Jay Meydad's Life Mashup

While most the Israeli Internet scene got together to shomooze at iDrink 7 in Tel Aviv, a selected group of them showed up last night on the red carpet of the Beverly Hilton for the reception event. I had the pleasure to be there and meet in person very smart and creative folks who came to LA to impress the local media giants with their ideas, products and passionate personalities.

The reception was the end of a long day which started early in the morning in a breakfast/panel with a few Israelis who work in US media companies: Nimrod Lev, Shaul Olmert, Roy Bahat, Tal Pink, Sam Gonen, Itzik Ben Bassat, Ofer Shaked and myself. Later on, the delegation hopped on busses and went to visit MTV, Sony and other media companies. The format of all the meetings was very similar to speed dating – each company had two minutes to pitch their product to a group of executives, and then companies and executives could spend more time together in one on one meetings.

Personally I find three companies to be very interesting and with great potential: Prime Sense (technology/device that can see, track and react to user movements outside the computer), Musestorm (widget creation, syndication & distribution) and InnerActive (advertising in mobile gaming – check out Adidas ads inside the Fifa game).

I look forward to meeting the participants of the 2008 delegation which I am sure will be even more successful.

Later this week a delegation of selected Israeli digital media start ups will hit Los Angeles.

The event is organized by Yossi Vardi and Arnon Milchan with the purpose of introducing Israeli entrepreneurs to some of the world’s largest media companies.

In addition to those meetings, there will be a panel of Israelis who work for US media companies. I will be one of the panelists together with Nimrod Lev (Fox Interactive/KSolo), Shaul Olmert (MTV Networks), Roy Bahat (IGN Newscorp), Itzik Ben-Bassat (formerly Blizzard) and others.

I look forward to meeting old friends & colleagues as well as getting to know some of Isreal’s most creative minds. In case you will be in the event, please come by and say hello.