Recently I took a group of 22 business women and men on a 7 day escorted innovation safari / trade mission deep into the heart of Israel’s Silicon Valley to discover, explore and find bleeding edge technologies and the people inventing them.

We explored the areas of AI, IoT, Health, Social Entrepreneurship, Blockchain, Mobility, Cybersecurity, FinTech and more and found technology that untangles traffic in real time, truly portable blood testing devices, the potential for invitro fertilisation with a 66% surety, AI and street cameras keeping us safe in real time, water purification systems for use in developing nations; a small device that when inserted into the soil monitors 24/7 soil condition, irrigation, root condition, fertilisation and more and these were only some of the feast of innovation, inventors and thought leaders we were privy to.

But as well as discovering incredible new tech, we also received a far more important gift, an understanding of why a country with only 8 million people, that has been in existence for 70 years and has no natural resources is able to lay claim to an innovation culture that makes 350 of the Fortune 500 companies want to set up offices and R&D departments there; where 700 start ups commence each year and at any time there are over 7000 active start ups many of whom go on to great success and even unicorn status.

Both the technology and the transferable lessons, of how to take a place, a company or a person from what seems like an impossible under-resourced position and turn them into a profitable, world renowned innovation machine are there for the taking and in this 1/2 podcast tour I share with you both the amazing bleeding edge technologies that we discovered and also the innovation lessons we learnt.

So get yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and let me show you around Innovation Central – Israel