Show of resilience
AICC chair Jillian Segal said, “Despite the dark times, Israel continues to exemplify light over darkness and resilience over failure.”
Resilience was the buzz-word on everyone’s lips at the 2024 Australia-Israel Innovation Summit, attended by more than 250 people at KPMG’s Sydney head office on October 30.
“The ongoing war has presented new challenges [for Israeli businesses], but this has increased their resilience and made us stronger and better in coming up with new innovations,” Israel Trade Commissioner to Australia Ohad Blumberg said at the start of the summit, hosted by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC).
He added that the amount of investment dedicated to innovation in Israel has remained the same as the year before, which reflects “robust investor confidence”.
AICC chair Jillian Segal said, “Despite the dark times, Israel continues to exemplify light over darkness and resilience over failure.”
Federal Senator for NSW Dave Sharma – a former Australian ambassador to Israel – expressed confidence that Israel’s “innovation ecosystem will be supercharged by all of this”.
The summit’s keynote international speaker Saul Singer, co-author of Start Up Nation and writer of The Genius of Israel, said transformation through innovation “is possible across all spheres – cities, transport, health, education and society” and “the most innovative countries will be the ones who adopt the technology first”.
He added the innovation process is also about encouraging and valuing imagination, curiosity, drive and leadership.
“Israel is very strongly positioned in AI – fifth in the world – and has been on target with where we should be, despite the war.
“With that said, many employees are serving in reserve duties, [but] the companies are resilient.”
The summit included an Israel innovation showcase featuring the latest technology and four expert innovation panel discussions covering the property and cyber security sectors, digital transformation at scale and the biggest tech trends driving global investment and opportunity.
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