Israel: The Start-up Nation taking on Silicon Valley

The Daily Telegraph is the UK’s highest selling broadsheet newspaper. Emma Barnett, the Telegraph's Digital Media Editor, was recently awarded the Digital Editorial Individual of 2011 at the AOP Digital Publishing Awards.

She is regarded as the leading digital media journalist in the UK with a large Twitter following. In addition to her position at the Telegraph, she is also a broadcaster the BBC, Sky News, CNN and LBC.

Israel's New Media industry, although relatively in its youth has grown rapidly in the last few years.

There are more than 700 new media companies in Israel, whose offerings span the range of new media possibilities. They are active in Internet applications and services, online advertising, entertainment and video and more.

They are also dynamic players in broadcast, digital & cable TV, IPTV and satellite services, strong in content creation, delivery and management, and have a potent presence in gaming.

The sector has developed rapidly over the last few years. While some companies, such as Adsmarket, Answers.com, BigBand, ICQ, Incredimail, NDS, Orca, Optibase, Pilat Media, Sintec Media, SpeedBit and Waves are large, most are smaller, with more than 400 classified as start-ups.

Israel is known 'Start Up Nation' - Israeli Start-up companies in the new-media field offer the most innovative and cutting edge technologies to an ever changing media world.

As in previous years, the Commercial Office at the Embassy of Israel, London has been working together with the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute to showcase these technologies at IBC in Amsterdam which will be taking place in September.

In preparation for this, and to further the exposure of the Israeli companies, Daniel Saunders from the Commercial Office and Lee Aviram from the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute invited and arranged for Emma Barnett to come to Israel for her to understand the growing New Media Sector and experience some of the advanced, innovative technologies coming out of Israel, and to meet with the industry leaders.

Emma's visit to Israel was a remarkable success with impressive feedback from Emma herself and also those with whom she meet. Her impressions of the trip and those that she met were shared daily through her Twitter updates (@EmmaBarnett).

Yesterday, Emma wrote her first article about her trip to Israel in the Telegraph where she highlighted how Israel's technology and spirit is competing with Silicon Valley for the innovation crown. The article "Israel: The start up nation taking on Silicon Valley" can be found online here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8652076/Israel-The-start-up-nation-taking-on-Silicon-Valley.html