Mayor brings back economic opportunities from Israel trip
In addition to walking along the shores of and floating amidst the salt-dense Dead Sea, Mayor Scott Avedisian took home to Warwick some promising business opportunities from his trip to Israel as he traveled throughout the country during 32nd International Mayors Conference, hosted by the American Jewish Congress and American Council for World Jewry.
“It's amazing, the diversity,” Avedisian said on Tuesday reminiscing about the trip, which is the second time he has attended the venture, the last occurring about 15 years ago. “You're in a western metropolis in Tel Aviv, then you’re next to a historical enclave of an Armenian corner of old Jerusalem, and then you're at the Dead Sea. There’s such diversity for such a small country.”
Although Avedisian and the other mayors in attendance, which came from five other American cities and cities from Poland, Belgium, Ethiopia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Taiwan, Botswana, Nepal and Peru (to name a few), did not actually get to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who is in the midst of an evolving bribery scandal – the real purpose of the trip was related to business opportunities.
“This time we really focused on startup companies and innovation in interesting changes that companies have made, and what are good possibilities for us to look at,” Avedisian said.
Some of those possibilities included an Israeli startup called Guidol, which designs phone apps intended to act as a virtual tour guide to all the attractions and amenities, like hotels and travel accommodations, a city has to offer. Avedisian said that the Guidol developers will be helping build an app for Warwick free of charge, although did not specify a timeline.
Another exciting prospect Avedisian brought back stemmed from talks with developers from the Chinese startup Ofo Bicycle, a bike sharing service functionally similar to Hubway, which was created in Boston in 2011 and now boasts about 1,600 bikes throughout the city and its surrounding boroughs. Again, Avedisian said that Ofo has been in communication with the city’s planning department to set up some form of this service in Warwick free of charge.
“It’s an opportunity to have another mode of transportation for people visiting the city,” he said. “Those are two short-term, but highly-visible and impactful takeaways from the conference.”
In the bigger picture, Avedisian said he was interested in looking into other smart technology services utilized by police forces in Tel Aviv, but that service would require some budget allocations from the city side.
In discussions with the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, Avedisian said he gleaned some interesting perspective on how to better market the city to people who may not believe Warwick has very much to offer in the way of tourism.
Then it was off to Tel Aviv and then to the Dead Sea, where Avedisian got to talk to the startups and gain appreciation for how Israel has successfully turned the Dead Sea – a body of water with no aquatic life due to a high salt content – into a booming tourism hub.
“I watched how these organic startups are doing things with salt crystals,” he said. “It was an eye opening thing for me to see how they've perfected some of those opportunities. It’s fascinating.”
The trip to Israel is Avedisian’s second such trip to a foreign nation to pursue possible business opportunities domestically in five months, since he visited Ireland in mid-September.
Avedisian said that one of those opportunities – a potential partnership with Cork-based Big Red Barn, which designs modular dwelling units for functions or even low-income housing – was still bubbling with potential, and he said he was hoping to have an announcement in regards to that company on St. Patrick’s Day.
“Like the stuff from Ireland, it [the Israel trip] was a good networking opportunity that is going to start paying dividends,” he said.
