most interesting however the highlight of the evening came in the form of networking opportunities. I engaged momentarily with Megan from Google, who proved a most pleasant person and she referred me to a guy named Eyal, who provided some helpful support in my ongoing quest to find an internship placement. Following that I met a few young individuals involved in the scene from all around the world, from Singapore to NYC.
Haggai, the other youths and I stayed around to help pack up and by the time we were ready to get back on the road it was already eleven thirty. Haggai was most thirsty so we stopped off at a petrol station someway along the road where we both grabbed a drink (by his courtesy) and he dropped me off right at Adi’s place. A most successful evening.