Plugging In: Past, Present and Future

This November, electronics and technology association leaders from around the world will meet at the 13th annual World Electronics Forum (WEF) in Tel Aviv, Israel.  Like last year's gathering in Hong Kong, the WEF aims to give association directors, presidents and CEOs globally the chance to "discuss major topics of common interest."  It's where myself and my counterparts from dozens of groups whose aim is to further high tech can network, strengthen business ties for their member companies and kick the tires on nascent international products and services that might otherwise go under the radar.

It's also a chance to put our industries' innovativeness and economic strength to good use. 

WEF, especially this year, is about so much more than business.  It's about our role as technologists in a new world, and our role as citizens in an old one.  Because Israel is such a major hub for religious and cultural pilgrims alike, and because an understanding of Israel means the potential for understanding the world's greatest political questions, the WEF has decided to include a special tour of the country's important sites for association leaders in its agenda this year.  This means Golan Heights, the Sea of Gallillee, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Haifa, and the Dead Sea among others -- all sites where innoavtion and the right regulatory environment are leading to major developments in the electronics community.

In addition to all the standard fare -- the keynotes and trade reports, the election of a new Secretariat, investment and R&D seminars, all of which make this an essential annual gathering -- this year's WEF will include tours of important industry-related sites in those cities.  Israel, which already holds the record for NASDAQ-traded companies outside North America, is seeing its communications, biotech and security startups receiving venture capital at breakneck speeds.  In Southern Israel, we'll visit Intel's newest green factory there.  In Haifa we'll learn about the role high tech plays in Israel's defense industry.  In Tel Aviv we'll get an up-close look at electronics startups and some of the venture capitalists driving them. 

WEF is just one of the many opportunities to reach out to the world on behalf of our members, and it's an honor to do so.  And because I have the privilege of sitting on the ITU Telecom Board, there will undoubtedly be many more.  I encourage member companies large and small to reach out to me, or to TIA staff, with any international matters of great concern.  But this trip won't just be another TIA trip to some far flung conference at the edges of the map -- it will be a once in a lifetime chance to experience all the new ways our industry is changing things against the backdrop of one of the world's oldest regions.

Thank you,
Grant Seiffert
President,
Telecommunications Industry Association