I'm holding a free seminar on communications strategies for startups at TechLoft in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, February 15th at 18:00.  TechLoft is located at 14 Nachmani St, just off Rothchild.

This is NOT a seminar on getting PR.  

The intent here is to help your startup think about messaging, your voice, content strategy, following and engaging with journalists, analysts and bloggers in advance of your even thinking of media relations.

If you would like to attend, please register here on Eventbrite, so you will be you are added to the list.

A special thanks to Gilad Tuffias, Founder and Managing Director at TechLoft for making this happen.

Today in Herzliya, I met with a group of Pitango Venture Capital portfolio companies to discuss Strategic Public Relations and Social Communications.  A special thank you to Sharon Erde, who helped facilitate this event.

Strategic Public Relations and Social Communications for Pitango Venture Capital Portfolio Companies

I am returning to Israel from March 27 through April 8 and I would love to connect in several ways:

1.  Speaking:  

If you have a tech related group and would like a guest speaker on the subject of strategic PR, the social web, and branded content.  You can see some of my presentations here.  Last month, when I was in Israel I spoke at the MEGAComm Writer's Conference and the Israel Startup Network event at the IBM Innovation Center.

2.  Texas Israel Chamber of Commerce:

Ok... I am biased.  But just so you know, Texas was really God's way of saying he needed another, very special place in the world, after he created Israel.  So, he created Texas.

If you are thinking of expanding your Israel-based business, or thinking of opening your U.S. operations, I hope you will consider Texas.  

Through the Texas Israel Chamber of Commerce, I can help you learn more about out great state and all the amazing things going on here.  We're really nice people, easy to do business with, and you are simply not going to find better Bar-B-Que or Mexican food in other places like Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, etc.

3.  Working with me and my amazing team:

I've re-tooled the way I operate and now running a virtual agency.  I have mashed up an amazing team of communications, design, development, writing and analytics professionals.  My focus remains on message, communications strategy, traditional PR and blending it with B2B social media and branded content.  

If you would like to learn more and meet, email me:  alan@weinkrantz.com so we can connect.  Click here to get an idea of the roster of clients I have served.

4.  One day / on site consultation.

Maybe you know you need to do something about your PR and Social Media initiatives, but not sure what to do.  Maybe you have internal staff that does some type of Marcom.  Or, maybe... just maybe, you have no budget, but a great story and maybe a great CTO who would not mind publishing content about what you are doing and why your technology is so important.

I have a one day on-site service offering, for Israeli companies only, which runs $1,500.00.  It's an on-site workshop aimed at helping you deep dive into what your communications strategy should be, what it could look like, and what intellectual assets you have that could become the foundation for doing some of this on your own - without the need of a traditional agency. 

Without the need of an agency?  

Yes.  

No agency.  

You may not need one.  At least, not yet.  

You may just need to do a better job of story telling.  You may just need access to a couple of journalists that might be candidates to learn about your story.  Your CTO may be the better story teller, rather than having an agency person doing this for you.  

Much depends on what your company does, it's scale and where you are headed.  On my visit to Israel in late February, I met with many possible clients, who really did not need the services of an agency.  

I am of the opinion that early in life as a startup, you might not be well served be an agency, let alone may not have a budget.  But you need to be found. You want to be discovered.  You want to connect with possible partners, investors, and new customers.  I really think if properly trained, and re-tooled in a new mind set of branded content, you can do much of this yourself. 

If you want to learn more, let me know, so we can schedule - alan@weinkrantz.com.

5.  A free seminar for  VC firms' portfolio companies

I am in the process of doing some outreach to Israel-based VCs, but hoping through this post, it might catch someone's attention that I might miss.  

So....if you are a VC in Israel and can assemble a group of 8 of your portfolio companies, I will conduct a free one hour seminar on PR / Social Media / Branded Content.

You supply the space, the coffee, WiFi and a projector with a screen, and I am yours. 

6.  Speaking to Israeli University students studying technology marketing and business development

I think every university student is a personal brand.  They've been in the Army, they are now at University and they are getting ready to leave and join an amazing tech company that is bound to disrupt and change the world.  

I have done this presentation in the U.S. which you may view here, and would like to offer it when I am visiting Israel.  If you are a Dean or Professor, reach out and let me know. 

7.  Coming to SXSW 2011 in Austin?  Come by and say Howdy!

I have some friends from Israel who are coming to SXSW which starts next week.  If you are coming over, I'd love to meet. The #140Conf is going to have it's own booth, so come by and chill out on our comfy couches we'll have for our community.

Thanks for reading this post.  If you have other suggestions or observations, leave a comment.

I was fortunate to attend a talk this evening in Tel Aviv given by Twitter's Biz Stone. (Thank you Kfir Pravda for inviting me.)

(photo: my name tag in Hebrew)

While Biz gave some interesting insights and snippets of information on how the company came to be, the real message that Biz focused on, was the driving belief that Twitter is not a triumph of technology, but rather one of humanity.

Biz said that if you give people a simple tool like Twitter, they can communicate in an open manner and that great things can happen. He pointed not to the business applications so much as to the power of this platform, but how Twitter has been used in social causes, and political movements such as Iran in disrupting traditional news media, and how if we can just foster a network of open communication, good things do happen.

His message seemed timely, especially in light of the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. And speaking of Thanksgiving - yes, there's a Tweetsgiving in Tel Aviv tomorrow night that I will be taking part in.

I look forward to meeting the community that makes this yet another region of the world where the social web meets social good.