With many top speakers finding themselves available due to the cancellations of events, the Adelson School Master Class series, initiated and hosted by Dr. Yossi Maaravi, Vice Dean, Adelson School of Entrepreneurship, found an opportunity. Hundreds of students, alumni, staff, guest lecturers, IDC friends and donors, and businesspeople were able to participate in master classes by prominent figures, which included question-and-answer sessions. The first master class featured leading Israeli comedian Adir Miller, while over subsequent weeks prominent speakers were: Saul Singer, author of the book “StartUp Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle”; Benjy Singer, General Manager at WeWork Israel; Shai Wininger, founder of Fiverr and co-founder and President of Lemonade, and Avigdor Willenz, a serial tech investor and a founder of Galileo Technology, Annapurna Labs and Habana Labs. Adelson School students also created and launched numerous entrepreneurial projects, including several not-for-profit ventures aimed at helping various sectors of Israeli society cope with the coronavirus crisis. These include Sitter Seeker, an app that connects volunteer babysitters with medical staff who need care for their children while they work; IDC School, a Facebook group for Hebrew speakers in which Israeli university students volunteer to help children with their school work, and Jobs in Corona Time, a Facebook group assisting Israelis to find jobs during the crisis, which was joined by more than 9,000 people in just three weeks.
Sam Zell
ZELL ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM FOCUSES ON STRENGTHS Planning for Zell Sprint Week, the annual week-long hackathon developed and led by Zell alumni and entrepreneurs-in-residence Liraz Sharabani and Yoav Artzi, was already well underway when the lockdown came into force. In line with the Zell philosophy, “When faced with a setback, adapt,” the organizers decided neither to postpone nor to cancel, but to go ahead with Zell Sprint Week remotely. Faculty, mentors and student teams worked together online, and the student teams presented their pitches and took questions from investors via video conferencing. The program even held its first-ever investor panel remotely. Despite the challenges involved, the remote Zell Sprint Week proved to be a clear success.
The Zell students of 2019-2020
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