On 20 August, 2008 Nefesh B'Nefesh hosted the First International Jewish Bloggers Convention in Jerusalem. Regardless of what the nay-sayers were posting prior to the conference, I think that everyone in attendance came away with something positive and those who black-listed it missed a great opportunity. Although the Nefesh B'Nefesh agenda was to improve their already successful approach to Aliyah, they acomplished much more by bringing together for the first time a huge number of Jewish Bloggers from every area of religious and secular society.
Thanks to the sponsorship of Sun Microsystems, Office Depot, Israel Mall, and Web Ads those in attendance were treated to a great buffet, and nifty black document bags.
There was an interesting talk about the government's quest for "branding". While everyone seemed to agree that this was a good idea, the three facets that were proposed--Passion, Ingenuity, Fusion--did not get the audience excited. In fact I saw more people groaning and giving a negative head-shake to the idea. What is needed is a brand that will be "Israeli" and not European or North American, otherwise it is just going to be another highly expensive document to sit in government file cabinets.
This conference was well attended both in person and via internet. The attending bloggers have already posted well-written articles--recommeded reading for all. I went out of curiosity and admit that I was pleasantly surprised and very happy that I was there. It was uplifting to see all the Jewish blogs and the variety of opinions and subjects that were covered. Of special interest was the appearance of Benjamin Netanyahu--a good writer, and a fascinating speaker--he fielded questions and gave an inpromptu insite to our Jewish History. Israel truly needs more people of his caliber to represent us on the world stage.
The entire conference was filmed and is available on the Nefesh B'Nefesh site at: http://www.nbn.org.il/bloggers/. I highly recommend taking the time to watch. Below are a few snaps of my own, but the good pictures on on the Nefesh B'Nefesh site at: http://www.nbn.org.il/gal2/.
Poster for Convention
Blogger-Panel for 1st Segment
Blogger-Panel for 2nd Segment
Benjamin Netanyahu in an exchange with panel-members
Blogroll prior to start of Conference
Benjamin Netanyahu
1 comment:
i agree! i was there and i was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a lot to be gained from the convention and i gained a lot. let's hope this becomes a yearly event.
Post a Comment