Why the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce-Southeast Region will thrive in 2009

January 7, 2009 by Lisa Damast
Filed under: Cleantech, Industry pulse, Mergers and Acquisitions, Uncategorized, VC, Web2.0

Earlier this week Daniel Cohen of Gemini Israel Funds posted on his blog his predictions for Israel’s tech community in 2009. Topics he made predictions for included cleantech, Google making acquitisions, Web 2.0 companies being acquired and that “there is a world beyond Atlanta/Southeast, New York and Silicon Valley, specifically in Asia.”

Asia might gain ground in 2009 in terms of, according to him, “companies starting in Israel and marketing to Asia directly without having anything to do with the US market,” but Atlanta/Southeast, New York, and most parts of California (particularly San Diego) will still continue to thrive. My prediction is that Silicon Valley, in specific, will probably lose ground.

Regarding the Atlanta/Southeast region, towards the end of 2008, the AICC-Southeast region created a blog for posting the latest news related to any of its companies and partnerships. To get an idea of what can be expected this year in that region and why it will still thrive, here are titles of some blog entries about Israeli companies and the Southeast region from the end of November to the end of December 2008:

AICC Member TopEyeView Demos at Madonna Concert - December 30, 2008
AICC Members Work Together: SGR Advises Given Imaging in Acquisition of Medtronic’s Bravo – December 28, 2008
AICC Member Scopus Video Networks Acquired by Harmonic for $86 million – December 23, 2008
AICC Member BlogTV Wins YouTube Stars to Make a Web TV Network – December 10, 2008
AICC Mission to Israel in Atlanta Business Chronicle – December 6, 2008
AICC Member PerSay Raises $2.4 Million – November 27, 2008
MobiMate and WorldMate Establish New Headquarters in Atlanta – November 27, 2008

What do you think? Will the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce continue to help Israel thrive, stay neutral or lose ground in 2009?

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