(Communicated by the
Israel Export Institute)
More than 140 Israeli companies will introduce innovative technologies and applications in
Israel's pavilion at the Mobile World Congress 2016. The
congress, to be held from February 22-25, is considered the biggest and most important get-together in the mobile industry and is expected to draw more than 100,000 visitors and 2,000 companies ready to unveil the most innovative technologies, products and applications in the field. The congress, which traditionally hosts the giants of the communications industry, including cellular operators, Internet providers and device manufacturers, will this year also be a magnet for the digital media, consumer goods brands and contents producers coming to take a close-up, personal look at tech trends in advertising, brand connections, customer service, contents and more.
The Israel Export Institute is teaming up with the Foreign Trade Administration at the Ministry of Economy and Industry to put together Israel's national pavilion, centrally located in Hall 5 next door to global leaders in communications, and slated to spread over 500 square meters. The pavilion will serve as the setting for some of the event's biggest business meetings already scheduled by the trade attachés of Israel's Foreign Trade Administration.
Among the technologies to be presented at the pavilion are a smart dog collar equipped with tiny, non-invasive sensors monitoring the health of man's best friend, a location device attached to one's luggage tracking it throughout flight, a wireless charger for cellular devices requiring no cables at all, an order button for rapid repeat orders of basic consumer goods, and a technology for the early detection of available on-street parking. Israeli companies will also display cyber technologies that protect mobile devices against hacking, smart home technologies, digital medical technologies, and much more.
Three of the companies showing their wares in the national pavilion are also taking part in competitions taking place during the congress. In the competition sponsored by the congress, Anagog, which has developed a technology that identifies the closest parking space and lets the driver know when it becomes available, is competing in the Best Mobile Innovation for Automotive, and Magisto, which has developed a technology that automatically makes clips out of stills and videos on mobile devices, is competing in the category of Best Mobile App Media, Film, TV or Video. HiPark, which developed a sharing platform for automatically analyzing urban information using computerized photo analysis, is competing in the
4 Years From Now - Connecting Startups competition in the IOT category. The 4FYN competition is specific to startups in the mobile industry and is run during the congress but independently of it.
According to Export Institute Chair Ramzi Gabbay, "2016 has gotten off to an excellent start for Israel's high-tech industry. In just one month, Israeli companies raised about $1.4 billion in investment funds, thereby helping to cement Israel's position as the startup nation and source of innovation. The Israeli pavilion, featured for the seventh time at the congress, will provide visitors with a glimpse of cutting edge technologies and solutions that Israeli companies are developing and draw many visitors, including the most senior personnel representing leading multinational and international corporations. This year, Israeli companies are putting cyber and IOT at center stage and showing solutions for connecting to the Internet and technologies for protecting the web and mobile devices. This year, we're also seeing an uptick in the number of participating companies presenting fascinating technologies in digital media and contents."
According to Foreign Trade Administration Executive Director Ohad Cohen, "This is a unique B2B event in terms of scope and quality, even internationally, during which we can expect 3,000 business meetings to be scheduled for this year for Israeli companies with the most interesting customers from all over the world, including the largest telephony, automotive, media and other companies on the planet. This is one of the most complex projects we've ever undertaken," adds Cohen, "because it incorporates the work of more than 30 economic attachés stationed around the world. The attaché employees, most of whom are locals, are experts in the mobile industry and accompany the congress annually, which allows them to enhance their expertise and expand their networks and therefore bring the most interesting target companies to our pavilion. What's interesting this year is that the profile of visitors is expanding much beyond Europe so that we're seeing new attachés, including Japan, the Philippines and Thailand, embarking on joint efforts in conjunction with the event. China and India are also becoming more dominant players at the MWC."
According to the Export Institute's estimate, Israel exported communications products and technologies to the tune of some $3.5 billion in 2015 - $2 billion in communications equipment and $1.5 billion in communications software (not including exports credited to communications startups).
The festive opening of the Israeli pavilion at the Mobile World Congress 2016 will take place on Monday, February 22, at the national pavilion, in the presence of senior personnel in the Israeli communications industry and the heads and representatives of the companies participating in the congress.