Our daily news updates will resume as of the second week in January 2018.
2017 – a break-through year
Echoing the increased interest in trade and investment between the two countries, 2017 has been one of our busiest years yet, as we’ve created thousands of new potential business relationships and hundreds of investments, partnerships and sales.
For our members, we have organised events in both the UK and Israel, bringing together hundreds of people and companies; enhancing trade, investment and growth of business and providing a forum for the exchange of knowledge.
A brief review of our previous events follows alongside key dates for 2018.
We wish you a very happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous new year.
Innovate Israel
Innovate Israel took place in September 2017, bringing together 17 Israeli scale-up companies and over 150 UK corporates and investors. Innovate Israel returns in late June 2018.
If you missed attending Innovate Israel, all the films from the ten minute thought-leadership style talks by Israeli experts on transportation, cyber, augmented reality, funding, drones and big data are available on our new website to watch.
Continuing our tradition of world-class keynote speakers, the dinner heard from Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs (and former CEO of Bloomberg and former Deputy Mayor of New York City).
For our 2018 dinner, we’re moving to a larger 5* hotel in Mayfair and expect up to 500 industry leaders; executives and investors to attend.
Our delegations to Israel continue to grow and in November 2017, we took 36 UK investors to meet with over 40 Israeli companies and funds in 2 1/2 days. Meetings were held with the founders of some of Israel’s largest tech companies (Mobileye and CheckPoint); and companies in programmes by Microsoft; Intel & Barclays amongst others. Photos are here and future delegations are scheduled for January (Property Technology); March (Investment & Technology) and May (Insure-Tech).
Gil Shwed, CEO of CheckPoint & Hugo Bieber, Chief Executive of UK Israel Business, November 2017 Investment & Technology Delegation, Tel Aviv.
Our Brexit strategy is focussed on ensuring the best possible outcome for both the UK and Israel as negotiations continue.
In November, we set out out position on how British-Israel trade can thrive in a post-Brexit era with “four asks” and we will continue in 2018 to work on behalf of our members to ensure the voice of business is heard.
In March 2017 we held our Brexit Summit in Tel Aviv, bringing together over 100 Israelis with business interests in the UK. The focus was on the opportunities & threats presented by Brexit and included practical guidance for Israeli companies.
UK Events
We hosted a number of private round table briefings in the UK over the year.
The 2018 schedule currently includes:
Chemi Peres (January, invitation only)
Alex Cruz, Chief Executive & Chairman of British Airways (April, booking opens in the new year)
In addition, we are planning a ‘insights’ series of briefings primarily by Israeli scale-up companies addressing the UK market.