TORONTO — For the second year in a row, a handful of Israeli high-tech companies staked out territory at the Canadian Telecom Summit, hoping to lay the groundwork for strategic alliances and future business deals.
Last week at the Canada Telecom Summit, representatives of the government of Israel presented Michael Lazaridis, centre, founder and president of Research In Motion (RIM), with a certificate recognizing the Waterloo, Ont.-based company for its role as a strategic partner for Israeli high tech firms. Pictured with Lazaridis and Levy is Israel’s consul general in Toronto, Amir Gissin. [Michal Tomaszewski photo]
At the same time, the Israel Economic Mission to Canada took centre stage at the summit – Canada’s pre-eminent telecom industry gathering – by presenting Research In Motion (RIM) founder and president Michael Lazaridis with a document recognizing his contribution to bringing together the Waterloo Region technology leader and Israeli firms.
“Michael Lazaridis and RIM are both synonymous with innovation, excellence and years of vision and success,” said Jonathan Levy, head of Israel’s Toronto-based economic mission.
“Israel’s advanced technology industry looks upon RIM as a strategic partner,” Levy told representatives of 500 leading Canadian telecommunications firms at the summit, which ran from June 15 to 17. “It, too, is perceived as cutting edge and visionary industry, and as such they are a natural fit for each other.”
Levy told The CJN that the government of Israel “has identified the summit as an opportunity to forge alliances and relationships between our companies and Canadian companies.”
The event provides “plenty of networking opportunities” for Israeli participants, he added.
Six Israeli telecom firms participated in this year’s event, down from the eight who travelled to Canada last year. Israeli corporations still see the United States, Hong Kong and Europe as the main area for expansion, but Canada is increasingly on their radar screens, Levy said.
Last year’s participation spawned specific business relationships, he continued. NexPerience, an Israeli firm, followed up its summit participation with “a road show” to RIM’s Waterloo, Ont., offices, arranged by the trade mission.
It later inked a deal that saw it provide a solution for testing RIM devices, allowing “the BlackBerry developer community to test software on live BlackBerry smartphones using an Internet-based service,” the NexPerience website states.
This year’s Israeli participants included PerSay, RAD Data Communications, Radware, TeleMessage, TTI Telecom and Comverse Technology.
Duby Yoely, vice-president of marketing and solution engineering for TTI Telecom, said the summit provided the opportunity to network, “starting to talk, looking for opportunities. It was good.”
TTI already has two prominent Canadian customers for its mobile network management product, Bell Mobility and Telus. TTI believes Canada has weathered the economic downturn better than other countries, providing opportunities for it and other Israeli firms.
“Canada is a very important market for us,” Yoely said. “We already have two big customers here. Despite the world recession, we see Canada as a market that is quite promising.”
Adding to the Israeli presence at the summit was a keynote address by Daphna Steinmetz, vice-president and chief innovation officer of Comverse. Her presentation focused on “Communications for the ‘@’ Generation.”
Israel’s information and communications technology sector was responsible for $12 billion (US) in exports in 2008, accounting for half of Israel’s high-tech exports and 15 per cent of Israel’s total sales abroad. Trade between Canada and Israel totalled $1.8 billion (US) in 2008.