Israeli innovation meets the Calgary Stampede

by Maxine Fischbein

(AJNews) – His Excellency, Iddo Moed, State of Israel Ambassador to Canada, visited Calgary for an action-packed six days during the Calgary Stampede last month. Highlights included five events organized and/or hosted by the Israeli Embassy featuring talented entrepreneurs representing six Israeli start-up companies in a range of fields including Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, agriculture, infrastructure, and defence.

Highlights included a reception, a cyber security tabletop exercise, an innovation workshop, a pitching event, and a Stampede BBQ hosted by Senator Daryl Fridhandler and his wife Ellen on July 6 that brought together politicians and leaders in academia, business, tech, and innovation.

In addition to Ambassador Moed, other dignitaries in attendance at the Fridhandler Stampede soiree included His Excellency Pete Hoekstra, the US Ambassador to Canada; US Consul General Emily Fleckner; Edmonton Senator Christopher Wells; Former Liberal MP and Justice Minister Ann McLellan; Toronto-St. Paul’s MP Leslie Church; Former Conservative and current Liberal Toronto Markham-Unionville MP Michael Ma; Calgary-Confederation MP Corey Hogan; Calgary-Heritage MP Shuvaloy Majumdar; Calgary-Elbow MLA Samir Kayande; Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas, former Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier; and Calgary Beth Tzedec Congregation Rabbi and Cantor Russell G. Jayne.

Guests from the University of Calgary included Chancellor John Osler, President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Ed McCauley, Board Chair William Sembo, and Guy Levesque, Executive Director of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the U of C.

Other notable guests included Mount Royal University Chancellor Arlene Strom; MRU Political Science Professor and Chair of the Economics, Justice and Policy Studies Department Dr. Duane Bratt; Calgary Chamber of Commerce CEO Deborah Yedlin; Canada-Israel Chamber of Commerce Executive Director David Friedland; Alberta Innovates CEO Michael Mahon; and Chair and CEO of the Alberta Securities Commission and Chair of the Canadian Securities Administrators Stan Magidson.

Born in Amsterdam, Ambassador Moed has served as a career diplomat for more than 30 years. Since his arrival in Canada three years ago, he has been outspoken on antisemitism, which spiked dramatically following the murderous attacks of Hamas Terrorists on Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, which sparked the subsequent war in Gaza.

While antisemitism in Canada remains a primary concern for Moed, his busy six days in Calgary were a good news story highlighting Israeli innovation and forging connections between governments, universities, and businesses in Israel and Alberta.

Lauding Israel’s greatness when it comes to “it’s innovation and start-up businesses,” Senator Fridhandler – who also serves as a Vice Chair of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary group – is clearly excited about helping to facilitate new and productive channels of communication and cooperation between Canada and Israel in business, tech, and innovation.

“This is a mutual best interest proposition, a win-win,” Fridhandler told AJNews.

The ambassador says that Calgary is the place where he wants to focus on bi-national collaborations, creating a template for other Canadian centres.

During Stampede, Ambassador Moed had the opportunity to speak with Canadian Premiers including Danielle Smith (Alberta), Scott Moe (Saskatchewan), Doug Ford (Ontario), and Tony Wakeham (Newfoundland and Labrador).

“Even if we differ politically, there are so many things we have to do and can do together,” Ambassador Moed said.

“We are looking forward to the next step. We already have some plans…. Hopefully, we will see those fruits in the near future.”

“Alberta isn’t just oil and gas,” Senator Fridhandler told his guests, referencing a planned visit to Olds College. “Alberta really rocks when it comes to ag and ag tech. If you haven’t been outside the city to see what’s going on, check it out, because there’s a lot happening in Alberta.”

Ambassador Moed is exploring the possibility of business, academic and student exchanges between Alberta and Israel.

“There is a lot of interest in doing business with Israel, understanding what the Israeli ecosystem is about, and how it can contribute to Alberta and Calgary in particular,” Ambassador Moed told AJNews, adding that Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas is open to the collaboration.

“He understands that it’s not just business. We want to create something that contributes to community and to the economy,” Ambassador Moed said.

“Calgary is not that big of a city in Canada, you know, but I sense that it is a unique one…. I read the other day that Calgary’s ecosystem grows four times faster than any other in the country,” said Ambassador Moed. “I like the vibe here. I like the…business-directed attitude. This tachlis resounds very well with Israelis.”

Albertans, says Ambassador Moed, see that they must solve problems and they strive to excel, in part because they feel isolated from the east, “…often feeling that they are the milking cow for the rest of the country.”

“I’m looking for an environment where young people, especially, are looking to learn and to do and to improve and have the motivation and the tenacity and the stamina to develop something.” Ambassador Moed said.

“If they fail, which is a very important part, by the way, of development, they’ll continue to go and work.”

“I spoke to some gas executives about a year ago, who asked me about the situation with the United States. They were worried and asked me what I thought they should do. I said, just go your path, and if you fail you fail…you stand up and try something else,” said Ambassador Moed.

“That’s how we do it. Nobody has the full solution for everything,” he added. “That’s a new experience, I think, for many people in Canada, this sense that you have to solve problems and you will not always succeed.”

Moed and the Israeli entrepreneurs had much to relate about Israeli entrepreneurs’ willingness to take risks and their remarkable resiliency in the face of failure. Much of this has to do with the tough neighbourhood in which Israelis live, surrounded by hostile neighbours.

“Canada never faced existential threats in the past, so Canadians don’t see the world and the environment in the same way that we do,” he told AJNews. “We find, always, some adversarial enemy around us, so we always have to be prepared and find solutions quickly.”

“We know that Canada looks to be more competitive,” aptly sharing this metaphor:

“In order for that to happen we suggest… Israeli oil in the system that drives your engine faster, allows you to shift gears more quickly, produce more power. This is what we do. This is Israeli innovation and it really gets you faster to where you need to go in a better way that will have a lasting impact.”

The potential of that “Israeli oil” was evident at an Israel innovation stampede event at the Platform on July 7, where local entrepreneur Darren Bondar emceed a couple of panel discussions. The first featured insights from Israeli Uriel Golan and his Canadian colleague Daniel David, co-founders of RoomOne Ventures, described as “…a venture studio that identifies, validates, and builds technology companies from inception to early-stage commercialization.”

The second panel included Refael Franco – whose company, Code Blue, specializes in cyber crisis management and response – and Guy Levesque, Executive Director of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial thinking at U of C.

In conversation with Bondar, Franco and Levesque described the supports necessary to transform the great ideas of young entrepreneurs into commercial success.

“There is possibly no better week than Stampede to talk about entrepreneurship,” said Bondar, adding, “Calgary has always been built by people willing to take risks.”

Refael Franco had much to say on the topic of risk, and just whom should assume it.

“The government should take the risk,” says Franco, explaining that the Israeli government supports young entrepreneurs by providing seed money of up to half a million dollars to fund start-ups that pitch great ideas. Often the government itself becomes the first customer for promising start-ups, he said.

Franco related how important it is for the government to work with universities, homeland security agencies, and the private sector.

In Israel, representatives from these sectors gather annually in September, setting priorities based on three or four challenges that they jointly recognize and wish to solve during the coming year, said Franco. They then determine which organizations and startups they will fund to address those challenges.

Many of the challenges are not unique to Israel but, rather, universal, including energy, climate, supply chain, and food safety concerns, Franco says.

“When the solutions start coming…we’ll buy those solutions,” he said, adding that the partners fund nine universities, almost 500 researchers and student labs.

Thanks to a thriving ecosystem, solutions are found and commercialized, Franco told his Calgary audience.

Israel has much to offer when it comes to innovation, while Alberta can lend much expertise to Israel when it comes to creating scale, he said.

Another way the Israeli government helps to fast-track worthwhile projects is by significantly reducing red tape.

Government, says Franco, should make it easy for startup entrepreneurs to bring their ideas and motivation, and they should do the rest. “This is the beginning of how you build 603 cyber start-ups in five years,” he said adding that there are currently some 2,700 start-ups in Tel Aviv alone.

“This is the reason we are sitting on this panel this morning, said Guy Levesque. “When you want to be the best, you learn and work with the best.”

“It all starts with talent,” he added. “That’s the first piece and that’s at the very top of the funnel of anything you want to do. And then you scaffold around that.”

“It’s okay for it to not work out,” said Levesque. “If you do fall flat on your face, you pick yourself up and you start again.”

Resiliency, he said, “is the number one skill of the entrepreneurial community at the University of Calgary.”

Franco says it is a mistake to view failure negatively. “Failure is part of success. This is a mindset of startups. We fail today; we know what we’ve got to do tomorrow…. This is the mindset of innovation.

“In 2020 Israel suffered from a massive cyber attack on our water facilities,” Franco told his Calgary audience.

During the crisis, he “understood that a cyber attack is not just about technology.”

“There was no methodology of crisis management,” said Franco, who decided to develop one. He subsequently opted to build a platform based on AI that can assist companies and governments during crises. Today, his company is providing expertise in Germany, London, and Montreal.

Entrepreneurs like Franco have much to offer when it comes to bi-national collaboration, says Ambassador Moed, who adds that an important next step would be to arrange an Alberta trade mission to Israel, where he would welcome the establishment of an Alberta trade office.

“Who knows where this goes? There is such potential. The Emirates are going to have frequent flights [between] Calgary and the gulf, which is interesting because Israel and the Emirates are close. We have numerous strategic collaborations, and it is interesting to tap into that.”

“I see an interesting potential here and…I want to be able to use Calgary as an example for others. If we do things right, we can do so much.”

Although he was busy on other fronts during Stampede, Ambassador Moed wants the local Jewish community to know that he plans to visit again after the High Holidays.

“I am looking forward for an opportunity to meet and be with them and talk about what is on their minds,” the Ambassador said.

“I was born in Holland. I grew up partly in the diaspora and I know how important that is, so that is what I’d like to do here also…to connect with the community.”

Maxine Fischbein is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for Alberta Jewish News.