Meta, the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, and Reichman University convened to discuss how Israel can become a global leader in the metaverse industry.
For the first time in Israeli and international academia, senior representatives from industry, academia, and government gathered for an open discussion about the metaverse market. The event, “Into the Metaverse,” was initiated by Meta, the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, and Reichman University’s Adelson School of Entrepreneurship and Zvi Meitar Institute for Legal Implications of Emerging Technologies.
At the event, participants held round table discussions on the opportunity that has arisen for Israel and the ways in which Israel can take advantage of this opportunity to create a global leadership role for itself in the metaverse market – in areas such as academia, society, diplomacy, sustainability, and health and mental health services. The discussions were led by undergraduate students in the Zvi Meitar program.
The event opened with a lecture by Dedi Gadot, director of Meta's Reality Labs, who presented the next generation of social technologies and the possibilities that will be available in the future in the fields of virtual and augmented reality. Greetings were delivered by the dean of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship, Dr. Yossi Maaravi, the head of the Zvi Meitar Institute, Prof. Dov Greenbaum, and the CEO of the Ministry of Economy and Industry, Dr. Ron Malka, who also participated in the round tables. Their remarks were followed by an interview between Adi Sofer Thani, CEO of Meta in Israel, and Chemi Peres, chairman of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, after which participants broke up into round table discussions.
In his remarks, Dr. Yossi Maaravi, dean of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship, greeted those present and said, “The metaverse opens up a variety of possibilities for communication between people, in the realms of medicine and mental health, relations between countries, doing business, connecting the periphery to the center, and more. As an academic body that trains the leaders of the future, we challenge our students through competitions, hackathons, establishing ventures, and more, with a view of the metaverse as a life-changing technology.”
According to Prof. Dov Greenbaum, head of the Zvi Meitar Institute for Legal Implications of Emerging Technologies, “The introduction of the metaverse and the changes it will create also raises legal and ethical questions. It is important to map out these aspects and identify risks and opportunities ahead of time, as part of the effort to make Israel a leader in the field.”
Among the participants in the roundtables were researchers from the schools of entrepreneurship, sustainability, law, psychology, and Reichman University’s Innovation Center, and senior representatives of Meta, the Peres Center, the Israel Innovation Authority, the Ministries of Economy and Industry, Health, and Justice, the Meuhedet and Clalit health funds, KamaTech, the companies Pixellot, Appleseeds, XRHealth, and others.
“I am excited to be taking part in the first event of its kind in the world, which brings together, around one table, representatives from academia, industry and the public sector to explore the economic and social opportunities that the metaverse holds – and it is not surprising that this is happening here in Israel and at Reichman University,” said Adi Sofer-Thani, CEO of Meta in Israel. “The metaverse revolution has already begun, the starting line has been set, and Israel has the opportunity to lead the technologies that will shape the next generation of the Internet, in a joint effort of entrepreneurs, researchers, creators, developers and decision makers.”
According to Chemi Peres, chairman of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, “The metaverse offers us the opportunity to be a significant player, but things take a long time to develop. People think things happen overnight. This is not the case. We have an excellent ecosystem to work with and this is an opportunity we can leverage. In terms of time, we were late in our understanding of social networks. But maybe we can catch up and close the gaps.”
Peres added, “In the two years of COVID, many people realized that they needed to transition to new professional fields. We need to transfer people from the non-tech world to the tech world using new methods. Right here – a place that started as the Interdisciplinary Center, which speaks for itself – you can be a talent in a variety of fields, you can be creative. You don't have to be engineers. There’s an opportunity here to expand the type of people who take part in the Startup Nation, and this opportunity should reach every periphery and sector of society.” To this, Sofer Thani added, “Academia should play a massive role in nurturing talent.”
Below are some of the names of prominent participants of the event:
- Efrat Duvdevani, director-general of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation
- Zachi Schnarch, CTO of the Israel Innovation Authority
- Dr. Ron Malka, director-general of the Ministry of Economy and Industry
- Dr. Jonathan Giron, COO of the Innovation Center at Reichman University
- Yuval Machlin, CPO of D-ID
- Ruth Shoham, CEO of the Open University
- Zvika Goltzman, acting vice president for Growth at the Israel Innovation Authority
- Prof. Yoav Yair, dean of the School of Sustainability at Reichman University
- Moshe Friedman, CEO and founder of KamaTech
- Soheil Zoabi, entrepreneur and leader of the Nazareth and East Jerusalem ecosystem
- Gal Oz, CTO and founder of Pixellot
- Daniel Saat, CSO of Appleseeds
- Eitan Weiss, head of the Israel and Metaverse project; diplomat
- Maya Kadosh, chief of staff of the Ministry of Economy
- Yehuda Ben Yaakov, public policy manager of Meta, Israel
- Yardan Leal, deputy director-general of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation
- Howard Poliner, head of Intellectual Property Law at the Ministry of Justice
- Tal Arbel, vice president of Product at XRHealth
- Yael Pomeranc, deputy director of the Suicide Prevention Program at the Ministry of Health
- Prof. Anat Brunstein-Klomek, dean of the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology
- Sigal Sidlik Alon, chief psychologist at Clalit
- Dr. Arad Kodesh, director of Mental Health Services at Meuhedet
- Gil Raviv, chief psychologist and deputy director of Mental Health Services at Meuhedet
- Dr. Shiri Daniels, professional director at Eran
- Prof. Tamar Saguy, director of the Power and Social Change Lab at Reichman University
