DLD Tel Aviv 2019: Nine Events Not To Miss During The Week-Long Innovation Festival

DLD Tel Aviv, one of Israel’s largest annual startup conferences celebrating local tech and innovation, will kick off next week for the ninth time with a two-day digital conference and four-day innovation festival that features scores of events, company/investor meetups, demos, pitches, panel discussions, lectures, roundtables, and much more.

The annual conference welcomes 110 delegations and over 4,000 guests from around the world, including executives, entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists, industry leaders, and digital media managers. Organizers expect over 8,000 participants at the conference this year, and more than 20,000 attendees at some 100 events throughout the week.

Companies participating in the innovation festival include Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many more.

Participants are seen at the DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Conference 2016. Photo via the DLD Conference on Flickr, (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The festival, part of the DLD (Digital Life Design) global conference network organized by Burda Media in Munich, begins Sunday, September 15 and continues through Thursday, September 19. There will be dozens of invite-only and city-sponsored events around Tel Aviv and throughout the country, hosted by organizations like the Municipality of Tel Aviv, Bank Leumi, the Israel Innovation Authority, Ministry of Economy, Amazon, Google, and The Israeli Game Developers Association -GameIS.

The invite-only digital conference, with the tagline “Where companies and investors meet startups” is considered the main part of the entire festival and begins September 18. It takes place at the Old Jaffa Railway Station, known as HaTachana, which now serves as a trendy public urban place, and not an actual train station.

There are plenty of events to attend over the course of the week, including a number of free ones for those who don’t want to fork over a hefty NIS 2,000 ($550) for the conference.

NoCamels offers you the ultimate guide to the best events of the week.

September 15-16

Human-Machine Pedagogy Hackathon

Tel Aviv, dubbed by DLD Tel Aviv as the capital of EdTech innovation, will be hosting a five-day event lineup starting September 15 with activities to inform and inspire investors, startup leaders, educators, and industry experts from the around the world, as well as unveil developing trends in the education industry as part of Israel EdTech Week.

During the week, a two-day hackathon will take place in Yeruham in the heart of the Negev Desert where educators, EdTech leaders, developers, and designers will come together for 36 hours of collaborative creation in an effort to develop next-generation solutions.

Designing Human-Machine Pedagogy is the theme of this year’s EdTech summit put together for the sixth year in a row by MindCET, the Israeli organization connecting educators and entrepreneurs to develop cutting-edge education tech.

The Yeruham landscape. Photo by Mboesch is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

On September 16, MindCET is set to officially open the first EdTech industrial park in the world in Yeruham.

September 17

Tel Aviv Experience

September 17th is Election Day which makes it a national holiday in Israel. In cooperation with Secret Tel Aviv, a community that originated as a popular Facebook group, DLD Tel Aviv is offering international guests the “Tel Aviv Experience,” including parties, meetups, exhibits, tours, shows, and food and drink.

Skyscraper views of the sun setting on Tel Aviv. Photo by Daniel Lerman on Unsplash

September 18 

DLD Tel Aviv Digital Conference

The essence of the DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival is the digital conference which will host a number of closed and registration-only events by Amazon, WeWork, Facebook, and the Foreign Trade Administration. There will also be networking events, lectures, panel discussions, pitch events, keynote speakers, demos, and fully-booked events like “Meet The Investors” and “Pitch the Press.”

The conference will also have a Startup Boulevard with plenty of companies showcasing their newest products, services, and tech.

When: September 18-19, 9:00 am – 18:00 pm

Where: HaTachana compound

Designing Human-Machine Pedagogy

MindCET is holding its international EdTech summit “Shaping The Future” once again as part of the DLD festival. During the summit, top innovators will focus on the symbiotic relationship between human and machine and how they can use this relationship to develop new learning capabilities and possibilities while exploring new pedagogical teaching methods suitable for the digital learner.

The event will include a series of sessions where speakers from influential high-tech companies and world-leading universities will showcase their latest developments and reflect on how education can and should respond to the needs of the digital learner.

When: September 3, 8:00am – 15:30pm

Where: Smolarz Auditorium, TLV University

Education tech awards

MindCET will also host a “Global EdTech Movers & Shakers” gathering, an invite-only event where EdTech leaders will share opportunities to build collaborations, between 16:30 and 18:30 at the TLV Stock Exchange.

That same evening, the Global EdTech Startup Semifinals Awards will take place from 19:00 to 21:00 to recognize the world’s most promising EdTech startups for 2019. Ten Israeli EdTech startups will compete for a chance to enter the finals set for January 2020 in London.

When: September 18, 18:30 pm -21:00 pm

Where: The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Ahuzat Bayit St 2

DLD TLV Official Startup Party

The annual DLD Tel Aviv Digital Conference Startup party is open to conference participants. Drinking and networking are encouraged.

When: September 18, 20:00 pm – 2:00 am

Where: Drama Bar, Nahalat Binyamin 52

Urban “Happening” and Avenue of Innovation

A stroll down Rothschild Boulevard in the heart of Tel Aviv offers more than 20 meetups and lectures in venues along the street. Topics include gaming, digital travel, UX, retail, fintech, AR, and smart cities. The boulevard will have interactive art exhibits and a unique musical performance with video art.

Sunset on Rothschild boulevard and HaBima square. Deposit Photos.

This event is free and open to the public

When: September 18, 18:00 pm – 12:00 am

Where: Rothschild Boulevard

September 19

The Israel Innovation Authority invites entrepreneurs to meet with its representatives to discuss financial support, research and development cooperation, and learn about the authority’s various incentive programs.

When: September 19, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

Where: HaTachana Compound, Tel Aviv

FoodTech Meetup With Ofra Strauss

Ofra Strauss, the Israeli businesswoman and chairperson of the Strauss Group, one of the largest food product manufacturers in Israel, will take part in an event called The FoodTech Revolution: A small taste of the food of the future. An intimate one-on-one fireside chat will take place between Strauss and Anya Eldan, the VP of the Innovation Authority and Head of Startup Division.

SEE ALSO: 7 Innovative Israeli Startups Bringing AI To Education

The conversation “at the bar” will focus on the global challenges facing the food technology industry and as well as the newest solutions being developed by Israeli startups.

When: September 19, 18:30 – 21:00

Where: T-House, Ibn Gvirol 26, Tel Aviv